The CFL Winnipeg Blue Bombers on Wednesday announced a $3.9M (all figures Canadian) “operating profit” for the ’14 calendar year, but that figure “doesn’t include” its $4.5M payment for Investors Group Field, according to Kirk Penton of the WINNIPEG SUN. The club “actually had $575,914 more in operating expenses than revenue when it was all said and done” in ’14. But Blue Bombers President & CEO Wade Miller “still painted a gorgeous financial picture for the franchise" thanks to the more than $7M in cash “sitting in its bank account for years of operating at a surplus.” The club’s operating profit was $2.9M in ’13 and $726,000 in ’12, which was its “final year at Canad Inns Stadium.” Miller said that the CFL’s new CBA and the club’s “expensive transportation agreement” with the city “were the two main reasons why they had to use some of their savings to make their first payment to Triple B Inc." for the stadium. Penton noted the CFL’s salary cap “increased by $600,000 last year” as a result of the new CBA, but it will “increase by only $50,000” this year. Miller said that the club, which has guaranteed a $4.3M profit to the CFL for this year’s Grey Cup, “expects to make between” $4-7M “off the league championship game and festival that goes with it” (WINNIPEG SUN, 4/9).
DOWN BUT NOT OUT: In Winnipeg, Paul Wiecek reported game revenue for the Blue Bombers in '14 was $10.01M, "down slightly" from $10.27M in '13. Season-ticket sales "were down last year to 20,150 from 24,000 a year earlier." That decline "was expected after record season-ticket sales" in '13 in what was the club's inaugural season at Investors Group Field. Miller said that season-ticket sales for the '15 season "are ahead of last year's pace and Grey Cup ticket sales, at this point still restricted to Bombers season-ticket holders, are on target right now" (WINNIPEG FREE PRESS, 4/9).
