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Re: Speculation is over. No season in 2020.

Posted: Tue Oct 06, 2020 11:01 am
by Murdoch
David wrote: ↑
Fri Oct 02, 2020 7:47 pm
As a complete side note, does anyone else besides me think that it is bloody strange that virtually every other sports stadium/arena in North America has naming rights but not BC Place? It's a crown corp yes, but it's not exactly making money hand over fist from what I hear. They can use all the revenue they can get. Would say, $10M for a 10-year naming rights deal not help the bottom line?


DH :cool:
BC Place is actually a pretty good name compared to some that are popping up around the continent. Chamber of Commerce should fork over some dough to Pavco to keep it that way but that gets confusing as well with the different public corporations and such.

Agree with others now is a purrfect time to transition on from Mr Braley and civic leaders need to decide if they like the economic impact of the Lions. They may only rent the building a dozen times a year but one of the first thing mentioned about BC Place in my eperience is that the Lions play there. Not sure how many days of the year the building is generating revenue but losing a major tenant only makes it harder to justify the expense of the management group.

Winnipeg Enterprises was the Pavco equivalent before IGF and basically got squeezed out of the plan as the tax payer watch dog with all the big dreams during construction. Wade Miller just took over Winnipeg Enterprises food and beverage duties among others and the Bombers have never looked back.

The private owner route is not an easy row and the Lions have been fortunate to have had stable ownership. Toronto has a list of owners the length of ones arm in the last 25 years although Bob Young in Hamilton appears to be some kind of saint so who knows.

Re: Speculation is over. No season in 2020.

Posted: Tue Oct 06, 2020 2:08 pm
by Sir Purrcival
Yeah, it might be hard to find someone with deep pockets and a love of the game. There are a few millionaires around but the Lions are a tougher and tougher sell it seems.

Was not Telus set to have naming rights at BC Place a few years back? I remember some issue that happened there and the deal was squashed. Personally I get real tired of the product name stadiums. Rexall this, Staples that, What's next Viagra Village? or maybe B Cialis Place? The slogan? It's hard not to watch....

Re: Speculation is over. No season in 2020.

Posted: Tue Oct 06, 2020 7:17 pm
by David
Sir Purrcival wrote: ↑
Tue Oct 06, 2020 2:08 pm
Personally I get real tired of the product name stadiums. Rexall this, Staples that, What's next Viagra Village? or maybe B Cialis Place? The slogan? It's hard not to watch....
How long before it would be nicknamed the PupTent? :wink:


DH :cool:

Re: Speculation is over. No season in 2020.

Posted: Tue Oct 06, 2020 9:25 pm
by Sir Purrcival
πŸ˜…

Re: Speculation is over. No season in 2020.

Posted: Wed Oct 07, 2020 5:43 am
by Murdoch
Sir Purrcival wrote: ↑
Tue Oct 06, 2020 2:08 pm
The slogan? It's hard not to watch....
Something hard to talk about.

Re: Speculation is over. No season in 2020.

Posted: Wed Oct 21, 2020 10:54 am
by BC 1988
Dave Naylor on what he thinks is currently happening (or not happening) in league offices.
https://www.tsn.ca/radio/vancouver-1040 ... -1.1541721

Re: Speculation is over. No season in 2020.

Posted: Tue Nov 03, 2020 3:04 pm
by Murdoch
Good 3DN interview with Mike Benevides. No question his heart is in the right place. I think Ottawa is quite a bit better with Bene and Lapo and Nick Arbuckle.

Interesting number is 2019 revenue of $210 M for the league. CFO is not doing the job having to chase grants to continue on. The more we learn the worse it gets.

Player salaries accounting for just under 30% compared to 50% for most other professional leagues is disappointing. Also hard to squeeze the fans any more than they already do. Leaves one group.

Re: Speculation is over. No season in 2020.

Posted: Tue Nov 03, 2020 6:35 pm
by B.C.FAN
Murdoch wrote: ↑
Tue Nov 03, 2020 3:04 pm
Player salaries accounting for just under 30% compared to 50% for most other professional leagues is disappointing. Also hard to squeeze the fans any more than they already do.
This is the league’s best opportunity to overhaul its business model. Teams have more non-players than players on their payrolls. If they can centralize some business operations and staffing as other companies and sports leagues have done, they can reduce their overhead and free up money to improve their bottom line and perhaps give a bigger share of revenue to players.

Re: Speculation is over. No season in 2020.

Posted: Mon Nov 09, 2020 1:30 pm
by Gridiron Ernie
Yet another ramification in the wake of no CFL season -- Reilly filed grievance vs. the Lions (back in September -- and is ongoing). https://3downnation.com/2020/11/09/fran ... eed-money/

Re: Speculation is over. No season in 2020.

Posted: Mon Nov 09, 2020 2:02 pm
by Sir Purrcival
It's going to be tough to work this one out. While I can see where he is coming from, I can also see where the Lions are on the issue. Hopefully both sides can arbitrate the dispute reasonably and without too much in the way of bad feelings. I wonder with Braley's passing, who would be making the purse string decisions? The Lions are part of an Estate now I suppose and those things can be notoriously rigid when it comes to the use of estate funds. Also, at his age and with every team in similar financial straights, Reilly doesn't necessarily have the leverage that he might normally have. He can't withdraw his services, all teams right now are hemorrhaging badly and I would suspect very reluctant to take on his contract without knowing what the future holds. If the CFL were to be on hold another season, that is another year of aging for Reilly. So I don't know where the right lies in all of this but the employer finds itself in an extraordinarily bad place financially at the moment suffering a double whammy of both Covid and not having a clear ownership picture or even an intact management structure. It's kind of a purrfect storm.

Re: Speculation is over. No season in 2020.

Posted: Tue Nov 10, 2020 11:07 am
by B.C.FAN
According to Farhan Lalji, the $250,000 guaranteed portion of Mike Reilly's contract wasn't filed with the league, and neither Rick LeLacheur nor David Braley were aware of it.


Re: Speculation is over. No season in 2020.

Posted: Tue Nov 10, 2020 12:10 pm
by Sir Purrcival
A piece of Ed Hervey work? The guy who has done a mysterious disappearing act.

So if this part of the contract was not filed with the league and ownership which presumably has to pass a blessing on all of the money spent were unaware of this, then is it enforceable? I can only think that perhaps this sum might have counted against the Cap, maybe put the Lions over the cap? Maybe there are more mystery deals that we know nothing about. Might explain why Hervey made such an abrupt departure. Perhaps there is more manure in the barn covering up inconvenient truths that there may be be more disclosures to come.

Post Post Edit
So after listening to TSN and hearing about it, I'm not unhappy that Hervey is gone. If the facts stand as they are laid out, then it seems like a very unfair situation for all the parties involved. The league didn't know about, the owner didn't know about it, the player is dealing with the GM and takes on faith that they have done the proper things required (not unreasonable imo) Then it turns out that the GM hasn't done the job properly. What it tells me is that there is no proper mechanism from the league to acknowledge to all parties that a contract has been registered and accepted by the league. If there is, then I would definitely lay a big portion at the feet of the player's agent. He represents his client in contract negotiations and should be ensuring for the sake of his client that the contracts agreed to are all signed, certified and recognized as legal. However, the Lions have an obligation too. Ethical or not, Hervey was the legitimate GM for the club when this clause was negotiated. He was in charge of signing players and managing the day to day operations of the club. The club is responsible for him at some level at least morally if not legally.

Re: Speculation is over. No season in 2020.

Posted: Tue Nov 10, 2020 12:12 pm
by BC 1988
https://www.tsn.ca/radio/vancouver-1040 ... -1.1550198
Farhan expands on the Reilly grievance and his opinion that Hervey's departure was due to this.

https://www.tsn.ca/radio/vancouver-1040 ... -1.1549850
Yesterday, Dave Naylor remarked about how little information there was about the issue.

Re: Speculation is over. No season in 2020.

Posted: Tue Nov 10, 2020 12:55 pm
by David
The dots are starting to be connected. A plausible scenario goes like this. Mike is deciding whether to stay in Edmonton where he's happy or move across the Rockies to play closer to home. Tough choice but something enticing usually has to be offered to make someone leave a good situation.

Yes, the $725K was a factor. But a shrewd agent could say, "that's not enough to get Mike to move." Then Ed says, "what's it going to take to get Mike here?" The agent says "you need to come up a bit." Ed says, "I can't do that. This is already a generous offer, he'll be the highest paid player in the league." The agent goes, "not according to what the Argos are prepared to pay BLM." So Ed goes, "I tell you what. I can't pay more money. This is the highest we'll go. But how about we give Mike guaranteed money? Just between us."

Maybe not word-for-word, but something along these lines seems about right. The departure for personal reasons didn't quite pass the smell test. My sense was, why would he not just to take an undetermined "leave of absence?" There's not a lot going on around the league right now.

DH :cool:

Re: Speculation is over. No season in 2020.

Posted: Tue Nov 10, 2020 2:49 pm
by Hambone
David wrote: ↑
Tue Nov 10, 2020 12:55 pm
The dots are starting to be connected. A plausible scenario goes like this. Mike is deciding whether to stay in Edmonton where he's happy or move across the Rockies to play closer to home. Tough choice but something enticing usually has to be offered to make someone leave a good situation.

Yes, the $725K was a factor. But a shrewd agent could say, "that's not enough to get Mike to move." Then Ed says, "what's it going to take to get Mike here?" The agent says "you need to come up a bit." Ed says, "I can't do that. This is already a generous offer, he'll be the highest paid player in the league." The agent goes, "not according to what the Argos are prepared to pay BLM." So Ed goes, "I tell you what. I can't pay more money. This is the highest we'll go. But how about we give Mike guaranteed money? Just between us."

Maybe not word-for-word, but something along these lines seems about right. The departure for personal reasons didn't quite pass the smell test. My sense was, why would he not just to take an undetermined "leave of absence?" There's not a lot going on around the league right now.

DH :cool:
Could very well be the scenario David. My sense is that the $250K guaranteed is part of the $725K salary. Normally that would not be an issue unless something totally unforeseen like a once-in-a-century pandemic kiboshed the season. From Reilly's standpoint it would be a good thing to have as it might act as a very strong deterrent to the Lions opting to outright cut him to get out from under the contract.

What I question is why wasn't that all covered in the contract unless Hervey didn't think Braley would agree to it. That it wasn't registered with the CFL and Braley and LeLacheur were unaware points to something Hervey agreed to on his own maybe thinking there was no way it could bite him in the ass. There was really no reason to think Reilly wouldn't be doing what was necessary to earn that money.