Another bush league move by the CFL

[griswold]

Re: Another bush league move by the CFL

Griswold and Beerfish...read Opus's post above and learn something. That is EXACTLY my point.

Flew right over both of your heads.

Please re-read my 2nd post. Don't screw the SMS just because of that, there are 2 realistic solutions:

Lower their salaries......if you have a choice between lowering your salary by 10% or being unemployed you'll find most players would choose the former.

- OR -

Raise the salary cap to a more acceptable level

Problem Solved.

[Opus]

Re: Another bush league move by the CFL

Lower their salaries......if you have a choice between lowering your salary by 10% or being unemployed you'll find most players would choose the former.

This is not necissarily true......let's face it, the vast majority of these guys don't make enough that they're going to retire on their playing wages anyway. If it comes to a matter of playing for less than their percieved worth compared to making their transition to their career after football, I wouldn't be surprised to see many take the latter route.

Raise the salary cap to a more acceptable level

Which is pretty much what RTD was saying........he doesn't want to see us lose talented players in the league either....

[Opus]

Re: Another bush league move by the CFL

Let me also ammend that first part:

The wages in the Arena leagues are rising significantly with it's increased popularity as well........not to mention they pay in greenbacks.......

How great for the league would it be if we priced ourselves out of being the second / third option for these guys to play?

There's also still the NFLe as well......

[Rider TD]

Re: Another bush league move by the CFL

An Opus and Rider TD alliance in a thread. It just goes to show that anything is possible.

As for Griswold's points, ay carumba. Can you imagine the long list of CFL players who get beat up physically week after week, get compensated with peanuts and then jump at the chance for a paycut??

[Beerfish]

Re: Another bush league move by the CFL

Griswold and Beerfish...read Opus's post above and learn something. That is EXACTLY my point.

Flew right over both of your heads.

Not at all, didn't fly over my head one whit. The Esks ahve been trimming some higher priced guys the last few years to get in position for this and suddenly we find out it means nothing?

Players are going to have to bite the bullet sooner or later and the guys that got signed to huge contracts will have to lower thier price or get cut. That is the nature of football, guys with big contracts that can still play will still be in the league, but with smaller contracts.

Or how about this, a team actually has to be judicious about which big priced guys they can keep. Half the league has been bellyaching about the lack of a menaginfull cap for years, now they are trying to have one......(with plenty of warning) and people are bitching about losing players? Tough.

[budha]

Re: Another bush league move by the CFL

I just read the sports section of Today's LP (Print Copy) amd could not find that story. Give me a page number please.

[lerriuqs]

Re: Another bush league move by the CFL

As I understand the situation, the issue is with Bonuses...

Any signing bonus on a contract extension/renegotiation signed before Sunday will not count against the cap. Their salaries will still count against the cap next season.

There's a reason that Calgary signed DeAngelis, Reynolds and others to extensions in the summer...

Funny thing - Brendan Taman has publicly confessed to only hearing about this in the last week or so and has been scrambling to sign his key players in the last week - Eric Tillman knew about this loophole before he became the GM of the Riders...How did Taman not know about this???

http://www.sportsnet.ca/football/cfl...13_214840_1048

[wilkie]

Re: Another bush league move by the CFL

if its in the LP then it must be official????????

if the league raises the salary cap then there is the risk of what happened years ago with teams going beyond their means(and then chopping salaries and talent to survive), probably not as bad as last time though. then we have to listen to all of the doomsday negative stories again about the league collapsing, when the league is finally thriving.
there is going to be a lot of high priced older veterans being let go, similar to what the nhl did and they will be signed for cheaper by other teams. it will bring a flux of new young fast exciting talent which will be great to see.
don't believe any salary you see printed in the paper. RR does not make 450k. alot of times the papers get their salary numbers from the agents who are trying to raise the marketplace to get other clients in similar positions larger $$$$$$$$$$$$.

[Opus]

Re: Another bush league move by the CFL

As I understand the situation, the issue is with Bonuses...

Any signing bonus on a contract extension/renegotiation signed before Sunday will not count against the cap. Their salaries will still count against the cap next season.

There's a reason that Calgary signed DeAngelis, Reynolds and others to extensions in the summer...

Funny thing - Brendan Taman has publicly confessed to only hearing about this in the last week or so and has been scrambling to sign his key players in the last week - Eric Tillman knew about this loophole before he became the GM of the Riders...How did Taman not know about this???

http://www.sportsnet.ca/football/cfl...13_214840_1048

It's really funny, because as soon as the Stamps did this many months ago that is what I figured was the case.

I recall just after the official announcement of the SMS stipulations Ted Hellard was on GSG.....and was fielding questions regarding the new salary structre. One of the questions particularly was directed towards the 2006 grace period and what would stop teams from signing these big upfront extentions and doling out huge bonus money in 2006 and shaving their cap numbers for the 2007 (2008/2009) seasons.

His response was that it would violate the spirit of what they were trying to accomplish and he didn't think that any teams would be too active in doing something like that.

Lo and behold...........

[Eskiediehard]

Re: Another bush league move by the CFL

As I understand the situation, the issue is with Bonuses...

Any signing bonus on a contract extension/renegotiation signed before Sunday will not count against the cap. Their salaries will still count against the cap next season.

There's a reason that Calgary signed DeAngelis, Reynolds and others to extensions in the summer...

Funny thing - Brendan Taman has publicly confessed to only hearing about this in the last week or so and has been scrambling to sign his key players in the last week - Eric Tillman knew about this loophole before he became the GM of the Riders...How did Taman not know about this???

http://www.sportsnet.ca/football/cfl...13_214840_1048

Finally, someone who gets it. Of course they're not signing guys to five year deals and their salaries only count in 2012 (unless they're planning to pay five years of salary up front - yeah, it's not likely they'd even pay one year up front). This is about signing bonuses. So, for example, if they have a guy who they want to pay $120,000 next season, they can give him $30 up front (before the deadline) and then only have to pay a salary next year of $90.

This is NOT bush league (it amazes me how people are so quick to jump to that conclusion), it would happen in any other league under the same circumstances and it is just a matter of making smart business decisons before the official transition into a new world of an SMS. I guarantee every team in the league is doing it, so everyone should just relax.

[Numberz]

Re: Another bush league move by the CFL

Finally, someone who gets it. Of course they're not signing guys to five year deals and their salaries only count in 2012 (unless they're planning to pay five years of salary up front - yeah, it's not likely they'd even pay one year up front). This is about signing bonuses. So, for example, if they have a guy who they want to pay $120,000 next season, they can give him $30 up front (before the deadline) and then only have to pay a salary next year of $90.

This is NOT bush league (it amazes me how people are so quick to jump to that conclusion), it would happen in any other league under the same circumstances and it is just a matter of making smart business decisons before the official transition into a new world of an SMS. I guarantee every team in the league is doing it, so everyone should just relax.

I agree, it's hard to just put a salary cap into place when there has been none, and for there to be no problems...there are going to be problems...they will work themselves out eventually.

[Eskiediehard]

Re: Another bush league move by the CFL

It's really funny, because as soon as the Stamps did this many months ago that is what I figured was the case.

I recall just after the official announcement of the SMS stipulations Ted Hellard was on GSG.....and was fielding questions regarding the new salary structre. One of the questions particularly was directed towards the 2006 grace period and what would stop teams from signing these big upfront extentions and doling out huge bonus money in 2006 and shaving their cap numbers for the 2007 (2008/2009) seasons.

His response was that it would violate the spirit of what they were trying to accomplish and he didn't think that any teams would be too active in doing something like that.

Lo and behold...........

Interesting (about Hellard). Everyone has to keep in mind that most of the ownership groups are not that stupid - they're not going to be spending any more money than they have to in 2006 (before they actually generate the revenue in 2007). So, they obviously look at their financial situation from the 2006 season and determine how much they have "left in the bank" that they can put toward bonuses. They can't have most of the salary up front (as a bonus) because then they're screwed come 2009 when it ALL has to count (if it's a 1 + option deal). Also, if they give a guy a large signing bonus (say half his salary, hypothetically), that is money that they have completely LOST should they decide to cut him the following season. In a league that has a lot of player movement, this is not a gamble they are likely to make.

[Opus]

Re: Another bush league move by the CFL

Interesting (about Hellard). Everyone has to keep in mind that most of the ownership groups are not that stupid - they're not going to be spending any more money than they have to in 2006 (before they actually generate the revenue in 2007). So, they obviously look at their financial situation from the 2006 season and determine how much they have "left in the bank" that they can put toward bonuses. They can't have most of the salary up front (as a bonus) because then they're screwed come 2009 when it ALL has to count (if it's a 1 + option deal). Also, if they give a guy a large signing bonus (say half his salary, hypothetically), that is money that they have completely LOST should they decide to cut him the following season. In a league that has a lot of player movement, this is not a gamble they are likely to make.

......and yet:
Riders reportedly re-sign 20
Lions re-up DD, Pierce @ 200k, Johnson, Glatt, and others
Stamps sign Boerighter
Als sign 22 including Cahoon
Winnipeg signs (I have not heard the official number yet) Doug Brown
Earlier in the season the Stamps re-did contracts for Burris, Lewis, Copeland, DeAngelis, and others......

[Sgt. Nuke]

Re: Another bush league move by the CFL

And the Esks did............................................... .......................















right.

[Eskiediehard]

Re: Another bush league move by the CFL

......and yet:
Riders reportedly re-sign 20
Lions re-up DD, Pierce @ 200k, Johnson, Glatt, and others
Stamps sign Boerighter
Als sign 22 including Cahoon
Winnipeg signs (I have not heard the official number yet) Doug Brown
Earlier in the season the Stamps re-did contracts for Burris, Lewis, Copeland, DeAngelis, and others......

I guess some of these teams have more money than we think or they're willing to go deeper into the whole to secure some key guys for a little longer. I still don't think they are paying a lot of large signing bonuses. Say the riders re-signed 20 guys, some of the bonus money paid up front might've only been $5,000 to $10,000.