CFL delivers on-time season start proposal to players’ association with 20 per cent pay cut caveat

The Canadian Football League wants to kick-off the 2021 season as scheduled, if all goes according to plan.

TSN reporter Dave Naylor has the latest details.

The CFL has delivered a proposal to the CFLPA targeting an on-time start to the 2021 season by asking players for a 20 per cent pay cut that would apply if no fans in stands. Salaries would then be topped-up over the course of the season as fans return to stands, Naylor tweeted. 

Even though CFL teams know stadiums will not be fully open at any point for the 2021 season, players could earn full wages for periods of the season. All this subject to CFL’s return-to-play protocol being approved, he added. 

For months we have speculated the CFL season unlikely to start on time based on the presumption that teams would not begin a season without fans in stands. The CFL proposal Tuesday would be a way around that. Regular season due to start June 10th, Naylor concluded. 

The CFL unveiled its 2021 schedule last November with the pre-season scheduled to begin on Sunday, May 23, while the regular season is slated to get underway on Thursday, June 10, and the Grey Cup in Hamilton on Sunday, November 21.

The league and union began meetings during the second week of February with a focus on playing football this year. The two sides have submitted return to play health and safety plans to various levels of government in Canada.

Commissioner Randy Ambrosie has promised plenty of football during the current year.