The Importance of the Players vs CSA Pay Dispute

[Bison44]

Just now, PegCityCam said:

I'm confused - can the CSA "monetize" any of the success we have on the field...at least any more than they already do with their 20 year CSB stipend? I understand that there may be some missed exposure (Gatorade) but where's this idea that the CSA can bring in any more monetarily than they already do? My understanding is that the CSB take in everything from all sponsors and it's up to them how they'll invest it. 

I dont think the promo balls, flag, jersey, WECAN shirts, scarves, water bottle "swag" type sales are included in the CSB eh?  Doesnt CSA still control that end of things..I know they caught shit for the lack of kits to buy.  And if you play the long game, if CSB gets more sponsors and makes more money off this cycle, the CSA might have more leverage to get more than 3mil per season if CSB picks up the option.  Maybe.....who knows what the actual deal is, thats still murky as hell.  

[PegCityCam]

Just now, Bison44 said:

I dont think the promo balls, flag, jersey, WECAN shirts, scarves, water bottle "swag" type sales are included in the CSB eh?  Doesnt CSA still control that end of things..I know they caught shit for the lack of kits to buy.  And if you play the long game, if CSB gets more sponsors and makes more money off this cycle, the CSA might have more leverage to get more than 3mil per season if CSB picks up the option.  Maybe.....who knows what the actual deal is, thats still murky as hell.  

It is laughable that we still have next to no clue what it entails. 

[narduch]

26 minutes ago, PegCityCam said:

I'm confused - can the CSA "monetize" any of the success we have on the field...at least any more than they already do with their 20 year CSB stipend? I understand that there may be some missed exposure (Gatorade) but where's this idea that the CSA can bring in any more monetarily than they already do? My understanding is that the CSB take in everything from all sponsors and it's up to them how they'll invest it. 

Pretty sure that Iran friendly was going to make them lots of money 

[Watchmen]

4 hours ago, Gian-Luca said:

While I don't buy the conspiracy aspects either, Westhead nonetheless (for whatever reasons) continues to offer one-sided journalism that makes it appear that he has a bias. Case in point he continues to belittle CSB by referring to them as a "little-known" organization, ironically doing so in an article where the only newsworthy item in it had nothing to do with the CSB. I suppose if he keeps publicizing them unnecessarily (albeit disparagingly) he will ironically make them no longer "little-known" organization.

To help explain why posters are getting annoyed, its because they don't like that he shits all over the CSB when for decades we've been whining about the lack of business investment into Canadian soccer and praying for it to happen; they don't like the fact that he uses irrelevant and naive examples to over-egg his point, the bit about the business suits being the latest example (what's next, taking Bontis to task for dining Infantino at Denny's instead of McDonald's when the latter is more affordable?); they also get annoyed that he works for a broadcaster that greatly caused the problem and the need for the Onesoccer/Mediapro stuff that he keeps painting as being villains or holding back the progress and growth of soccer.  Does anyone really think that Mediapro was going to sue both TSN and the CSA for broadcasting a CSA-produced documentary about the qualifying campaign for using footage that says right in the documentary itself "Courtesy of Onesoccer"? Give me a break! That documentary is the one thing that even most blinkered "CSA are responsible for all evils in life, including COVID and Chris Chibnall"-type fans admit is something the CSA did a great job with (including having the foresight to do it right from the start of the campaign rather than when all the broadcasting-bandwagon jumpers got on board), yet it's still being spun in this article as though it is some sort of negligent waste of money that is all the CSB's fault that TSN didn't want to broadcast it.

How often has Rick Westhead mentioned in one of his articles that the CSA used to have to pay TSN to broadcast their matches? That's equally relevant to the CSB topic he keeps writing about, but as far as I can tell, the answer is zero. Nor have I ever seen this mentioned by any TSN staff on air. It is not surprising that TSN won't admit this, but that gets back to the issue of his content looking biased.

Westhead may have done great work when writing about other sports, but that doesn't give him an impenetrable Wonder Woman-like shield which prevents posters from pointing out the flaws, biases or naivety in the way he's trying to spin things with respect to soccer.

I'll push back a little here.  First, the CSB is *definitively* a "little known organization".   Not only outside of the Canadian Soccer circles, but even within in it up until June when shit hit the fan between players and the CSA.  I say this as someone who posted in April that the CSB should be helping the CSA try and arrange friendlies (prior to any being named) because it was in everyone's best interest to do so, and getting a number of responses from regular posters here of "what is CSB?".

That should not be confused with the *importance* of CSB, and if you think Westhead doesn't understand that then we can certainly have that discussion.  I tend to think that the CSA signed the deal for too long and that the CSB should be doing more on the national team end of things and not just the CPL, but that's maybe a separate discussion.

Now, I'll fully agree that Westhead has taken a "pro-players" stance here.  That's really not uncommon in the media either.  Just see long-time former columnists like Al Strachan out east or Tony Gallagher in Vancouver (I realize I'm dipping in to hockey here, but let's admit that the number of soccer journalists is limited).  It also doesn't make the information being supplied as wrong, it just means its coming from one source.  The CSA is welcome to dispute any of this, but their problem is that they frequently don't or have no real reasonable explanations for their actions.

[Watchmen]

32 minutes ago, Obinna said:

Haven't entirely caught up on this thread, so forgive me if this actually was the case, but when did anyone in this thread actually say or insinuate there was a conspiracy between TSN and Westhead against the CSA/Canadian Soccer?

Was this "conspiracy" thing about the comment I made about Westhead not having reason to portray Canada Soccer in a positive light? Because if so, I just want to say I absolutely do not believe there is any such conspiracy here.

My point was that Westhead is not a soccer guy (to my knowledge), and thus is not invested in the well-being of Canadian soccer. That doesn't make him bad or evil or incompetent or engaged in conspiracy or anything like that, nor does it mean I have anything against him personally. I was just making an observation that he isn't a stakeholder as far as Canadian Soccer is concerned.

The reason I point out that obvious reality is because I don't like the direction things are going (like the rest of you), and I don't think Westhead is being helpful here (not that it's his job to be). From my perspective as someone who cares very much about the sport in this country, I believe elements of his article (and especially his tweet about the suits) are not constructive to the well being of Canadian Soccer - it's destructive - so I was just calling that out and being negative toward Westhead and the article for that reason. 

Cheers!

Without scrubbing through all of the thread, at least one poster has gone down the route of "Westhead is ONLY doing this because TSN wants to undermine Onesoccer/the CSA".

I'll listen to some of your arguments here, but I think the key is that it's not his job to be helpful to Canadian Soccer/the CSA, which is something you mention.  I'll sort of counter with - we have all begged the CSA to start acting more professionally for decades.  Now that someone with a national voice seems to be doing that, to be exposing some of the flaws in how the national teams are run and the board is organized, I find it odd how much criticism and blow back there is for it.

[TOcanadafan]

1 hour ago, Kadenge said:

Bontis and CSB are going to get pressure from Sponsors (not to mention bad press) to settle this is what I am hoping.

 

47 minutes ago, PegCityCam said:

I'm confused - can the CSA "monetize" any of the success we have on the field...at least any more than they already do with their 20 year CSB stipend? I understand that there may be some missed exposure (Gatorade) but where's this idea that the CSA can bring in any more monetarily than they already do? My understanding is that the CSB take in everything from all sponsors and it's up to them how they'll invest it. 

And wasn’t the entire idea of the CSB to help market and thus monetize the CMNT product?  It’s a month before the World Cup and we’ve got a suit deal that benefits the execs, one silly Osmows commercial, a decent documentary that has no buyer, and Canadian swag buried in the back of SportCheks while a tiny display closer to the front of the store shows off Portugal and Croatia jerseys.

Bontis thinks he’s a badass union buster, meanwhile his overlords at the CSB can’t do squat because he’s decided to keep the animosity with the players at a 10.

[Gian-Luca]

27 minutes ago, Watchmen said:

I'll push back a little here.  First, the CSB is *definitively* a "little known organization". 

I'm not disputing that they are little known. But there isn't any need to continually mention how well-known an organization is other than to belittle them and in this case to play up the "clandestine organization is 'siphoning off' money from the CSA" angle which we all know is utter nonsense. And it's not like he's done it once, he keeps harping on this, even in news items that have nothing to do with them (the Davies' Agent vs. CSA doesn't involve them).  In conjunction with all the other stuff I've mentioned just makes his content look skewed by making the CSB look shady, bush-league or disreputable for daring to invest millions into Canadian soccer.

One other to add - given the encouraging size of the crowd Ottawa got today for an all-Canadian CPL playoff match, this isn't the greatest timing for garnering any sympathy for anti-CSB sentiments (not targeted at you, but just in general).

 

[Watchmen]

7 minutes ago, Gian-Luca said:

I'm not disputing that they are little known. But there isn't any need to continually mention how well-known an organization is other than to belittle them and in this case to play up the "clandestine organization is 'siphoning off' money from the CSA" angle which we all know is utter nonsense. And it's not like he's done it once, he keeps harping on this, even in news items that have nothing to do with them (the Davies' Agent vs. CSA doesn't involve them).  In conjunction with all the other stuff I've mentioned just makes his content look skewed by making the CSB look shady, bush-league or disreputable for daring to invest millions into Canadian soccer.

One other to add - given the encouraging size of the crowd Ottawa got today for an all-Canadian CPL playoff match, this isn't the greatest timing for garnering any sympathy for anti-CSB sentiments (not targeted at you, but just in general).

 

I thought about this after my last post, but as a minor counter: everything came to a head in June with the players strike and their complaint about the CSB then.  It's been 4 months and no one from the CSB or CSA has sat down with any journalist to really explain or elaborate on the CSB's role with the CSA is.  And I don't mean they need to sit down with Westhead.  Sit down with Kristian Jack, a reputable journalist and who would definitely be CSB friendly.  Go through what the deal entails, how it works, who's responsible for certain areas, etc.  So again, it's easy to say "it's not a clandestine organization", but they sure as hell don't want to talk about it either.

Note: If someone *did* sit down and have this discussion, then I totally missed it and would love for someone to direct me to it.

[dyslexic nam]

I am sure it makes me a shitty fan but man I don’t care about a lot of this bullshit.  I just want to resolve it and move past it. Don’t get me wrong - it sucks that this is detracting from what should be the biggest celebration in the Canadian footy landscape - but I just can’t get motivated to invest the time and energy to sift through the he-said-she-said of it all.  

[Watchmen]

23 minutes ago, dyslexic nam said:

I am sure it makes me a shitty fan but man I don’t care about a lot of this bullshit.  I just want to resolve it and move past it. Don’t get me wrong - it sucks that this is detracting from what should be the biggest celebration in the Canadian footy landscape - but I just can’t get motivated to invest the time and energy to sift through the he-said-she-said of it all.  

It doesn't make you a shitty fan, it makes you like most fans in most sports.  I tend to follow some of the business happenings in most sports because it's of interest to me, but acknowledge that I'm the outlier.  I think the detraction from the celebration came with the Iran/Panama/strike situation, where there's is negligence on both the players and CSA sides (how do you not get an agreement signed before first kick of the qualifiers??).  Honestly, by the time the World Cup gets here nobody is going to be caring about this and casual fans reeeeally aren't going to care: we'll all just watch and enjoy our team on the biggest stage.  But the players know there's a bit of a deadline here, and they're going to leverage what they can while they can.

Edited October 23, 2022 by Watchmen

[Bison44]

15 minutes ago, dyslexic nam said:

I am sure it makes me a shitty fan but man I don’t care about a lot of this bullshit.  I just want to resolve it and move past it. Don’t get me wrong - it sucks that this is detracting from what should be the biggest celebration in the Canadian footy landscape - but I just can’t get motivated to invest the time and energy to sift through the he-said-she-said of it all.  

Westhead needed a catchier title to his article to get you to click on it, something like "Davies shares his top 5 poutine recipes" and the article will still be about how incompetent the CSA is.  And I am with you, this does detract from all the good stuff we should be feeling and Westhead wasnt writing any articles on soccer before he sniffed out a potential scandal he could break.  

 I predict that on the 28th we'll get another article like this one right before the CPL final.  

[Bison44]

1 minute ago, Watchmen said:

It doesn't make you a shitty fan, it makes you like most fans in most sports.  I tend to follow some of the business happenings in most sports because it's of interest to me, but acknowledge that I'm the outlier.  I think the detraction from the celebration came with the Iran/Panama/strike situation, where there's is negligence on both the players and CSA sides (how do you not get an agreement signed before first kick of the qualifiers??).  Honestly, by the time the World Cup gets here nobody is going to be caring about this and casual fans reeeeally aren't going to care: we'll all just watch and enjoy our team on the biggest stage.

These are the growing pains of success.  When did we have guys that had their own endorsements that might interfere with team ones? This stuff has never come up, unions, image rights, big money endorsements etc.  Both sides are not prepared for this, which makes me wish they would just get something signed (like Nam said), everyone make some concessions and revisit this next cycle.  Then get Larin, Borjan, Miller etc on some TV screens and put some money into the game somewhere in canada.  

[Aird25]

1 hour ago, TOcanadafan said:

 

And wasn’t the entire idea of the CSB to help market and thus monetize the CMNT product?  It’s a month before the World Cup and we’ve got a suit deal that benefits the execs, one silly Osmows commercial, a decent documentary that has no buyer, and Canadian swag buried in the back of SportCheks while a tiny display closer to the front of the store shows off Portugal and Croatia jerseys.

Bontis thinks he’s a badass union buster, meanwhile his overlords at the CSB can’t do squat because he’s decided to keep the animosity with the players at a 10.

They announced Carlsberg as the beer sponsor for Canada Soccer just a few days ago, and have announced regular sponsorship deals over the years (Volkswagen, Gatorade, Tim Hortons, Allstate, WestJet GoGoSqueeze, HelloFresh, Quesada, Osmows etc.). No clue how this compares to pre-CSB, but I imagine they could have done more without the bad publicity and player likeness complications that I don't think they previously had because players didn't have as many individual sponsorships. 

[Treppy2]

There was a piece on CBC’s national radio broadcast this evening dealing with this issue:
https://www.cbc.ca/listen/live-radio/1-68-the-world-this-weekend/clip/4190207-the-world-weekend-october-23-2022-730-p.m.

The segment starts at 12:53. 

So it’s not just a bunch of soccer nerds who are talking about this.

[narduch]

2 minutes ago, Treppy2 said:

There was a piece on CBC’s national radio broadcast this evening dealing with this issue:
https://www.cbc.ca/listen/live-radio/1-68-the-world-this-weekend/clip/4190207-the-world-weekend-october-23-2022-730-p.m.

The segment starts at 12:53. 

So it’s not just a bunch of soccer nerds who are talking about this.

Just CBC radio nerds

[Bison44]

At least the radio piece was actually about what it said it was about.  It was more in depth and informative than the other TSN piece.  

[red card]

6 hours ago, PegCityCam said:

It is laughable that we still have next to no clue what it entails. 

It's sponsorship & media rights.

Beyond the CSB monies, CSA has more levers to pull. But they need to pull these levers more than they ever have in the past.

If you believe there is lots of sponsorship monies that should come in, then match revenues will exceed it. But they need to hold closer to 10 domestic friendlies every year between the senior men/women teams & get good crowds that have paid healthy ticket prices. Get out the group at the World Cup with appealing play could also lead to being paid for international friendlies. 

Royalties from Nike merchandise sales can exceed sponsorship monies. It will be performance dependent at 2022 & 2023 World Cups, women at 2024 Olympics and emergence of additional star players. Nigeria made around US$20 million from selling 3 million kits for Russia. Other secondary levers like licensing can incrementally increase.

The biggest lever will be coming in 4 years with hosting 2026. In 2015, CSA got $82 million in gross revenues from hosting WWC 15.

[A_Gagne]

On 10/22/2022 at 2:32 PM, Free kick said:

 they (CSA) got $3 mill from CSB.   CSB turned around flipped those rights to Rogers media.  The people who are delusional are those who think that those rights would NOT be worth much much much more than that (for the WCQ run).    

 

Expect TV Rights Fees For Sports To Soar (forbes.com)

 

Media Rights Fees For Lower Rated Sports Are Soaring - Forbes | Canada News Media

Easy to say in hindsight. When they signed that deal it was also plausible they were paying 3Mil for us to blow out against Haiti.

[BearcatSA]

8 hours ago, Sal333 said:

All I heard from the other side are ad hominem attacks on the reporter.

But several of those posters themselves don't see them as ad hominem attacks, and that's what's germane to my point. 

[Ally McCoist]

9 hours ago, TOcanadafan said:

 

And wasn’t the entire idea of the CSB to help market and thus monetize the CMNT product?  It’s a month before the World Cup and we’ve got a suit deal that benefits the execs, one silly Osmows commercial, a decent documentary that has no buyer, and Canadian swag buried in the back of SportCheks while a tiny display closer to the front of the store shows off Portugal and Croatia jerseys.

Bontis thinks he’s a badass union buster, meanwhile his overlords at the CSB can’t do squat because he’s decided to keep the animosity with the players at a 10.

THIS. I don't see how some people support CSB and not realize that they've done absolute jack shit to grow the sport in this country. I get more hyped by Davies' "match day" IG stories and Canada Soccer's IG videos than any "marketing" the CSB has done (which is nothing).

[Unnamed Trialist]

5 hours ago, red card said:

It's sponsorship & media rights.

Beyond the CSB monies, CSA has more levers to pull. But they need to pull these levers more than they ever have in the past.

If you believe there is lots of sponsorship monies that should come in, then match revenues will exceed it. But they need to hold closer to 10 domestic friendlies every year between the senior men/women teams & get good crowds that have paid healthy ticket prices. Get out the group at the World Cup with appealing play could also lead to being paid for international friendlies. 

Royalties from Nike merchandise sales can exceed sponsorship monies. It will be performance dependent at 2022 & 2023 World Cups, women at 2024 Olympics and emergence of additional star players. Nigeria made around US$20 million from selling 3 million kits for Russia. Other secondary levers like licensing can incrementally increase.

The biggest lever will be coming in 4 years with hosting 2026. In 2015, CSA got $82 million in gross revenues from hosting WWC 15.

Nigeria made less than 7 dollars a kit, thinking they'd sell for at least 10x that?

You can tell I'm drifting on this. 

I've heard that the bonus deal and related items on the plate have not been closed, they are still on the table.

[prairiecanuck]

7 hours ago, red card said:

It's sponsorship & media rights.

Beyond the CSB monies, CSA has more levers to pull. But they need to pull these levers more than they ever have in the past.

If you believe there is lots of sponsorship monies that should come in, then match revenues will exceed it. But they need to hold closer to 10 domestic friendlies every year between the senior men/women teams & get good crowds that have paid healthy ticket prices. Get out the group at the World Cup with appealing play could also lead to being paid for international friendlies. 

Royalties from Nike merchandise sales can exceed sponsorship monies. It will be performance dependent at 2022 & 2023 World Cups, women at 2024 Olympics and emergence of additional star players. Nigeria made around US$20 million from selling 3 million kits for Russia. Other secondary levers like licensing can incrementally increase.

The biggest lever will be coming in 4 years with hosting 2026. In 2015, CSA got $82 million in gross revenues from hosting WWC 15.

The royalty percentage you negotiate with Nike is dependant on how many Jersey's you are expected to sell.  Nigeria's population is over 200 million and there is a global footprint beyond that.  It's a country where soccer is king.  The idea that we would come anywhere close to that is ridiculous.  We would get a lower percentage.  Hockey Canada gets roughly 2 million a year from NIke.   I assume that the CSA gets the revenue from Jersey's because it takes 6 weeks to get one if you order one..lol.

The CSB deal with the CSA should be completely transparent.  The fact that the highlights of the deal isn't made available on the website is pathetic.  This is a not for profit organization.  We should be seeing loads of ads and build up to the world cup, but we aren't because the players are in a fight with our association and refuse to do these ads or have their likeness portrayed in these ads. 

I believe the deal struck in 2018 and 2019 was done on both sides with the idea of growing the game and in effort of fairness. The genesis of the CPL does indeed grow the game in Canada and it isn't a profitable endeavour.  The goal is to get it to a point of profitability at some point.  The current players don't care about the CPL.  I don't think the CSB at the time had tremendous foresight expecting Canada to qualify for 2022 and to have multiple global stars in Alphonso Davies and Jonathan David.   The CSB side probably can't believe their good fortunes today at how things have turned out.  

The deal itself should have been a flat amount for TV revenue which was easy to calculate given the package deal with the CPL and a sponsorships up to a certain amount that was capped.  That way if the team did progress like they have the CPL would have had got up to a guaranteed amount needed to support the CPL and the CSA would have received anything over an above that if the team took off like they did.

There wasn't enough belief from the CSA in 2018 when this deal was struck.  There also wasn't an outcry from the players at that time either.  There were no media articles in 2018.  

I just hope this gets resolved.  The CSA still gets 100% of FIFA bonus'.  It gets 100% of ticket sales from games domestically, which is why we should be promoting at this time.  They get 100% of fees collected to travel to play away nations.  We just need to get a deal struck and to take this opportunity to grow the game.

[Sal333]

8 hours ago, BearcatSA said:

But several of those posters themselves don't see them as ad hominem attacks, and that's what's germane to my point. 

Huh? 

Instead of refuting or disproving the message, they attack the messenger. That is germane to your point? Okay!  Being unaware they are doing it, is not a get-out-of-jail card. Instead of attacking the reporter,  how about showing what he said is wrong. And no! Attacking his reputation is not proof that his article is wrong. Jeeze, that's debating 101.

[El Hombre]

16 hours ago, Obinna said:

Haven't entirely caught up on this thread, so forgive me if this actually was the case, but when did anyone in this thread actually say or insinuate there was a conspiracy between TSN and Westhead against the CSA/Canadian Soccer?

 

On 10/21/2022 at 6:25 PM, SpursFlu said:

Im actually wondering since we're talking about money. Who pays Rick Whitehead's wages? Who picks up his expenses? That would be an interesting money trail

 

On 10/22/2022 at 10:47 AM, SpursFlu said:

I could maybe might be able to make an argument that TSN would maybe even prefer big picture that Canada wasn't in the World Cup. Not saying a believe it but it might be true

 

On 10/22/2022 at 11:30 AM, SpursFlu said:

TSN is nobody's friend and all theyre trying here is to drive a wedge in between players and the CSA and create a perception in the publics mind

 

On 10/22/2022 at 12:11 PM, SpursFlu said:

Does TSN want soccer to succeed in Canada. Like on Canadian soil? Is it in their best interest? Things to ponder folks

 

On 10/22/2022 at 12:58 PM, SpursFlu said:

The image dispute is pretty standard and understandable. It's also easily worked around. Gatorade has a deal with the CSA but they can't create a commercial with Alphonso Davies running around in a Canadian shirt. It's standard but TSN It's trying to act like is salacious and the CSA is trying to pull a fast one.

 

On 10/22/2022 at 7:59 PM, SpursFlu said:

Yah no grand conspiracy or grudge held by TSN towards Canadian Soccer. Just The right holders of the World Cup TSN, being complete idiots. Ok fine ill go with that

 

[Unnamed Trialist]

1 hour ago, prairiecanuck said:

The royalty percentage you negotiate with Nike is dependant on how many Jersey's you are expected to sell.  Nigeria's population is over 200 million and there is a global footprint beyond that.  It's a country where soccer is king.  The idea that we would come anywhere close to that is ridiculous.  We would get a lower percentage.  Hockey Canada gets roughly 2 million a year from NIke.   I assume that the CSA gets the revenue from Jersey's because it takes 6 weeks to get one if you order one..lol.

The CSB deal with the CSA should be completely transparent.  The fact that the highlights of the deal isn't made available on the website is pathetic.  This is a not for profit organization.  We should be seeing loads of ads and build up to the world cup, but we aren't because the players are in a fight with our association and refuse to do these ads or have their likeness portrayed in these ads. 

I believe the deal struck in 2018 and 2019 was done on both sides with the idea of growing the game and in effort of fairness. The genesis of the CPL does indeed grow the game in Canada and it isn't a profitable endeavour.  The goal is to get it to a point of profitability at some point.  The current players don't care about the CPL.  I don't think the CSB at the time had tremendous foresight expecting Canada to qualify for 2022 and to have multiple global stars in Alphonso Davies and Jonathan David.   The CSB side probably can't believe their good fortunes today at how things have turned out.  

The deal itself should have been a flat amount for TV revenue which was easy to calculate given the package deal with the CPL and a sponsorships up to a certain amount that was capped.  That way if the team did progress like they have the CPL would have had got up to a guaranteed amount needed to support the CPL and the CSA would have received anything over an above that if the team took off like they did.

There wasn't enough belief from the CSA in 2018 when this deal was struck.  There also wasn't an outcry from the players at that time either.  There were no media articles in 2018.  

I just hope this gets resolved.  The CSA still gets 100% of FIFA bonus'.  It gets 100% of ticket sales from games domestically, which is why we should be promoting at this time.  They get 100% of fees collected to travel to play away nations.  We just need to get a deal struck and to take this opportunity to grow the game.

Generally a good post, just one little detail: the CSA does not get 100% of ticket sales from domestic games. Depends on the stadium. They say they do get that or close to it at BMO in Toronto, but every stadium is different.

In any case, I would agree that if we'd chosen to play South Korea or Paraguay and not Iran at BC Place, assuming either would have gotten us 40,000 plus in the stands, the CSA would be sitting on 2-3 million they currently do not have, apart from the losses incurred paying off Panama for their inconvenience.