The Edmonton Elks are no longer bound by the CFL’s football operations cap.
In a wide-ranging interview with The Turf District podcast this week, team president Rick LeLacheur disclosed that, beginning in the new year, the organization will no longer be liable for any money owing to past coaches or personnel executives.
“All of that is now behind us. “At the end of this month, the Elks will be free of any penalties or carryover salaries,” he stated. “We’re absolutely clear.”
Following the 2018 season, the league adopted a football operations cap to regulate and equalize expenditure across all nine franchises. Originally, teams could spend up to $2,588,000 on 11 coaches and 14 other football operations personnel, including general managers, scouts, equipment workers, and video personnel. This figure was dropped during the COVID-19 epidemic and then elevated again, albeit by how much is unknown.
After the organization has severed relations, money owing to fired coaches and personnel executives continues to count against the cap, decreasing the amount of cash available to pay replacements. Teams are allowed one “mulligan” — a firing contract that does not count against the cap — every five years and can spread the money owed over multiple seasons, but organizational transfers are still expensive under the present structure.
Teams who exceed the cap face a dollar-for-dollar fine for the first $100,000 they exceed. For infractions of $100,000 or more, teams forfeit a draft pick(s) and face fines ranging from $25,000 to $250,000.
None have been hurt worse by the cap than the Elks, who sacked head coach Jason Maas after the 2019 season before firing general manager Brock Sunderland and head coach Jaime Elizondo after a terrible 2021 season. These changes posed huge financial issues for the club, but LeLacheur maintains he still believes in the football operations cap.
“I believe in the cap,” he said emphatically. “Let’s face it: football players will spend any amount of money handed to them. We are aware of this. That’s in their DNA, and I understand it since their career is constantly at stake. I’ve seen a number of teams go out of business and run out of money, therefore I was a strong proponent and believer in the cap.”
Chris Jones, the current Elks head coach and general manager, has already spoken out about the harmful impact of the football operations limitation, and he is not alone. Former Saskatchewan Roughriders head coach Craig Dickenson argued it was a barrier to coach recruitment and growth, while Winnipeg Blue Bombers head coach Mike O’Shea recently chastised the cap for making it difficult for winning clubs to retain and appropriately compensate their staff.
Despite his support for the system, LeLacheur was willing to concede that it had shortcomings.
“Experiencing it from the Elks’ point of view, it sort of penalizes those that have made big mistakes beyond the extent that it should.”
Edmonton’s punishment is now over, and they will be allowed to make employment decisions without being handicapped by earlier mistakes in judgment. That might mean new faces on the bench or in the front office next season.
“We’re a player in personnel and in coaches,” LeLacheur emphasized. “That doesn’t mean that we’ll spend all the money, we never spent all the money in B.C. either, but we’re not going to be penalized anymore.”
The Elks will kick off the 2024 season against the Saskatchewan Roughriders on Saturday, June 8 at 7:00 p.m. ET.
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