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As players’ CBA ratification vote rolls on, everyone in the CFL watches anxiously

andrew bucholtz

Thursday may prove to be one of the most pivotal days in the 2014 CFL season, despite no games on the schedule. Players across the league are voting on whether to ratify the temporary collective bargaining agreement reached Saturday (after last-minute negotiations to avoid a strike), and it's far from a sure thing that vote will succeed. Numerous players have publicly expressed strong distaste for the proposed new deal, which would boost the league-wide percentage of revenues going to players by less than one per cent over the old deal (while overall revenues appear set to rise by at least 21 per cent). The question is if those dissenters will have enough support to shoot down this CBA and go on strike, or if a majority of players will be eager to take the limited gains they've been offered, get on with the season and start earning game cheques. Until that's resolved, CFL executives, coaches, players and fans will be watching anxiously to see if the season will proceed as planned.

From a numbers perspective, the chances of this CBA being ratified by the players seem reasonably high. (The owners will have to ratify it too in a vote Friday, but that seems almost inevitable, as this looks like a very good deal for them.) The league only needs 50 per cent plus one support on at least six of the nine teams, and all players including rookies are voting; support for this deal amongst rookies would seem likely to be very high, as they're not likely to make much more if there's a further strike (the union wanted $50,000 as the minimum salary, which the league appears to have agreed to) and they may be in more need of immediate cash than players who have been around longer. Many American rookies also view this league as a short-term destination, somewhere to play to try and catch the attention of an NFL team, so they may be less concerned with long-term impacts for CFL players and more worried about getting on the field as soon as possible. It's not just rookies who will be in favour, though, as some established players, including Ottawa quarterback Henry Burris, have also said they're behind this deal:

“Are we going to sit here and argue over a couple hundred thousand dollars or are we wanting to play some football?” the veteran quarterback said. “Everybody knows where I stand, I’m ready to play some football.”

There are plenty in that camp with Burris. Even with those who are less enthused about the new deal, many have said they'll grudgingly vote for it to avoid the chance of losing a season. Still, though, there are some like Saskatchewan's Ricky Foley who are sticking to their criticism:

"The first year of the deal, I think a lot of guys would agree, it's not too bad,' Foley said. "There's really nothing after that. The TV money still comes in, but as players, we won't see any of that. We're having a hard time understanding how teams can afford to pay extra money the first year, but they can't the other four years of the deal. We feel like it's a pretty long agreement to not see any of that TV money when you talk about hundreds of millions of dollars over the course of five years, and the players only see a very small slice of that."

Foley's quite right there. However, he didn't definitively say he'd vote no, and that may prove to be the case for many players. There are plenty of players unhappy with this proposal, perhaps a majority. Not all of them may be unhappy enough to risk a prolonged labour action and lots of missed paycheques, though. Still, until the votes are counted, we won't know for sure if the 2014 season will proceed as scheduled. That outcome appears to be leading at the moment, but as the CFL always reminds us, no lead is safe.