2023/2024 CFL (Non Bombers) Off Season News

[HardCoreBlue]

1 hour ago, wbbfan said:

Beepboopbop bot detected. That’s a pretty cool tool, but pretty messed up that some ones actually using ai to post. Wth would make a person want to do that? 

I'll take a crack at answering that.

Lazy thinker that is helping facilitate the dumbing down of society?

[GCn20]

3 hours ago, HardCoreBlue said:

I'll take a crack at answering that.

Lazy thinker that is helping facilitate the dumbing down of society?

I would think it would take more thought to learn how to do that, than the thought that content would have taken.

[HardCoreBlue]

15 minutes ago, GCn20 said:

I would think it would take more thought to learn how to do that, than the thought that content would have taken.

I’m not sure exactly what you’re saying here but entering do my work for me into ai things like Chatgpt doesn’t require much if any critical thought.

[GCn20]

20 hours ago, HardCoreBlue said:

I’m not sure exactly what you’re saying here but entering do my work for me into ai things like Chatgpt doesn’t require much if any critical thought.

I've never used it and wouldn't know where to start. I'm sure, like most things, after you learn it it's easy. My point though was sarcastic as the post was mostly a copy and paste from the 5 posts before it.

[Fatty Liver]

The CFL Combine last week created little buzz for the upcoming season, most media outlets paid no attention to it at all, including league partner TSN.  This has to be the dullest off-season in recent memory, hopefully they bring back the concept of CFL Week next year in Wpg. and they put some effort into creating a bigger spotlight for their product during the off-season. The league has regressed in this department, the biggest story this winter has been bad boy Chad Kelly and we can't even fight about it anymore! 😄 

[Jpan85]

Just now, Fatty Liver said:

The CFL Combine last week created little buzz for the upcoming season, most media outlets paid no attention to it at all, including league partner TSN.  This has to be the dullest off-season in recent memory, hopefully they bring back the concept of CFL Week next year in Wpg. and they put some effort into creating a bigger spotlight for their product during the off-season. The league has regressed in this department, the biggest story this winter has been bad boy Chad Kelly and we can't even fight about it anymore! 😄 

That was not official Combine that was regional ones to get invites to the main one in Winnipeg next week I think.

[Fatty Liver]

5 minutes ago, Jpan85 said:

That was not official Combine that was regional ones to get invites to the main one in Winnipeg next week I think.

Looks like you're right, but again not much promotion of the event.

[Noeller]

14 minutes ago, Fatty Liver said:

Looks like you're right, but again not much promotion of the event.

because it's not much of an event.... there was some talk about it on Twitter from the league and CIS, but there will be a lot more next week at the actual combine in Wpg. 

[WinnipegGordo]

As of today we dont know if the CFL is even seriously considering changes to the kickoff rules. Meanwhile, the NFL has full transparency for prospective rule changes.

 

[bigg jay]

2 hours ago, Noeller said:

because it's not much of an event.... there was some talk about it on Twitter from the league and CIS, but there will be a lot more next week at the actual combine in Wpg. 

It's also tough to promote since it's a best of the rest kind of deal.  IIRC, most of the top prospects will not be participating.

[GCn20]

15 hours ago, Fatty Liver said:

The CFL Combine last week created little buzz for the upcoming season, most media outlets paid no attention to it at all, including league partner TSN.  This has to be the dullest off-season in recent memory, hopefully they bring back the concept of CFL Week next year in Wpg. and they put some effort into creating a bigger spotlight for their product during the off-season. The league has regressed in this department, the biggest story this winter has been bad boy Chad Kelly and we can't even fight about it anymore! 😄 

I didn't even know the combine was last week and I'm a diehard CFL fan. If they can't reach me they don't have a snowballs chance of drumming up interest to the casual fan.

[Jpan85]

22 minutes ago, GCn20 said:

I didn't even know the combine was last week and I'm a diehard CFL fan. If they can't reach me they don't have a snowballs chance of drumming up interest to the casual fan.

It wasn’t last week

[Bigblue204]

36 minutes ago, GCn20 said:

I didn't even know the combine was last week and I'm a diehard CFL fan. If they can't reach me they don't have a snowballs chance of drumming up interest to the casual fan.

That wasn't the main one and there's a reason they don't advertise it out to everyone. No disrespect to the attendees but from the clips I saw there wasn't a lot of professional level talent.

[bigg jay]

54 minutes ago, GCn20 said:

I didn't even know the combine was last week and I'm a diehard CFL fan. If they can't reach me they don't have a snowballs chance of drumming up interest to the casual fan.

Can you really claim that title if you didn't know that it doesn't start for another 5 days?

They've had 14 articles on the combine over the past 7 days (and another 6 the week before) on the CFL website, so it's not like they aren't talking about it.  https://www.cfl.ca/category/cfl-combine/

[JCon]

1 minute ago, bigg jay said:

Can you really claim that title if you didn't know that it doesn't start for another 5 days?

They've had 14 articles on the combine over the past 7 days (and another 6 the week before) on the CFL website, so it's not like they aren't talking about it.  https://www.cfl.ca/category/cfl-combine/

I get emails but I also pay for tickets. 

[wbbfan]

15 hours ago, WinnipegGordo said:

As of today we dont know if the CFL is even seriously considering changes to the kickoff rules. Meanwhile, the NFL has full transparency for prospective rule changes.

 

Boy idk about that onside kick alternative. 

[bluto]

Elks seeking private ownership.

 

https://www.tsn.ca/cfl/dave-naylor-edmonton-elks-seeking-private-ownership-for-first-time-in-franchise-history-1.2089683

 

Quote

The Canadian Football League’s Edmonton Elks have begun seeking new ownership in a planned transition from non-profit stewardship into private hands for the first time in the franchise’s 75-year history.

The CFL club has been working this off-season with the California-based Park Lane, a sports investment bank that managed the sale of the Montreal Alouettes to Pierre Karl Péladeau just over a year ago.

Roughly two weeks after Park Lane began putting out feelers to potentially interested parties, more than a dozen non-disclosure agreements have already been signed.

While the Elks’ board of directors will be seeking an owner with a strong commitment to the Edmonton community, there is no requirement that a potential owner be based locally.

It is believed the timeline for completing a sale is roughly in line with the start of the CFL regular season. Mid-April is the cut-off for expressions of interest, and a shortlist of finalists will be drafted by mid-May. The hope is to select the successful bidder by the middle of June.

The Elks are scheduled to play their first regular-season game of the 2024 season on June 8.

Though the team is not in a financially distressed situation, with reserves of roughly $7 million, it is in need of a capital investment to restore the season ticket base as well as improve the club’s infrastructure and its standing in the community.

A couple of dynamics make this sale unique.

For one, there is a growing belief within the Edmonton football community that a new or refurbished stadium has to be part of the team’s future. As such, owners prepared to invest in that kind of vision could be valued more than those who are not.

Additionally, since the Elks sale is being overseen by a non-profit, the priority is expected to be how much a potential owner is willing to invest in the club and it’s infrastructure, rather than the sale price.

Until recent seasons, the Elks had been a model of stability throughout their history and the only CFL team to not face an economic crisis over the past half-century.

Its reserves were fattened by $10.4 million (U.S.) in 2003 when the non-profit ownership sold the Triple-A baseball Edmonton Trappers to an owner who moved the team to Texas.

But those reserves began being tapped in 2019, and accelerated during the COVID-19 pandemic that forced the cancellation of the 2020 season and left the league playing only a partial season before limited crowds in 2021.

The 2021 season was not a good one for the Elks on the field either. The team finished 3-11, with both head coach Jaime Elizondo and general manager Brock Sunderland being dismissed at season’s end.

Edmonton followed that up with back-to-back 4-14 seasons in 2022 and 2023 under Chris Jones as both head coach and GM.

The team started the 2023 season 0-9 and set a major North American men's professional sports record in late July by losing its 21st consecutive home game.

The losing seasons also coincided with the name change from Eskimos to Elks in 2021, which was unpopular with some of the fan base.

As recently as 2018, the team announced a profit of $2.8 million. That figure slipped to a loss of $1.1 million in 2019, followed by losses of $7.1 million in 2020 (with no season) and $1.1 million in the pandemic-shortened season of 2021.

The 2022 season saw losses of $3.3 million, as attendance plummeted amid on-field losses, with the team’s stabilization fund listed in its annual report for that season as $11.36 million.

The annual report for 2023 has not yet been released.

The CFL is comprised of six privately owned teams, and three teams operated by non-profit boards – Saskatchewan, Winnipeg and Edmonton – often referred to as “community” ownership.

The Calgary Stampeders were community-owned by a non-profit board until 1991, at which time they were sold to Larry Ryckman and have remained in private hands ever since.

Earlier this week, former Edmonton player Garrick Jones, who now lives in Houston, told Global News in Edmonton that he has put together a group of former players interested in buying the team.

 

Edited March 14 by bluto

[GCn20]

2 hours ago, Jpan85 said:

It wasn’t last week

Awesome. I read FL's post and thought i had missed it.

1 hour ago, Bigblue204 said:

That wasn't the main one and there's a reason they don't advertise it out to everyone. No disrespect to the attendees but from the clips I saw there wasn't a lot of professional level talent.

My mistake. I read a post saying it was last week and didn't bother to fact check it.

[17to85]

Geeze elks going private feels like a blow to the league...

[JCon]

Thanks Randy. 

[Booch]

the Elks sucking bad...Mismanagaing things and poor front office work....not on Randy.....not a Randy supporter but this isn't due to anything he did...and he's just the puppet for the most part for the teams Boards anyway

[Rich]

Who would even get the money when a non profit is sold privately?

The article talks about how the club is in rough times financially, some due to the pandemic, some due to the record.  Club success is cyclical and that should not be reason to sell the club.

The other they give is they need a new stadium.  If we've learned anything over the last 20 years, private owners aren't typically willing to put down a lot of their own capital to build stadiums / arenas.  Like it or not, this inevitably comes from the tax payer.

So why sell the club to a private owner to reap that potential benefit?

Don't like this one bit.

[17to85]

2 minutes ago, Rich said:

Who would even get the money when a non profit is sold privately?

The creditors I would assume. Only reason I can see is that they are in such dire circumstances financially they need someone to bail them out.

[JCon]

Gov't will spend even more money giving a wealthy old man a bunch of tax breaks and funding. 

[Rich]

1 minute ago, 17to85 said:

The creditors I would assume. Only reason I can see is that they are in such dire circumstances financially they need someone to bail them out.

Article doesn't lead me to believe they are in debt with $7M in reserves.

Quote

Though the team is not in a financially distressed situation, with reserves of roughly $7 million, it is in need of a capital investment to restore the season ticket base as well as improve the club’s infrastructure and its standing in the community.

What they are saying is:

1. They don't know how to restore the season ticket base
2. They don't know how to restore the standing in the community
3. Improve infrastructure

Rather then sell, get rid of the board and bring in people who can fix points 1 and 2.  Don't need to sell the club to do that.   For point 3, I find it unlikely a private owner is going to invest a bunch of their own money in infrastructure.