Alouettes sale a test of CFL's revamped business model

It wouldn’t be a Canadian Football League season without a little off-field boardroom drama. And thus, we present the Montreal Alouettes, a franchise suddenly in the hands of a billion-dollar estate.

To recap: In January of 2020, the CFL introduced Gary Stern and his then 90-year-old father-in-law, Sid Spiegel, two Southern Ontario businessmen who made their money in the steel industry, as the new co-owners of the Alouettes.

The Als had been ownerless since after the 2018 season, when Robert Wetenhall and his family handed the keys to the league and disappeared. That left the CFL’s eight other teams on the hook for a 2019 Alouettes season that required a near $1 million contribution from each of them.

So, it came as great news when the league found a buyer willing to pay good money for the franchise, believed to be in the range of $5 million, which allowed each of the other eight teams to recoup more than half of what they’d spent to help keep the Als afloat.

During the elongated sales process, CFL commissioner Randy Ambrosie spoke eloquently about the many impressive people who had come forward wanting to own the Alouettes.

None of whom turned out to be Stern or Spiegel, as the league didn’t meet with either of them until after the 2019 Grey Cup. In fact, it was Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment director Dale Lastman who introduced Stern to the idea of buying the Alouettes while the two were at a Grey Cup party.

Five weeks later the Alouettes were sold, with an announcement in downtown Montreal on Jan. 6, 2020. Then came the cancelled 2020 season. And then, just a few weeks before the first game of the 2021 season, Spiegel passed away, moving 75 per cent of the Alouettes under ownership of his estate.

Stern, who had a 25 per cent share, got to serve as franchise CEO and CFL governor.

He discovered Twitter this spring, giving the whole world got a glimpse of his unique views of the Alouettes and the league. He invited everyone to Alouettes games – the mayor, the CFL on TSN panel, the Prime Minister.

And then - poof! - he was gone.

While the dynamics surrounding Stern’s abrupt decision to step away from the team this week are unclear, the result is a team now firmly under control of Spiegel’s estate.

Ambrosie said this week that his dealings with representatives of the estate have revealed a partner who wants to support the team and its fans in good faith. That’s great news and should ensure there are no disruptions of any kind this season.

However (yes, there’s always a however), it’s no secret that the Alouettes are a money-losing franchise, which means there’s literally a price to be paid for being the team’s owner.

Though Spiegel’s estate is believed to be worth more than a billion dollars, and the Alouettes’ losses have been reduced significantly under the new ownership, there’s no reason for an estate to keep writing cheques to a football team Spiegel never saw play while he was owner.

Which is why, presumably, the CFL is on the clock to find the next owner of the Alouettes.

Here comes the good part (yes, sometimes there actually is a good part). There is legitimate reason to believe it may be easier to find the right owner for the Alouettes this time around than it was three years ago.

For one, the estate may be less hung up on a purchase price than the league was when it was trying to recoup losses for the eight other franchise owners.  And unlike in 2019, the Alouettes have some actual momentum in the marketplace, with most of the business metrics — including attendance — pointed upward.

The CFL introduced revenue sharing in 2019, and the league can try and sell a would-be owner on the promised land on the horizon through its partnership with Genius Sports.

Those who looked the last time are sure to be among those who will kick the tires again.

The CFL has made plenty of noise about improving its business model during the pandemic. It believes it has fixed or improved many of its economic issues, which should make its teams more attractive to potential investors.

Montreal is the first big test of that belief.