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CFL and CFLPA begin negotiations again with a month to go before CBA expiry: little progress so far, but agents think a deal will be made

andrew bucholtz

The CFL and its players' association are meeting face-to-face again later this week in Toronto to resume their discussions on a new collective bargaining agreement. The sides have only met once since Scott Flory's election as CFLPA presidentin late March, and those meetings in Calgary in April didn't produce anything to break the major impasse between the sides on whether the salary cap should be a fixed number or a percentage of league revenues. Neither side appears willing to budge on that front yet. The players' association has previously said they won't play this season under the old CBA, so training camps, preseason games and potentially even regular-season games could be lost if the two sides don't come to a deal soon, and the clock is ticking; the current CBA expires on May 29. However, despite the lack of tangible progress thus far, important third parties believe a deal will be struck before the season starts. Kirk Penton spoke to several influential player agents this week, and found they and their clients aren't too concerned about a work stoppage yet:

Two agents who represent large pools of CFL players reported Saturday there haven't been many panicked players calling to ask what they should do if they find themselves on the picket line in early June.

"None of my guys are panicking," Fred Weinrauch said from Montreal. "I've had light conversations with a few of my guys, but I haven't really had much. Nobody's really been too worried about it."

Edmonton's Rob Fry, who is part of Gil Scott Sports Management, is getting a similar feeling from his clients with only a month left until the CBA expires.

"The consensus is that something is going to get worked out," Fry said. "There seems to be a positive vibe that something's going to be worked out. We haven't felt any sense of guys panicking or any sense of stress. The consensus is fairly positive, that the league wants to work something out."

The agents' comments are notable, as they're reflecting the feelings of significant numbers of players. History helps here as well; while labour negotiations have been contentious in the past, they haven't led to work stoppages any time recently, with the 2005 season being played under an expired CBA before a deal was struck in 2006, and a deal struck in 2010 just before the season. There are also plenty of reasons to believe that both the league and the players do want to get a deal done this time. Most players (especially those near the league's minimum salary, which is currently less than $50,000) don't have massive savings, and the league and its teams will likely want to start the season properly to fully reap the benefits of the new TV deal.

Some of those teams could be particularly eager to bring in some cash. The Ottawa Redblacks will want to start their CFL career off on the right foot (especially as they've been paying costs for a while without a ton of incoming revenues), the Winnipeg Blue Bombers will want to start making more money so they can pay off their stadium loans (and avert threats of provincial intervention), and the Hamilton Tiger-Cats will likely want to get their new revenue-generating field open as soon as possible to make back some of the costs from last season's adventures in Guelph, especially now that it appears set to open on time. Other teams have undertaken substantial offseason expenditures, too, including the Calgary Stampeders' new turf. So, if you're a glass-half-full type, there's plenty of room for optimism.

If you see the glass as half-empty, though, there's solid evidence for that view as well. All the "a deal will get done" talk is nice, as are reports of progress on some minor fronts, but when it comes down to it, one side or the other is going to have to move on the most crucial issue. Either the league will give players a percentage of league revenues (likely a lower one than the 56% agreed on in 2006), or the players will withdraw that demand (perhaps in exchange for a much higher fixed cap). So far, neither side seems likely to give in there, and while both have incentive to get a deal done, they also know that the other side's negotiating position isn't all that firm; there will be plenty of players upset if they miss paycheques, but there would be significant consequences for the CFL and its teams from any sort of work stoppage too.

Both sides also know that this isn't a short-term negotiation. What's achieved here will not only determine the CFL's salary framework and more for the length of the new CBA, but also serve as a precedent in the next round of labour negotiations down the road. Thus, each side could prove quite willing to dig in their heels. We'll see how it plays out, but the clock is ticking down quickly, and progress (or the lack of it) at this week's meetings could go a long way towards determining if training camps will start on time.