To paraphrase a well-known expression and apply it to the Canadian Football League, there’s a many slip between the Grey Cup and the lip.
Almost six years after buying the Toronto Argonauts and winning the Grey Cup in their first year, owners David Cynamon and Howard Sokolowski have let it slip that they may be interested in selling the team.
This is hardly surprising. They have been willing to sell the franchise for the right price, specifically $10 million. But no one is willing to pay that amount. The value of the team has fallen precipitously.
Cynamon and Sokowloski bought the franchise at the end of the 2003 season – one in which the Argos had been thrown into the CFL’s lap after the owner at the time stopped paying the bills seven games into the season – for some $2 million.
The Argos are a dormant – some would use the term doormat – franchise now, literally at the bottom of the standings and only mathematically clinging to any hope of a playoff spot. They missed the playoffs last year for the first time under the Cynamon/Sokolowski ownership.
Missing the playoffs two years in a row is the tipping point for some owners to consider drastic action because the bottom line is missed revenues based on budget forecasts.
The Argos are already paying a coach, Rich Stubler, not to coach after firing him after only 10 games last year, despite the team sitting in second place with a 4-6 record.
They brought in Don Matthews, one of the most successful head coaches in Canadian Football League history, because he reportedly felt fit enough to end his retirement and agreed to work for nothing more than expenses.
The team planned to work out a contract after the season, but Matthews resigned after going winless in eight games.
Following an exhaustive search, the Argos hired Bart Andrus as head coach, but the veteran of the National Football League and NFL Europe has been a bust in the CFL with a record of 3-11. His team hasn’t scored a touchdown via the passing route in the past six games. The Argos signed Andrus because of his offensive prowess. He has gone from prowess to powerless.
The Argos can’t afford to fire Andrus because it would be another contract they would have to absorb.
The decisions to fire Stubler, hire Matthews, and sign Andrus fall under the domain of general manager Adam Rita. Do the owners fire Rita? Some members of the media and fans are pointing the finger of blame at the genial Rita, but firing him means absorbing more contractual commitments for the future.
This is basically a financial nightmare. If you want to sell a business – a football team or otherwise – the financials had better be appealing. Saddling a prospective owner with contracts of fired employees isn’t attractive.
But there is another element to all of this: This is the first indication of any kind that the CFL is in trouble in its most important commercial and media market. CFL commissioner Mark Cohon has talked glowingly that the CFL is in great shape, notwithstanding the economy.
The CFL is only as strong as its weakest link, so while Cohon has been exploring franchises in Ottawa and the Maritimes, the Argo situation is acute. It’s the reason both the Argos, Cohon and B.C. Lions owner David Braley, who has been speculated as a potential buyer of the Toronto franchise, issued statements to dismiss any suggestion of a sale.
This is damage control, pure and simple, otherwise any speculation or rumour of a sale, particularly from one CFL owner to another, would pass without commentary.
Any time a franchise is in trouble, it only underlines how fragile the CFL is, although it continues to exist despite it all.
Cynamon and Sokolowski began this season with tremendous optimism. Cynamon boldly talked of a 12-6 season, and even when the record clearly showed that would be impossible, he believed the Argos could finish strongly and make the playoffs.
Now the forecast is not about the playoffs, but how long Cynamon and Sokolowski will continue to hang their shingles as Argo owners.
The team has been in a freefall since it lost the East Division final at home in 2007. That loss galled Cynamon and Sokolowski, who had to put on a brave face while hosting a gala media party at Cynamon’s house.
The owners hoped to play in the Grey Cup in their own city and stadium, but it was not to be.
And it’s been nothing short of chaotic since, consisting of questionable trades, signings, hirings, firings and, worst of all, a poor product on the field.
There is a financial reality to all of this, and that’s dwindling fan attendance, which translates to a bottom line underlined in red ink. Because they are a private company, the Argos are not required to divulge their financials, but this is team that is losing money. Exactly how much is something only the owners and team management know for sure.
While it’s been divulged through public records that Cynamon and Sokolowski are interested in becoming owners of an NHL franchise, they are still the owners of a CFL franchise, one that celebrates itself as North America’s oldest professional football club, 15 Grey Cup championships and it’s commitment to the Toronto community.
Cynamon and Sokolowski have been excellent caretakers of the Argos, but how much longer can they continue to own the franchise when the team is failing badly?
Do the owners continue to throw good money after bad? It’s the reason the previous owner stopped paying the bills.
It is unlikely Cynamon and Sokolowski, who are upstanding individuals with tremendous character and reputation, would do likewise, but can they as good businessmen continue to prop us a business with a history of losing money?
Time will tell.
