CFL board of governors ratifies CBA, which should mean labour peace for up to five years

There wasn't a lot of suspense left in CFL collective bargaining discussions after the CFLPA ratified the proposed CBA Thursday night, but the league's board of governors still needed to officially approve the deal, which they did Friday. The new deal will be in place for five years unless league-wide revenues (excluding the Grey Cup) grow by more than $27 million before then, causing a renegotiation of the salary cap, but even that can't trigger until the 2016 season, providing at least two seasons of full labour peace and likely much more. As per quotes in the official statement, both sides are happy to see that:

It's hard to blame either side there. For the owners, this looks like a great deal. Yes, the salary cap maximum has risen by $600,000 per team to $5 million in 2014 (and it will rise by a further $50,000 each year over the duration of the agreement), but the floor is going to be just $4.4 million this year, also only rising by $50,000 each year. Yes, there are other additional costs here (including uncapped compensation, team pension contributions rising by $100 per player per year and ratification bonuses of $1,500 to rookies and $7,500 to veterans, with the CFLPA dividing the veteran pot based on service time), but teams still look to be coming out of this ahead, especially when you consider the new TV revenue each team will receive annually, which reports have pegged as at least $1.9 to $2.7 million. That should mean that every team's bottom line is improved under this new CBA, and with them not having to pay players more until at least 2016 (and likely 2019), they should be in good financial position for a while.

There are also benefits for the players here, though. For one thing, those on minimum salaries will do much better under the new deal. The minimum salary rises $6,000 to $50,000 this year, then $1,000 annually afterwards. The ratification bonuses will also come in handy, and the season will start as normal, so game cheques will come in as planned. The expanded pension benefits are nice, and veteran players can now sign one-year deals, which should give them more options in terms of both CFL free agency and the NFL. There are player safety provisions here as well; while the players didn't get everything they wanted on that front, they did obtain only one contact practice per week in-season and only one contact practice per day in training camp. There are plenty of players who will still be unhappy that they couldn't get more of the league's revenue windfall (capped player compensation will go up by 1 per cent or less, while league-wide revenues are expected to climb by 21.5 per cent), and others may be upset they didn't receive more on the safety front, but this is still a better deal for players than the old CBA, and it allows them to get back to work. With both sides signing off on it, this season and the next few should proceed as planned. There will still be plenty of lasting resentment on both sides and plenty for them to debate going forward, but there is now labour peace in our time. We'll see just how long it lasts.