Ever since he became commissioner in 2007, Mark Cohon has preached a national platform when talking about the importance of the Canadian Football League.
Now he’ll find out exactly how important it is and it could become a sobering reality for him and anyone who follows the CFL.
Cohon along with 2012 Grey Cup chairman/chief executive officer Chris Rudge, Toronto Argonaut vice-chair Mike (Pinball) Clemons and French broadcaster Pierre Vercheval will be in Ottawa tomorrow, making a case for the federal government to provide a $12 million handout to be used to prop up the 100th edition of the game.
For the next two years leading up to this particular historical game, the CFL will be out and about propping up the Cup, selling its importance to private and public institutions, including the feds.
Whether the government should be helping to assist a privately-run company and a privately-owned team, to help pay for the bells and whistles that will make the 100th game unlike any other, will truly be interesting.
You can make cases on both sides, of why the government should be helping the CFL and why the distributors of the public purse, have no business providing a red maple leaf cent.
Toronto once played host to the game, before it was decided to make it a national event and move it around the country. Coincidentally, Toronto ceased to become a regular stop in the rotation because the Argos owners didn’t want to take a risk buying the game and hoping to make a profit.
In recent years, it has cost between $3 million to $4 million to buy the game each year from the CFL and in turn it has supposedly resulted in a $5 million to $6 million profit.
Because most of the teams are privately owned, the exact amount has never been available to the public.
The Cup was last played in Toronto in 2007, ending a stretch of 15 years. By all accounts the game was a financial success for the then owners, Howard Sokolowski and David Cynamon. As much as they wanted to celebrate the game and bring it back to Toronto, they were also looking to recoup some of the money they had annually lost, since buying the team at the end of the 2003 season.
As part of the terms of buying the franchise from the CFL, Cynamon and Sokolowski were guaranteed two opportunities to host the Grey Cup, including the all-important 2012 game.
The owners knew the 100th edition had a chance to turn a tidy profit because of its historical significance.
In the end, Cynamon and Sokolowski ended their six-year ownership of the team, when they couldn’t convince the other seven franchises to agree on revenue sharing.
David Braley, appointed a senator earlier this year, had quietly been providing money to Cynamon and Sokolowski, his payback coming from the Grey Cup profits. He took it over this year, becoming an owner of one quarter of the teams, including his stake in the B.C. Lions.
No one has singlehandedly invested more money in the CFL than Braley, willing to lose millions to keep the CFL alive.
When it was announced earlier this year that the Argos would play host to the 2012 Grey Cup, Braley was accompanied at the grand announcement by some key people. Besides Cohon, the group included Rudge and representatives of all three levels of government.
And perhaps it all makes sense why.
Braley talked about making the Cup a great big party, although he never mentioned the public might pay for a portion of it. But certainly this had to be part of the strategy. You don’t just develop this type of plan without considerable planning.
Rudge talked buoyantly about the 2012 game and has had a glow ever since, promising to do some really interesting things. He hasn’t revealed the game plan to date because it would appear the budget, factors in on the federal funding.
Rudge has experience, lobbying the federal government in his previous role as CEO of the Canadian Olympic Committee.
He had been among the group that asked the federal government for money, to help the Canadian athletes "Own The Podium" at the 2010 Winter Olympics. The government bought into the idea and received a return on its investment, when the Canadian athletes had their best-ever Winter Games result.
But that was a government helping amateur athletes – okay, some were actually professionals – which is quite different, than aiding a private institution and a private owner.
So the pitch by the presenters that will be made in Ottawa tomorrow, will be "this is our league," the slogan Cohon preaches and why it’s worth handing over $12 million.
Perhaps no one among the presenting group will have more of an impact than Clemons, an American who has come to embrace Canada and the CFL.
Few can rival Clemons in terms of oratory skills. He can charge up an audience that has never heard him with his passion, zeal and candour.
For a group seeking to make that important first impression with the feds, Clemons represents the wow factor.
What he says, may play a huge role in the CFL and the Argos receiving $12 million. It’s a lot of money and could be used on more important issues such as health, education and welfare.
Unless the feds truly believe that the CFL is something that needs to be embraced and cherished as a festival that is enjoyed from coast to coast.
