BY PERRY LEFKO
sportsnet.ca
The board of directors of the Canadian Football League have begun discussing extending the contract of commissioner Mark Cohon, who could be headed for another long-term deal with a significant pay hike, sportsnet.ca has learned.
Multiple sources told Sportsnet that the board talked about Cohon's situation last week, specifically giving him another five-year deal, which was unprecedented when he was hired in 2007. Previous CFL commissioners had only been given three-year deals. His predecessor, Tom Wright, was given only a one-year extension following his three-year term and no raise.
Sources tell sportsnet.ca that Cohon's contract could have a base of at least $500,000 a season, with significant bonuses pertaining to financial targets that are quite attainable and will greatly spike his overall annual salary. Cohon's original deal began with a base of $400,000 a year and had a 10 per cent bonus attached to performance. It is believed he received raises in the base of the deal during the five-year term.
A response delivered through his spokesperson is that it's a personal matter between he and the board. Cohon has publicly stated he wants to continue through to the 2012 season, during which the CFL will celebrate the 100th Grey Cup game, slated for Toronto and to be hosted by the Toronto Argonauts.
The CFL and the Argos have put together a plan to nationally celebrate the game and received $5 million from the federal government after putting forth a detailed plan. One of Cohon's goals has been to impress upon the idea the CFL is a national institution that needs to be embraced and treasured because it is truly Canadian. He ushered in the CFL marketing phrase "This Is Our League" to underline that point. It has become a talking point that he says repeatedly like a mantra.
When challenged with issues such as the Buffalo Bills plans to play eight games in Toronto over a five-year period, he has stayed away from talking about it specifically preferring to talk about his own league and its affairs, which for the most part are far more sound than his predecessors enjoyed.
For the most part he inherited a good situation and has tried not to disturb it and has been allowed to execute his plans without interference from the board.
He ushered in a new collective bargaining agreement, which included the introduction of the CFL's first-ever drug policy, although much of the groundwork for that had begun before he took office.
He stood firmly that the league understood the importance of Canadian players and would not lower the minimum number of non-import starters, which had been rumoured as part of the owners' bargaining with the players' association. The minimum number did not change. Cohon also kept the negotiations from going public, thereby keeping a lid on some sensitive aspects that the owners and players were negotiating, in particular the framework for the drug policy.
He has succeeded in growing the salary cap by incremental numbers, which is seen as a significant positive.
He has also created annual regular-season games in Atlantic Canada. Previous to Cohon's regime, the CFL played a pre-season game in Atlantic Canada to sow the seeds for a possible expansion in the region, which has long been discussed by various commissioners before him. While there is interest in Moncton, the major impediment is the lack of a stadium that has seating for 25,000 or more.
Cohon has worked to bring back the CFL to the Ottawa region, which twice before has had franchises, with a stable ownership of respected businessmen in the city and a meaningful draft to stock the team so that it will have a legitimate chance to be competitive from the get-go. That wasn't the case in 2002 when the franchise was resurrected and subsequently collapsed after four years.
Pending a legal battle over the land where the team would play and the building of a new stadium, the Ottawa franchise could be operating by 2014.
One significant criticism under Cohon's banner has been that two of the eight teams are owned by one individual, David Braley, who bought the Argos last year to go along with his ownership of the B.C. Lions. A story surfaced that Braley had been quietly helping to fund the team, which sources say came as a surprise to Cohon, who was put into damage control to publicly explain the situation.
Critics have suggested that on optics alone it doesn't look good having one person own two teams, but Cohon defended it saying there are other leagues with owners of multiple franchises. Moreover, he noted that following a constitutional change pertaining to the matter of one person or group owning two teams, he had to approve all deals between the two clubs and had the right to veto any transaction that didn't have fair market value. It was done in the interest of transparency and integrity.
"We'd rather have one guy with considerable means who loves the game sit atop two franchises than having a stop-gap measure and not get the right people into one of our most important franchises," Cohon said at the time.
Braley's ownership of the two teams continues to come into play, such as every time the two teams clash on the field. The first time it happened last year the game was mockingly called the Braley Bowl.
