Blue Bombers One of Three Teams to Exceed 2023 Salary Cap

[ModAdmin]

"The Canadian Football League has fined three franchises for exceeding the league's Salary Expenditure Cap in 2023.

The Hamilton Tiger-Cats, Winnipeg Blue Bombers and B.C. Lions all spent above the cap last season by an amount less than $100,000. As a result, each team incurred a dollar-for-dollar fine of the amount exceeded and the selection order for the 2024 CFL Draft on April 30 remains unaffected....."

https://3downnation.com/2024/04/19/cfl-fines-ticats-bombers-and-lions-for-exceeding-salary-cap-in-2023/

[Blue In BC]

Hmmmm. I guess that answers whether we had more money left to spend at the end of 2023 in order to re-sign potential free agents. Might have been a re-signing bonus or 2 that pushed us over the limit.

[Pete]

wonder if it had to do with sitting out a number of players before the western final and promoting a number from the practice roster.

[TecnoGenius]

Pushing the boundaries to keep going to those cups.  I'm ok with it.  If the league really wants to clamp down, they'll make the punishments far more severe.  The current setup is just begging the teams with deep pockets to overspend.

That said, I bet the greenie forum is lighting up with "WPG cheats" posts right about now... so we fans have to take the greenie heat for a little while.

Kind of hilarious about the Ticats though... haha, nothing to show for their overspend.

[Blue In BC]

wonder if it had to do with sitting out a number of players before the western final and promoting a number from the practice roster.

Yes. A PR player gets added and gets a regular game check of about $4200 based on an ELC. Normally they might get $750-$1000 on the PR.

So each PR player added gets about $3,000 more while the " starter " goes to 1 game IR. I think we added about 8 PR players so that's $24K more than usual.

OTOH, many of those starters were actually injured and most teams do that once playoff position is set. It also gives teams a chance to see PR players in a regular season game.

No problem with doing that, but it is a cost risk kind of benefit.

[theaardvark]

We didn't cheat nearly enough... left $75k on the bone there...

[Sir Blue and Gold]

CFL's luxury tax - I suppose we're happy to pay.

[ichabod_crane]

Pushing the boundaries to keep going to those cups.  I'm ok with it.  If the league really wants to clamp down, they'll make the punishments far more severe.  The current setup is just begging the teams with deep pockets to overspend.

That said, I bet the greenie forum is lighting up with "WPG cheats" posts right about now... so we fans have to take the greenie heat for a little while.

Kind of hilarious about the Ticats though... haha, nothing to show for their overspend.

I have NO PROBLEM with any team wanting to win. It's within the rules if you go over certain amounts of the cap you pay a penalty. It is NOT illegal and not what I would consider cheating if it's part of the CFL operating rules that ALL teams agreed to. If you know of and can accept the penalty  and can afford it, that is the cost of going for the Grey Cup sometimes. I don't think Kyle Walters was hell bent on going over the cap, it just occurred with how the season played out.

Being less that $100,000 over the cap I can easily see happening if you are near the margins of the salary cap. Get a few too many short term injuries during the season (long terms NOT against the cap) or sit out important players in the last game or two of the regular season to save them for the playoffs...all acceptable outcomes.  With a 5.5-5.6 million salary cap, $100,000 is around 2% additional salary on top.....chicken feed in the grand scheme of things. Being $100,000+ over the cap then you start losing draft picks and higher fines which is the place you really want to avoid.

Riders fans have NO reason to beef here. They went over the cap a couple times in the 2010's and for sure in their 2013 GC winning year at home. Don't cry sour grapes if your team has done the same thing in the past and will do so again if they need to. The CFL has a modified soft cap, it's not as strict as the NHL/NFL. MLB you pay into an equalization pot if over a certain amount, but you can spend as much as you want if you have the cash rolling in (ie: The Yankees, Dodgers, Boston). Not too sure how strict the NBA salary cap is, but those BIG 3 (NFL/NBA/MLB) deal in caps of over 100+ million so in a different stratosphere all together. NHL salary cap around $84 million for this current season.

Yeah, the Tiger Cats certainly did not get value for their money last season....although they had a ton of injuries all season and a turnstile of bringing players in and out too. Probably flush with cash with hosting the GC in 2023 as well, so they were not too worried breaking the budget a bit.

If the Lions also went over the cap, it shows they would have had to cut a lot of salary or players to re-sign Nathan Rourke. Probably why Betts still not re-signed or is he attempting an NFL shot?

[ModAdmin]

I have NO PROBLEM with any team wanting to win. It's within the rules if you go over certain amounts of the cap you pay a penalty. It is NOT illegal and not what I would consider cheating if it's part of the CFL operating rules that ALL teams agreed to. If you know of and can accept the penalty  and can afford it, that is the cost of going for the Grey Cup sometimes. I don't think Kyle Walters was hell bent on going over the cap, it just occurred with how the season played out.

Being less that $100,000 over the cap I can easily see happening if you are near the margins of the salary cap. Get a few too many short term injuries during the season (long terms NOT against the cap) or sit out important players in the last game or two of the regular season to save them for the playoffs...all acceptable outcomes.  With a 5.5-5.6 million salary cap, $100,000 is around 2% additional salary on top.....chicken feed in the grand scheme of things. Being $100,000+ over the cap then you start losing draft picks and higher fines which is the place you really want to avoid.

Riders fans have NO reason to beef here. They went over the cap a couple times in the 2010's and for sure in their 2013 GC winning year at home. Don't cry sour grapes if your team has done the same thing in the past and will do so again if they need to. The CFL has a modified soft cap, it's not as strict as the NHL/NFL. MLB you pay into an equalization pot if over a certain amount, but you can spend as much as you want if you have the cash rolling in (ie: The Yankees, Dodgers, Boston). Not too sure how strict the NBA salary cap is, but those BIG 3 (NFL/NBA/MLB) deal in caps of over 100+ million so in a different stratosphere all together. NHL salary cap around $84 million for this current season.

Yeah, the Tiger Cats certainly did not get value for their money last season....although they had a ton of injuries all season and a turnstile of bringing players in and out too. Probably flush with cash with hosting the GC in 2023 as well, so they were not too worried breaking the budget a bit.

If the Lions also went over the cap, it shows they would have had to cut a lot of salary or players to re-sign Nathan Rourke. Probably why Betts still not re-signed or is he attempting an NFL shot?

Betts signed with Detroit Lions.

[Sir Blue and Gold]

The cap was $5.45-million and we were over $25,000. In any place I've ever been at that would be very successful annual financial management. Anyone making it into an issue is just letting football rivalry get in the way of being reasonable and practical. It's 0.458% over.

[dd]

It's an absolute non issue. In reality, if you come within 0.5% of your budget you're on budget.

[Throw Long Bannatyne]

Most Rider fans are not making much of a stink about it, realizing they have been over budget multiple times themselves.

[blue_gold_84]

The cap was $5.45-million and we were over $25,000. In any place I've ever been at that would be very successful annual financial management. Anyone making it into an issue is just letting football rivalry get in the way of being reasonable and practical. It's 0.458% over.

Is that ideal?

[theaardvark]

I really think that unless you are over $100k over, its not really "cheating", just being within the margin for error on calculating salaries and IR relief.

Over $100k, and you are definitely not getting there by calculation error...