Hoping For The Best

By Herb Zurkowsky-Montreal Gazette

A cautiously optimistic Scott Flory will enter the next round of labour negotiations with the Canadian Football League Wednesday morning in Toronto, not certain what to expect.
But Flory, the president of the league’s players’ association, remains adamant the union’s proposal is fair and equitable. And, the former Alouettes’ guard stressed, the players don’t want to be dictated to — which is what he claimed occurred last week, when league representatives stormed out of their meeting after only 10 minutes, followed by CFL commissioner Mark Cohon making the league’s proposals public.
“We’re talking about a system that very fruitfully exists already in sports in North America. It worked very well in all the major professional leagues — and it’ll work in the CFL, just on a smaller scale,” Flory told The Gazette. “When you’re talking percentages, it doesn’t matter the dollar value. It’s just percentages.
“Guys just want to be fairly compensated,” Flory added. “We’re not asking for the world. We’re not asking to destroy the league or the franchises. That’s not what this is about.”
The stumbling block continues to be the players’ insistence that a salary cap must be tied to revenues. Cohon, meanwhile, said that won’t occur, suggesting the league would return to the “dark ages” under such a system.
The union wants the salary cap to begin at $6.24-million. Under its proposal, the cap would consist of 35 per cent of revenues, excluding the new five-year, $210-million television contract. In other leagues, the cap’s approximately 50 per cent of total gross revenue. With each team receiving an additional $2.7-million, based on that TV deal, each team still would be left with a distribution of approximately $1 million, Flory said.
The CFL, in turn, has proposed the cap be raised $400,000 initially, to $4.8-million, followed by annual increases of $50,000 over five years.
“For anyone to say what we’re proposing, initially, is somehow over the top ... setting the league back to the dark ages, as it was characterized by the commissioner, is ridiculous,” Flory said.
Prior to the last collective bargaining agreement, signed in 2010, there was a provision calling for 56 per cent of defined gross revenue to be paid to the players. But the league never generated enough revenues, so the provision never was exercised. The CFL has had its share of financial hardships so Stu Laird, the P.A. president at the time, agreed to have the clause removed.
Now, with new stadiums in Winnipeg and Hamilton, a ninth franchise in Ottawa — not to mention the television windfall — the union’s insisting the cap be tied to revenues.
“The players have made concessions in the past,” Flory stressed.
The CBA’s set to expire Thursday at midnight. Veterans are scheduled to begin training camp workouts Sunday morning, although the players have taken a strike vote, the results of which could be released shortly. No one seems clear whether teams can conduct camp practises — or even play exhibition games, if necessary — with rookies.
Nonetheless, the clock almost has reached midnight and there might not be sufficient time for a resolution by Sunday. Flory refused to speculate what might occur this weekend.

He also sounded dubious that any veterans would cross the picket line and participate in scheduled workouts.
“From all indications from our membership, through our team reps and executives, our membership has never been more engaged or more united,” Flory said.
Veteran players receive weekly cheques throughout camp, the amount based on their years of experience. But most will start feeling the financial pinch in late June, should the impasse remain unresolved, when they start missing regular-season game cheques.
Flory said contingency plans are in place, intimating the executive has discussed the likelihood of distributing some form of strike pay.
It was Flory who reached out to Cohon after last week’s talks broke off, he said. What occurs now will depend on whether both sides are willing to budge and compromise their beliefs.
“Whatever that system is and how it’s administered, is all up for negotiation,” Flory said. “This is negotiating. There’s going to be movement on both sides. We have to find a common ground that works for both parties.
“It’s unfortunate they walked away last Wednesday.”