Grey Cup 2020 cancelled, will season be next?

You knew it was inevitable.

There was no way health officials would allow the massive party that is the Grey Cup to happen this fall. As such, the event's cancellation on Wednesday should come as no great surprise.

Grey Cup 2020 in Regina is just the latest in what is already a long list of events to fall victim to COVID-19.

The league also cancelled 'Touchdown Atlantic' which the Riders were to play in Halifax this July. It was already a sell-out.

As Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe so eloquently put it last week: "the virus doesn't care."

"It's a difficult day but we understand it's done for the right reasons," said Riders president Craig Reynolds of the Grey Cup's cancellation.

The news was actually somewhat of a relief for Reynolds. He said it was difficult to plan an event with so much uncertainty surrounding it.

"I know it was very difficult for our volunteers, for our Grey Cup staff. We had to delay the selling of tickets, we were in the market with partnerships. Those are very hard discussions when we can't definitively define what our festival looks like."

Reynolds said half a million dollars was already spent on this year's event, but the work put in by staff and volunteers will not go to waste, as their efforts will go into planning for the 2022 Grey Cup.

Saskatchewan was awarded that year's event after the league cancelled 2020. The six full-time staff on the committee however will not be retained.

At this point The CFL is dealing with many "what if" scenarios.

They are hoping to begin a season by Labour Day and stretch it as far as December if they have to.

Plan 'A' is a win-and-host model.

The team that qualifies for the Grey Cup with the best regular season record would host the championship game. Conceivably, that means Regina could still end up hosting the 2020 Grey Cup.

But who knows what pandemic news will bring us.

League weighing its options

The CFL is considering games played with some fans, games with no fans, or games played only in 'hub cities' which Commissioner Randy Ambrosie admitted is complicated by so many moving parts.

Getting American players back across the border and isolating so many people are just a couple of the complications.

Put the Roughriders down as interested in being a hub city.

Reynolds said high level conversations with the city and province have already been had.

"Regina makes some sense. The stadium speaks for itself, but, as well the low number of cases and just the discipline the province has shown and managing this crisis very, very well."

But can a league which lives cheque-to-cheque survive without fans in the seats?

Reynolds said the CFL is a seasonal business for revenue, but a yearly business for expenses.

The bills are piling up and there appears to be very little appetite from the feds to jump in with a bailout.

Randy Ambrosie, during his virtual town hall session with season ticket holders on Wednesday, said the league, when we get through this, needs to work on it's business model.

No kidding. Who budgets for a pandemic?

The NFL can survive on its TV deal, but one season lost without financial aid will almost certainly kill the Canadian game which has managed to survive for more than a century.

"You know the Riders have developed a successful business as it currently stands now, but we are being challenged, being challenged greatly through this COVID situation." said Reynolds.

The Riders have already adjusted the salaries of all their employees in lieu of layoffs. In April, they closed their merchandise store in the Northgate Mall, costing two employees their jobs.

And the Roughriders organization, compared to the rest of the league, was considered to be in good shape.

In a normal year we would have been well into training camp by now with the Roughriders' season opener less than a month away.

In different times we'd be discussing the Riders' position battles instead of the latest COVID numbers.

This is not a labour dispute that can be resolved overnight by a better offer. 

This crisis is out of everyone's control and the CFL is certainly not alone in dealing with the ramifications.

Grey Cup 2020 had a nice ring to it. But COVID-19 is what this year will be remembered for.