2025 SMS increase

[Jesse]

One thing I am wondering...

Once the window closes Feb. 9, pending free agents will have an exclusive 48-hour negotiating period with the teams they remain under contract with. Every CFL club will be provided any offers the pending free agents received during the weeklong open window timeline.

Teams will have until 10 a.m. ET on Feb. 11 to make an offer to their own free agents. Copies of those proposals must again go to both the CFL office and CFLPA.

Will anybody have a change of heart considering the new SMS? Nothing is in stone... YET.

There is no chance that CFL teams are reading about this in the news for the first time like we are.

They already knew and negotiations were already had with that understanding.

[Jesse]

There is no chance that CFL teams are reading about this in the news for the first time like we are.

They already knew and negotiations were already had with that understanding.

Freisen, at least, is reporting that teams found out the new number today (I still find it hard to believe - maybe it was simply "made official")

I guess we'll find out if teams suddenly start making new offers to signed players. If nothing changes, then it's likely GMs already knew.

[Throw Long Bannatyne]

Freisen, at least, is reporting that teams found out the new number today (I still find it hard to believe - maybe it was simply "made official")

I guess we'll find out if teams suddenly start making new offers to signed players. If nothing changes, then it's likely GMs already knew.

Only in the CFL could that be true, but probably is. What a dumb time to release this information, I figure somebody in accounting screwed up.

[TBURGESS]

The Lions did that with Rourke. The promo money is set with a minimum of $200K with any excess charged to the SMS. In that sense it's the same kind of penalty as with the normal SMS.  It could result in an overage to the set maximum SMS.

It could be argued that the publicity work by Rourke is worth $200K. I'd argue it isn't.

In 2023, each Club will include in the Salary Expenditure Cap an additional $60,000 in respect of Non-Football Related Services, such as community appearances, outreach, and promotion. Starting in 2024 and continuing for every year of the collective agreement, each Club will include in the Salary Expenditure Cap an additional $110,000 in respect of those Non-Football Related Services.  These special amounts will be the mandatory minimum amount for each Club and will be subject to strict audit rules.  

The Clubs will have sole discretion on which players shall received these payments and the amounts to each player,
but in no case should these amounts be less than $60,000 per Club in 2023 or less than $110,000 per Club, per year thereafter.  These amounts will be included in a player's SPC and noted accordingly. 

The minimum is defined, but it's not $200K. The maximum isn't defined & there is no mention of it being charged to the SMS. There was an article that said it should be added to the SMS, but that's not what the contract says.

[TecnoGenius]

Freisen, at least, is reporting that teams found out the new number today (I still find it hard to believe - maybe it was simply "made official")

It makes me immediately wonder/worry if the league leaked the news to select teams (for whatever reason), given said teams an unfair advantage in FA up until this moment.

Any teams that appeared to be spending like drunken sailors are ones that I would suspect of this.  So 100% WFC didn't know... we've been insanely conservative on spending and have gobs and gobs of SMS space available.  But now will there be anyone to spend it on??

[TecnoGenius]

One thing I am wondering...

Once the window closes Feb. 9, pending free agents will have an exclusive 48-hour negotiating period with the teams they remain under contract with. Every CFL club will be provided any offers the pending free agents received during the weeklong open window timeline.

Great find Waffler!  I didn't know about that.  That would negate any advantage a team who got the news early (if any) had.  That would allow us to match/beat the Lawler deal now that we know we have gobs of extra SMS to spend!

Dobson too!

[TecnoGenius]

Wow, Ambrosie needs to be congratulated, "Randy...now where did he go?"  Wonder what it was that brought in the extra revenue?  Sports gambling? 

Haha, this isn't Ambrosie/CFL money to spend, this is entirely the teams' money!  Easy for Ambrosie to up the limit since it's not his dime!   

I think it might be nice to have the SMS slightly unaffordable for around half the teams, so that there's some incentive for teams to make lots of money and be more successful!

Right now teams like WFC not only gain no on-field advantage for being the best run business, but they also get penalized by having to pay everyone else's "equalization" payments!

If the SMS was higher than some teams wanted to spend, then we can gain an on-field advantage.  Even if it's just 100-200k that would be a good incentive.

400k is nothing to sneeze at!  So many posters were saying last season the CFL is always poor and broke and teams don't want to spend, must have small caps, etc.  400k kind of proves that wrong!  Either that or Ambrosie is nuts!  Then again, I'm sure this had to pass a majority of team owners.

[TecnoGenius]

The Lions did that with Rourke. The promo money is set with a minimum of $200K with any excess charged to the SMS. In that sense it's the same kind of penalty as with the normal SMS.  It could result in an overage to the set maximum SMS.

It could be argued that the publicity work by Rourke is worth $200K. I'd argue it isn't.

The minimum is defined, but it's not $200K. The maximum isn't defined & there is no mention of it being charged to the SMS. There was an article that said it should be added to the SMS, but that's not what the contract says.

Ya BinBC you're forgetting the revelation from December re: BC!  We don't want to get started on this topic again!

Marketing money is completely unlimited and does not count on the SMS!  The only stipulation is you need to justify/prove how you spent it (whatever that means)!

Still waiting on the final SMS overage report for BC in 2025... Maybe in April?  A lot of people here are gonna owe me some Walby burgers when it's over $250k!!     

[TecnoGenius]

Increasing by $400K for 2025!!!!!!!!!!!!!

$400k is huge.  This is near what I was begging for on the forum last year!  We need to compensate for the huge inflation and crap dollar.  We need to keep top guys from retiring early (a la Goosen), especially NATs.  We need to try beat out the garbage leagues down south.  We need to be more competitive for our top stars vs PR spots in the NFL.  The pot has to be sweetened.  This is a great start!

[Jesse]

Great find Waffler!  I didn't know about that.  That would negate any advantage a team who got the news early (if any) had.  That would allow us to match/beat the Lawler deal now that we know we have gobs of extra SMS to spend!

Dobson too!

1. If we didn't want to compete with other teams' offers before the increase, we still wont.

2. I'm still betting that teams knew about the increase. If we don't see any of the terms change between now and FA, then no one was caught off guard by this except the media.

[Waffler]

I think teams didn't know and I'm just basing this on reported numbers which seem based on the same cap. Schoen and Lawler both making less for example.

It would only take one player to start a domino effect. Let's say we were to lose Logan or White to their original teams, might we not rethink our offer to Lawler? There is a lot of extra money in play.

Like Jesse said it's all based on what teams knew at the beginning of the week. We'll soon find out.

[Waffler]

Media reporting now that no one knew before the announcement.

https://winnipegsun.com/sports/football/cfl/winnipeg-bluebombers/cfl-salary-cap-chaos-should-have-bombers-chasing-lawler

"General mangers around the league were taken by surprise at the amount of the hike, and so were players."

[Blue In BC]

Ya BinBC you're forgetting the revelation from December re: BC!  We don't want to get started on this topic again!

Marketing money is completely unlimited and does not count on the SMS!  The only stipulation is you need to justify/prove how you spent it (whatever that means)!

Still waiting on the final SMS overage report for BC in 2025... Maybe in April?  A lot of people here are gonna owe me some Walby burgers when it's over $250k!!     

I don't know where you're getting that. Marketing money over $200K counts against the SMS is my understanding. If it was truly unlimited and not against the SMS then there isn't any SMS.

[Blue In BC]

$400k is huge.  This is near what I was begging for on the forum last year!  We need to compensate for the huge inflation and crap dollar.  We need to keep top guys from retiring early (a la Goosen), especially NATs.  We need to try beat out the garbage leagues down south.  We need to be more competitive for our top stars vs PR spots in the NFL.  The pot has to be sweetened.  This is a great start!

It only works if revenue increased and apparently it did. You can't just throw more money at any business without that happening.

[TBURGESS]

I don't know where you're getting that. Marketing money over $200K counts against the SMS is my understanding. If it was truly unlimited and not against the SMS then there isn't any SMS.

I quoted the contract that doesn't say that. Can you quote a source, equal to or better than the actual contact, that backs your understanding?