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The Rona Grey Cup? CFL eyes $10M payday League will seek corporate bidders after okaying sale of naming rights

Rick Westhead

The Grey Cup, as it has been known for 98 years, may be doomed.
The CFL's board of directors has quietly approved selling the naming rights to their tradition-steeped championship game, a move league insiders say may generate as much as $10 million a year.
And while some U.S. college football bowl games have tried to balance corporate interests and tradition by ensuring the name of the championship remains front and centre – consider the Rose Bowl presented by AT&T – the CFL will take a direct tack.
"As soon as 2008 you could see players competing in the Rona Grey Cup or the Ford Grey Cup," said one high-ranking league source. "It's for sale and the league will be pushing ahead with this."
Toronto will host the 2007 title game.
The decision to move forward with its sponsorship ambitions comes even as the CFL remains without a commissioner. The league has hired headhunting firm Korn/Ferry International to find a replacement for Tom Wright, but there's no sign that the search is close to ending.
That's not slowing down the league's franchise owners, who are enticed by the prospect of an additional $1 million a year per team. "If you had the chance to put an extra million dollars in your pocket and it meant changing the name of the championship, what would you do?" the league source said.
CFL executive Gavin Roth, who spearheads the league's sponsorship sales, said the league recognizes that the Grey Cup "is our most prized asset.
"We would consider an entitlement partner for the Grey Cup only under the right circumstances," he said.
It's not a certainty that the league's sponsorship pitch – agreed upon in recent months but not yet made public – will be eagerly received.
The league will go to the market arguing for the $10 million figure, in comparison to the $5 million cost of being the title sponsor for the Canadian Open golf championship, sources said.
But Tony Smith, an executive with league sponsor Sony Canada, said in an interview that $10 million was likely too steep for many CFL corporate backers.
And some sponsorship experts say the CFL may be risking more than it realizes by selling Grey Cup naming rights.
For starters, it's possible that even after a name change, some media outlets would refuse to acknowledge the new sponsor, said Bob Stellick, a Toronto-based sports marketer.
"That's what really hurt the (Royal Canadian Golf Association) when they sold the rights to the Canadian Open to Bell, some people just refused to go along with the name change," he said. "You really have to dump the championship (name) and come up with something else."
Another problem might be realized only years after selling the naming rights to the trophy donated by then-governor general Lord Albert Henry George Grey in 1909. "What if you do a deal with a company and then they walk away?" Stellick asked. "Then you're renaming the event again and it becomes really Mickey Mouse."
The words of caution should sound familiar for venerable CFL officials. Remember the Schenley Awards?
After their 1953 inception, the league's most valuable player awards were called the Schenleys until 1989, when sponsor Schenley Canada Inc. cut its ties to the league. The awards have had multiple sponsors since but are no longer as well known.
"The league has to ask itself, at what price do you sell your soul?" said Stellick. "The Grey Cup really is the soul of that league."