Bob Young, the owner of the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, is overjoyed that the season has begun.
Young said on CHML’s Bill Kelly show that the COVID outbreak caused a lot of financial problems for CFL clubs, as it did for other businesses.
“We needed to keep operating as a league. We needed to stay in the public eye, keep our front office staff, and figure out how to treat our players as fairly as possible. There was a lot of money spent on the last season and a half that didn’t result in any revenue.”
He said all the teams found the capital to continue operating either through debt or additional equity to sustain the financial hit, which he pegged at tens of millions across the league.
The big issue this season for the Tiger-Cats, as well as the Argos and Ottawa, is how to get fans in the stands, safely.
Right now, the province of Ontario does not require residents to carry vaccination passports, but just to the west, Manitoba has made vaccination a requirement for football fans.
When the Tiger-Cats played their season opening in Winnipeg last week, spectators were required to provide proof of vaccination in order to attend the game at IG Field.
According to Young, the government of Ontario needs to come up with a comparable plan.
“Vaccine passports are one of my favorite things. If we could just agree that a vaccine passport made sense in the event of a pandemic. We may cut them up and return to our regular work once the pandemic is over.”
The Tiger-Cats will play in Regina on Saturday.
Source_ The Canadian Press
