2025 SMS increase

[Jesse]

The time for arguing is over, they released the money and with it should have released a clear concise statement explaining it's purpose, can't decide how it should be used after the fact.  But again, this is the CFL so almost anything is possible I suppose. 

Releasing it midway through FA was incompetent.

This is all damage control.

[TecnoGenius]

Releasing it midway through FA was incompetent.

This is all damage control.

Agreed.  Every player who signed before the announcement got screwed out of a potential bump in pay.  Will those players go to their GMs and ask for a retroactive bump?  (Again, it's why I think some teams were notified to give them an advantage... look at MTL who re-signed like 75% of their FAs a long time ago, at least all the good ones.)

It's kind of backwards, as the players who re-signed early are the "loyal" and "nice" ones, and the ones waiting for their FA payday are the "mercenaries".  The mercenaries are possibly going to take home near 100% of the $400k increase!

For instance, Kenny could get a counteroffer of and extra $40-$60k from us because he played FA, whilst Schoen not only gets shafted with his reduced "injury" contract, but also can't partake in the $400k bump!

[TecnoGenius]

I don't know if that's true right now.

I think the CFLPA is arguing for something uniform across the league. Whether it happens or not of course...

CFLPA has no standing here.  Their CBA is in place and they are always begging for more player money.  Well, they just got it!  It's a bloody free for all right now and I fully expect a wacky Feb 11 FA.

[TecnoGenius]

Rookies would not be included though. This money is from previous years so they wouldn't be entitled to it.

Maybe not entitled, but rookies will 100% partake in portions of the $400k.  Even though it may be a "reward" for making the league more successful last year, it goes into this year's SMS.

So, for example, Biggie will never see a dime of this even though he worked for it!  Doh.

The only way it could be otherwise is if the bonus was automatically disbursed to 2024 players as a proportion of their salary to the total cap.  And clearly they aren't doing that.

It's good it's the former because the idea is to incentivize current-year guys to sign and/or stay to improve the product, and (as cold as it sounds) the aged-out don't help with that.

[TecnoGenius]

I really don't think we have a need to bust the bank for Lawler or Dobson.  Our roster has been filled in nicely without them.  Upping the offers to them sets a bad precedent.

I think we should go hard after Kenny.  We have no circus guy right now.  No guy that will lay out and make the Dress catch.  Pokey might be able to take that over, but no guarantee he'll be back.

Kenny spelled it out on social that he wants to be here but the payday was just too big to resist.  We only need to get to within $30k of HAM's offer to keep him... even if HAM ups their offer after we up our offer, I think we should do it.  I'm fine with $275k for Kenny (vs our $225 offer before) given that we have $400k new money to blow.

[TecnoGenius]

IMO fans want to see more money for going to the bottom half of the roster. The intent of the shared revenue increase wasn't to create upward space for the top 12 players ( as an example ).

I don't know about that.  I think fans just want to see their team win.

I want to see the top and middling tier players have better retention -- from retirement and NFL PR and garbage leagues -- by offering more competitive salaries.  I want guys like Goosen to not retire so early.  I want all the NFL-PR-sitters to come back sooner, and/or only take 6 months to lose the NFL dream rather than 2 years like some do.  I want to lose zero desired players to the garbage leagues.

This $400k can make a huge difference in this.  You can take 8 guys who would have bailed and give them an extra $50k each.  That might just be enough to keep The Goose (and all like him) in the league.

Yes, I guess I'm saying the rookies and ELCs and DPs don't get squat.  But those guys are almost never the key to a great on-field product.  Besides, whether they get $68k or $70k won't really matter to them.  If they are on ELC, they're doing it for the potential big payday in 2 years.

[TecnoGenius]

Walters certainly isn't required to spend to the limit at this time, he could always save any unused funds as a buffer for the IR and to re-up players heading towards FA near the end of the season, like he did in his early years. 

WFC will always spend near to the limit, because we're a perennial GC competitor.  And we have overflowing coffers.  If we ever have money leftover for back-end re-signings, that's good fortune, not necessarily the plan.

And especially in 2025 we should be signing tight to the cap, if not exceeding it by BC levels.  This isn't the year to get chintzy.

[TecnoGenius]

I'll look for it but it's the only thing that makes sense. You can't have a promo total $$ that is infinite.

Glad to see you rediscovered what we learned in Dec!  Yes Gracie, the marketing money is infinite.  No it doesn't make sense.  Yes, this is why the forums were blowing up when it was revealed.

Yes, BC is using this unlimited free non-SMS money to "cheat" with some players.  I don't see why we aren't doing the same in our GC year.  I bet every other team will be doing a heck of a lot more "marketing" in 2025.

[DM83]

It is incompetent. We already budgeted our players contracts at a certain point. Now the signed guys should get a pro rated addition, as being loyal and possibly signing a reduced amount salary.

If we had known we could have offered Lawler and others a higher offer.

[TecnoGenius]

If we had known we could have offered Lawler and others a higher offer.

Still can.  Apparently the tamper period "deals" are not binding until FA opens.

[Blue In BC]

I don't know about that.  I think fans just want to see their team win.

I want to see the top and middling tier players have better retention -- from retirement and NFL PR and garbage leagues -- by offering more competitive salaries.  I want guys like Goosen to not retire so early.  I want all the NFL-PR-sitters to come back sooner, and/or only take 6 months to lose the NFL dream rather than 2 years like some do.  I want to lose zero desired players to the garbage leagues.

This $400k can make a huge difference in this.  You can take 8 guys who would have bailed and give them an extra $50k each.  That might just be enough to keep The Goose (and all like him) in the league.

Yes, I guess I'm saying the rookies and ELCs and DPs don't get squat.  But those guys are almost never the key to a great on-field product.  Besides, whether they get $68k or $70k won't really matter to them.  If they are on ELC, they're doing it for the potential big payday in 2 years.

I disagree strongly. It's not the players that have been in the CFL for extended times or are earning high salaries that are leaving.

For the Bombers in recent years it's been Ford, Ayers and O. Wilson.  Two of which came back and Wilson might yet be back.

Paying Lawler $285K last year didn't keep him here or Lewis in Edmonton. There is always another CFL team that opens the wallet.

[Jesse]

I disagree strongly. It's not the players that have been in the CFL for extended times or are earning high salaries that are leaving.

For the Bombers in recent years it's been Ford, Ayers and O. Wilson.  Two of which came back and Wilson might yet be back.

Paying Lawler $285K last year didn't keep him here or Lewis in Edmonton. There is always another CFL team that opens the wallet.

Yes. You raise the floor and we're able to bring in a higher quality of prospect in the first place.

There are so many players who stagnate on teams' negotiation lists unwilling to come up here. That's where we have potential to see some difference.

[Blue In BC]

Yes. You raise the floor and we're able to bring in a higher quality of prospect in the first place.

There are so many players who stagnate on teams' negotiation lists unwilling to come up here. That's where we have potential to see some difference.

I'm  not sure that is true either. Teams sign neg list players all the time. Those that don't come to Canada may sit out a season or end their football careers all together.

There might be a line drawn for some players where increasing the floor might change their minds. It's not like we're able to increase the floor to $100K.

Often players play out their ELC like Ford and leave for a big payday elsewhere in the CFL. At that point we sign new players on ELC to hopefully balance the SMS across the roster.

Keep in mind if you raise the floor you lose some of the SMS space at the top of the SMS spend.

Every TC we look at a lot of players in mini camps and probably have 35-40 rookies in TC. I don't think it would be difficult to bring in more but there is a mandated limit and a very short TC.

[Throw Long Bannatyne]

Yes. You raise the floor and we're able to bring in a higher quality of prospect in the first place.

There are so many players who stagnate on teams' negotiation lists unwilling to come up here. That's where we have potential to see some difference.

I've never paid much attention to these negotiation lists, seems it's a list of players they hope to land but seldom do.  Are there any players on the current team that came through their neg. list?

[Blue In BC]

I've never paid much attention to these negotiation lists, seems it's a list of players they hope to land but seldom do.  Are there any players on the current team that came through their neg. list?

There are some and that was posted during last season. The names escape me at the moment but more come and go than stick. It's only 45 players and some are still playing in college.

Teams shuffle through more than that in mini camps and TC.