Part of what left Dane Evans to twist in the wind as long as he did last year was that he DIDN'T have a roster bonus in his contract. Hamilton had no financial obligation to him other than training camp pay until Week 1 of the regular season. They could have kept him twisting in the wind until the end of training camp then cut him. It would have put Hamilton in a sticky spot if he had a bonus due Jan 15 as they didn't have a deal cut with BLM until after that. Nonetheless they would have to make a decision whether to pay it or cut Evans and gamble they would get him signed. Benefit to him would have been free to sign at a time where multiple teams were heading into free agency in need of a starting QB. The simple fact is the players and their agents know the risks of these bonuses and despite that they still push for them. If the GMs had their druthers nobody would get them.don corleone wrote: ↑Thu Jan 04, 2024 1:45 pmBinding on behalf of the team is what gets me and owners trying to screw players over making a buck is a time honoured tradition going back 100 years. I still say exhibition games were invented in order to not pay full player salaries.
Things have come a long way with player unions but it is still not an easy job. The CFL contract expiring on the eve of training camp has always created an unlevel playing field for negotiation imo. Every training camp attendee voting is another sweetheart clause for the CFL.
The other thing is the free pass for the GMs who make these deals and drive up prices. Some form of accountability to go along with the responsibility needs to be shown IMO. Fear of losing makes developing players less of a priority and players start to want only one year deals because the league doesn't honour the second year anyway. Ends up in a mess in a hurry.
As for the preseason games yes it's true players don't get regular game cheques but they do still get compensated thru training camp. From a financial perspective they do generate revenue that is used to cover some of the significant cost to run training camps which would include travel costs for the road game. Vets of 1 year of service ger $525/week, 2 years of service $625/week and 3 years of service or more $725/week. That was as per the previous CBA. They may have gotten a bump in the new one. That would be the cheap part of training camp. The cost of lodging, meals, meeting room rental , transportation and facility/equipment rentals must add up to a minimum of $200/man/day.