Former CFL president disagrees with 2020 Grey Cup decision

Bill Baker doesn’t agree with the CFL’s decision to do away with this year’s Grey Cup in Regina.

The former player and CFL president believes as the league tries to make its way through the uncertainty around the COVID-19 pandemic, having something set in stone would be of great importance.

“The big concern that I had when I heard what was happening with respect to cancelling the Grey Cup in Regina (or) putting it off, whatever the proper word is, is in every battle like this, in every war zone like this — and the CFL has been through this; we went through this in the ’80s — you’ve got to have a beachhead,” Baker told the Green Zone on Tuesday.

The CFL announced the Grey Cup and all its festivities would take place in the Queen City in 2022 instead of 2020 due to the pandemic. Instead, the 2020 Grey Cup game is to be hosted by the team playing in the game that has the better regular-season record.

The earliest the season could start, commissioner Randy Ambrosie has said, would be September.

“Now you’re going to have a league wandering around for the next few months,” Baker said. “Nobody knows where the Grey Cup is or if there’s going to be one and if there is one, you don’t know where until about a week or two before the game.”

Baker said he would like to see the Grey Cup still played in Regina this year due to the facilities the city has as well as the fan base.

If that wasn’t possible, Baker said it would still be important to have a set date and place for the big game.

“Putting it in BC Place is way better than not having it in anyplace. Go ahead and at least pick a spot and stick to it and work from there. Otherwise you’re just going to wander around in chaos for months now and have every excuse in the world not to play the game and not to start the season,” Baker said.

Baker was a defensive end in the CFL from 1968 to 1978 with the Saskatchewan Roughriders and B.C. Lions. He was inducted into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame in 1994.

He was also the general manager of the Riders from 1987 through ’88 and was the CFL president in 1989. During that time, the league had to take control of the Lions as the league dealt with dire financial situations.

The year before he became president, the Montreal Alouettes folded.

“We went to all the players and we asked all the players to take a significant cut in salary and we went door to door, face to face with the players and said, ‘Guys, we need your help in this short period of time,’ ” Baker said.

“The first thing you have to do is to try and suspend the existing agreement with the players’ association or delay it or defer it. Do something with it that allows the players’ association to know this is an emergency situation.”

Baker said it’s important the league works with the players and gets them on board as it tries to navigate through this.

“I guarantee you if I was still a young football player and somebody said, ‘Guess what, Bill, it’s hard times. You’re going to get half your salary at the most (or) you may get less than that,’ I’d way rather do that and start playing …,” Baker said.

“They have to share in the decisions and share in the plan going forward knowing full well that a year from now if this pandemic has passed — and it may still be here, for goodness sakes — and the league has got through and survived and the body is still breathing, that at least we’re moving forward and you have a chance to get the players’ salaries back.”

He understands the league is in a tough spot since many players are from the U.S. and the border is closed, making things difficult to get off the ground.

“We can’t have training camp otherwise we could start training camp this week or next week or next month but a lot of the players are across the line in the States and they can’t get access to Canada,” Baker said.

But Baker believes much like the league got through the tough times in the past, it can pull through again as long as everyone gets on the same page.

“I only fear if people stop making good decisions and stop working together. If the league and the players’ association and all the people that support (the league) — hotel organizations, the hospitality industry, the television networks, the radio stations — if we’re going to work together in a room, we’ll get through this,” Baker said.

“It’ll be tough. It’s going to be a hell of a tough period of time, but we’ll come out with the Canadian Football League. It may be a new league in a lot of ways but it may be a better league.”