Eskimos Sneak Under the Cap

[WestCoastJoe]

Esks sneak under cap

Vicki Hall, Journal Football Writer

Published: 7:57 am

EDMONTON - With their ability to buy any players they wanted on the open market, the Edmonton Eskimos for years had a reputation as being the CFL's version of the Evil Empire.

Some compared the Eskimos to the NHL's New York Rangers -- before the salary-cap era.

However, those days are officially over with the release of the 2007 financial audit for the community-owned team prepared by PriceWaterhouseCoopers.

In the first year of league-imposed financial constraints , the Green and Gold came in $24,000 under the cap of $4.05 million.

"We are very committed to the salary management system," said board chairman Jeff Polovick. "It ensures competitive balance and long-term financial viability for the team."

CFL commissioner Mark Cohon is expected to release the league's official audit this spring, but the Eskimos have already been told they passed the test.

"We've got strong ownership in all eight cities, and we don't want any more bankruptcies," said team president Rick Le-Lacheur. "We've gone through it before, and we don't want to go through it again."

The Eskimos failed to score a playoff spot last year, but they still made money. The CFL club netted a profit of $163,390.

Not surprisingly, regular-season attendance dropped again in 2007 with the team finishing out of the playoffs for the second year running. Through nine games, 363,241 people walked through the gates at Commonwealth Stadium. In 2005, the last time the Eskimos made the playoffs, that number was 414,644.

"None of us were happy with the results of the team on the field," said LeLacheur. "We had a good nucleus of players, but I think the results speak for themselves. In 2007, we played a very exciting brand of football. We played in two overtime games, but it was obviously not good enough."

SHORT YARDAGE: The Eskimos hope to come to a final agreement with the City of Edmonton and start construction of an indoor practice facility with new offices near Commonwealth Stadium. LeLacheur hopes to break ground some time in 2008.

- LeLacheur said the Eskimos wanted to play their home games on Friday nights before 8 p.m. The league-designed schedule has the Esks playing five Thursday games and three games starting at 8 p.m to meet the needs of television

- Bill Scott, senior partner and vice-president of marketing for All Weather Windows, is the newest member of the Eskimos board of directors, replacing architect Bill Ross.

vhall@thejournal.canwest.com

[WestCoastJoe]

I wonder why Cohon is waiting so long to announce the status of the teams relative to the SMS cap. Who is under? Who is over? What are the penalties?

If teams have been told privately about their status, why the delay in making the knowledge public?

Times have changed for the still "Evil Empire." At one time, they could buy the best players, as they dominated the league. Now, instead taking pride in winning, they take pride in being under the cap.

Can't brag about winning on the field, but sure kicked butt getting under the cap.

"We are very committed to the salary management system," said board chairman Jeff Polovick. "It ensures competitive balance and long-term financial viability for the team."

Way to go, guys. How to do your accounting. Yee Haw.

[notahomer]

Esks sneak under cap

Vicki Hall, Journal Football Writer

Published: 7:57 am

EDMONTON - With their ability to buy any players they wanted on the open market, the Edmonton Eskimos for years had a reputation as being the CFL's version of the Evil Empire.

...
CFL commissioner Mark Cohon is expected to release the league's official audit this spring, ...

vhall@thejournal.canwest.com

Thats what I want to hear. I'm a BC Lions fan first but fairness is important to me. I want to know whose been caught over the SMS and how they are being penalized. Releasing the official audit is a great idea, IMHO. Its like the 'spygate' thing in the NFL. The Patriots are getting all the flack but I have heard a number of people saying they are the only ones who've been caught....so far. I'm glad and surprised that a CFL team can still turn a profit in spite of missing the playoffs two seasons running.

[Sir Purrcival]

However, good on the Esks for showing that they are trying to work within the boundaries of the SMS. They have been labelled as the worst offenders over the years. If they can change therirways, then it should be no problem for others who have been "too poor" to spend the way Edmonton did.

[Shi Zi Mi]

I wonder why Cohon is waiting so long to announce the status of the teams relative to the SMS cap. Who is under? Who is over? What are the penalties?

Have ALL the audits been completed?

It makes sense that nothing is "officially" released until that has occurred.

All we've heard so far is some media "guess work".........not exactly cold hard facts.

[Rammer]

I wonder why Cohon is waiting so long to announce the status of the teams relative to the SMS cap. Who is under? Who is over? What are the penalties?

Have ALL the audits been completed?

It makes sense that nothing is "officially" released until that has occurred.

All we've heard so far is some media "guess work".........not exactly cold hard facts.

This is the Esks own public financial statement, something that they do every year and we have had on here before. What would be interesting is to decipher some of the discrepencies between the last few years of these statements. If anything suddenly jumped out, it would be an area of investigation, not that I think that most CFL teams aren't in similar situations.

Also the "Official Audits" are suppose to conclude by/in April.

[No Ka Oi]

The Esks release their Financial Statement for last season today, with surprisingly only $13.8M in revenues. This is perhaps the second highest in the CFL, but does not match the Riders $15.3M revenue in 2006 and a projection of nearly $22M last year.

Surprisingly, their national sponorship revenue was $300k, while only 1/10th the amount of local Edm sponorships, is a big jump from previous years. I guess some of Tom Wright's sponorship work is finally paying off. The new guy has said he wanted to clean up some of the on-field and jersey sponorships...and hopefully increase revenues above the current $2.4M.

[Hambone]

The Esks release their Financial Statement for last season today, with surprisingly only $13.8M in revenues. This is perhaps the second highest in the CFL, but does not match the Riders $15.3M revenue in 2006 and a projection of nearly $22M last year.

Surprisingly, their national sponorship revenue was $300k, while only 1/10th the amount of local Edm sponorships, is a big jump from previous years. I guess some of Tom Wright's sponorship work is finally paying off. The new guy has said he wanted to clean up some of the on-field and jersey sponorships...and hopefully increase revenues above the current $2.4M.

Apparently there had been a rumour floating around a month or so ago about the Riders and $20+million in revenue. Tom Wright was on FAN590 with Bob McCown for about an hour shortly after the announcement of Buffalo playing games in Toronto. I watched the repeat of it on Sportsnet. McCown brought the rumour of the Rider revenues up. Wright shot holes in that saying the Rider revenue figure would have a number 1 at the beginning, not a 2. Simple math says it can't be possible for a CFL gate-driven team averaging 28000 fans to generate over $20 million in revenues. That works out to about $80 per fan-game and the average ticket price was just under $40. So more than half of that rumoured $22million would have to come from sources other than the gate. Given the TV deal brings in a little more than $1 million per team it would mean the Riders would need to be hauling in close to $10 million from sponsorships and other local revenues. I can't imagine any CFL market being able to generate that sort of revenue much less what is by far the smallest CFL market.

[Rammer]

The Esks release their Financial Statement for last season today, with surprisingly only $13.8M in revenues. This is perhaps the second highest in the CFL, but does not match the Riders $15.3M revenue in 2006 and a projection of nearly $22M last year.

Surprisingly, their national sponorship revenue was $300k, while only 1/10th the amount of local Edm sponorships, is a big jump from previous years. I guess some of Tom Wright's sponorship work is finally paying off. The new guy has said he wanted to clean up some of the on-field and jersey sponorships...and hopefully increase revenues above the current $2.4M.

Apparently there had been a rumour floating around a month or so ago about the Riders and $20+million in revenue. Tom Wright was on FAN590 with Bob McCown for about an hour shortly after the announcement of Buffalo playing games in Toronto. I watched the repeat of it on Sportsnet. McCown brought the rumour of the Rider revenues up. Wright shot holes in that saying the Rider revenue figure would have a number 1 at the beginning, not a 2. Simple math says it can't be possible for a CFL gate-driven team averaging 28000 fans to generate over $20 million in revenues. That works out to about $80 per fan-game and the average ticket price was just under $40. So more than half of that rumoured $22million would have to come from sources other than the gate. Given the TV deal brings in a little more than $1 million per team it would mean the Riders would need to be hauling in close to $10 million from sponsorships and other local revenues. I can't imagine any CFL market being able to generate that sort of revenue much less what is by far the smallest CFL market.

If you are an ex-patriot from Saskatchewan, there was a lot of pride running with that GC run in 07. I wouldn't be to surprised that they hit a home run on selling anything and everything green that they could get their hands on. It was a one time binge for their coffers, as any subsequent GC run in the near future will be reduced and a loss or two in the playoffs along the way, will diminish the need to show their colours substantially.

[No Ka Oi]

Well, speaking of rumours...it has been suggested that Sask has sold more Rider merchandise than the rest of the league combined, and that they are No. 3 team in the country (after the Leafs & Habs). The Riders also receive massive local sponsorship revenue, $5M in 2006, and with winning the GC and adding in their multi-million dollar stadium naming rights deal...$20M does not seem that far-fetched for 2007.

McCowan was claiming that he had heard that the Riders will report a $8M-$14M profit for last season, which Wright shot down. Even if the Riders were that profitable, they would find ways to hide much of their money and keep the balance sheet closer to break even... (see Esks)

[No Ka Oi]

Well, speaking of rumours...it has been suggested that Sask has sold more Rider merchandise than the rest of the league combined, and that they are No. 3 team in the country (after the Leafs & Habs). The Riders also receive massive local sponsorship revenue, $5M in 2006, and with winning the GC and adding in their multi-million dollar stadium naming rights deal...$20M does not seem that far-fetched for 2007.

McCowan was claiming that he had heard that the Riders will report a $8M-$14M profit for last season, which Wright shot down. Even if the Riders were that profitable, they would find ways to hide much of their money and keep the balance sheet closer to break even... (see Esks)

[Reider]

Well, speaking of rumours...it has been suggested that Sask has sold more Rider merchandise than the rest of the league combined, and that they are No. 3 team in the country (after the Leafs & Habs). The Riders also receive massive local sponsorship revenue, $5M in 2006, and with winning the GC and adding in their multi-million dollar stadium naming rights deal...$20M does not seem that far-fetched for 2007.

McCowan was claiming that he had heard that the Riders will report a $8M-$14M profit for last season, which Wright shot down. Even if the Riders were that profitable, they would find ways to hide much of their money and keep the balance sheet closer to break even... (see Esks)

They couldn't re-stock the shelves fast enough. lol