Tiger-Cats fans,
“We love those Cats, those Tiger-Cats, the team with the spirit and fight…for we’ll Oskee Wee Wee, and Oskee Waa Waa, Right on to victory!”
But onto something a great deal more serious. As you will have read in the media by now we have reached an impasse with the executive of the Canadian Football League Players Association (CFLPA) in the negotiations to renew our Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) with our players.
The point of quoting the Tiger-Cat fight song above is to acknowledge that our players and our coaches -are- the Tiger-Cats. I know this, and you know this. As much as I would like to, I’m not going to make a single block, our accountants are not going to complete a touchdown pass, our marketing experts aren’t going to design a championship defence and our ticket sales reps are not going to make a single tackle. It will be our players, with help from our coaches, who will win us championships and will entertain us royally while doing so. We owe them all the salary, benefits, training and medical care we can afford.
But us boring football team managers have a job to do, and it would be irresponsible if we did not do it to the best of our ability. This job is to ensure the future financial success of our team and our league. Should we fail to do our job responsibly, we could jeopardize the future of the team and the game we love.
When I became involved with the Tiger-Cats, my goal was to ensure that this 145- year-old team became financially stable enough that it would prosper for another 145 years after I am no longer able to help. We cannot fail in that task. Our future players who would have nowhere to play would not forgive me, our loyal fans would not forgive me, and my brother Michael would haunt me for the rest of my days.
Both sides are continuing to work hard at educating each other about their respective positions. We remain optimistic that the two sides will reach an agreement. In the meantime, we continue to operate the Tiger-Cats business as usual. Single game tickets to the Inaugural Season at Tim Hortons Field will be available for purchase tomorrow, Saturday, May 31, at 10 a.m. We look forward to welcoming our players to camp on the weekend and to launching our 102nd Grey Cup campaign as scheduled.
Thank you for your patience and understanding.
Cheers,
Bob.
