Metchie and Smith

[paulwoods13]

But even a 25k salary increase more than offsets bonus money from a Grey Cup, so you can’t fault them

Bingo. If Smith and Ceresna really are making $500k between them, playoff bonus money is chump change.

[OV Argo]

But even a 25k salary increase more than offsets bonus money from a Grey Cup, so you can’t fault them

Bingo. If Smith and Ceresna really are making $500k between them, playoff bonus money is chump change.

So, the Argo brain-trust decided to make Orimolade the highest paid D-lineman in the league; but now can't afford to pay either of Ceresna or Robbie Smith, including tempting them with a 25K play-off bonus money opportunity that is highly unlikely to be there in Edmonton ?

Money can be THE big motivating factor for most players IMO; it's just not the be all and end all for all of them.

And 2 straight seasons now, a pile of quality FAs fleeing the Argos - a team on a dominant, historic 3 year run - for greener (?) pastures ... something is not right with that picture IMO

[AngeloV]

But even a 25k salary increase more than offsets bonus money from a Grey Cup, so you can’t fault them

Bingo. If Smith and Ceresna really are making $500k between them, playoff bonus money is chump change.

So, the Argo brain-trust decided to make Orimolade the highest paid D-lineman in the league; but now can't afford to pay either of Ceresna or Robbie Smith, including tempting them with a 25K play-off bonus money opportunity that is highly unlikely to be there in Edmonton ?

Money can be THE big motivating factor for most players IMO; it's just not the be all and end all for all of them.

And 2 straight seasons now, a pile of quality FAs fleeing the Argos - a team on a dominant, historic 3 year run - for greener (?) pastures ... something is not right with that picture IMO

Don’t kid yourself. It’s all about money.

[bluto]

When you perform as well as we have, everyone deserves a raise.

And in a salary cap managed system, you can only pick a few to give one to.

This has become S.O.P. the last couple of years so I suppose I'll wait till later this week to see if guys like Amos, Adeleke, Scott etc can be brought back.
Then we'll see later this month when the cast-offs who couldn't find a home but still can perform start getting picked up. We've done well with those.
Then we'll see how well the US free agent pipeline does at replacing our outgoing guys. Hopefully there's a few new Holley/Stiggers/Polk/Brinkman types in there somewhere.
And maybe we're fortunate enough to have a few mid-season NFL returnees come in.

It isn't my nature to be unaffected by the exodus... But recent seasons have made me more of a Trust-The-Process guy.

[paulwoods13]

So, the Argo brain-trust decided to make Orimolade the highest paid D-lineman in the league; but now can't afford to pay either of Ceresna or Robbie Smith, including tempting them with a 25K play-off bonus money opportunity that is highly unlikely to be there in Edmonton ?

Money can be THE big motivating factor for most players IMO; it's just not the be all and end all for all of them.

And 2 straight seasons now, a pile of quality FAs fleeing the Argos - a team on a dominant, historic 3 year run - for greener (?) pastures ... something is not right with that picture IMO

This has been hashed out repeatedly. No team as successful as the Argos have been can keep everyone and stay within the salary cap. Top performers expect to be paid, and other teams -- which don't have as many top performers as a team that won two Grey Cups and went 16-2 in between -- consequently have more money available. The Argos have some big-ticket players in Kelly and McManis, and have piles of offensive linemen locked into what are undoubtedly quite lucrative contracts. Maybe there is some reason apart from the above contributing to these departures, or maybe not. But money is undoubtedly the major factor. The Elks might or might not make the playoffs or win the Grey Cup, but there is only one team that does win it, and no one on any team can count on Grey Cup bonus money, obviously.

[OV Argo]

Bingo. If Smith and Ceresna really are making $500k between them, playoff bonus money is chump change.

So, the Argo brain-trust decided to make Orimolade the highest paid D-lineman in the league; but now can't afford to pay either of Ceresna or Robbie Smith, including tempting them with a 25K play-off bonus money opportunity that is highly unlikely to be there in Edmonton ?

Money can be THE big motivating factor for most players IMO; it's just not the be all and end all for all of them.

And 2 straight seasons now, a pile of quality FAs fleeing the Argos - a team on a dominant, historic 3 year run - for greener (?) pastures ... something is not right with that picture IMO

Don’t kid yourself. It’s all about money.

But, to a highly paid CFL player earning around a whopping 200K, play-off bonus money of 20K plus is just "chump change" ?

Sorry, it's not "all about money"; and the need to make that type of sweeping pronouncement I don't get ?

[OV Argo]

So, the Argo brain-trust decided to make Orimolade the highest paid D-lineman in the league; but now can't afford to pay either of Ceresna or Robbie Smith, including tempting them with a 25K play-off bonus money opportunity that is highly unlikely to be there in Edmonton ?

Money can be THE big motivating factor for most players IMO; it's just not the be all and end all for all of them.

And 2 straight seasons now, a pile of quality FAs fleeing the Argos - a team on a dominant, historic 3 year run - for greener (?) pastures ... something is not right with that picture IMO

This has been hashed out repeatedly. No team as successful as the Argos have been can keep everyone and stay within the salary cap. Top performers expect to be paid, and other teams -- which don't have as many top performers as a team that won two Grey Cups and went 16-2 in between -- consequently have more money available. The Argos have some big-ticket players in Kelly and McManis, and have piles of offensive linemen locked into what are undoubtedly quite lucrative contracts. Maybe there is some reason apart from the above contributing to these departures, or maybe not. But money is undoubtedly the major factor. The Elks might or might not make the playoffs or win the Grey Cup, but there is only one team that does win it, and no one on any team can count on Grey Cup bonus money, obviously.

Really don't care if you think it's been "hashed out repeatedly" to some undeniable conclusion.

Top sports teams have often been able to retain a lot of their key, core players cause they like: being on a good/smart, winning team, playing for an organization they like and that treats them well, or in a town they like and that respects them; and that maybe offers the chance of play-off bonus ca$h. And if some of those things are off (perhaps they don't like some of the coaches; or some of the star players are real @$$-hats, or nobody in the town even knows who they are), then that can lead to wanting to go to another team / town, regardless of "money"; and CFL players are not about to be offered life changing contracts (gee, a whole 20K more than another team might offer) anyhow.

And you can believe the Argos recent 3 year string of excellence is mostly because of all this superior talent that they found and that other CFL teams lacked and then just had to break the bank to try and get, but I don't. Coach RD and staff deserve way more of the credit IMO.

I'd love to hear from the likes of Ontario guys like Robbie Smith or Royce Metchie on why they would choose to leave the Argos to go out to Edmonton (if they would be able to speak freely and honestly on the matter); and it could well be, in their cases, it was "all about the money".

[paulwoods13]

Really don't care if you think it's been "hashed out repeatedly" to some undeniable conclusion.

Top sports teams have often been able to retain a lot of their key, core players cause they like: being on a good/smart, winning team, playing for an organization they like and that treats them well, or in a town they like and that respects them; and that maybe offers the chance of play-off bonus ca$h.

You mean key, core players like Kelly, McManis, Daniels, Brissett, Ungerer, Hunter, Nicastro, Grant? Giffen, Hajrallahu, McMahon, McFadden, Vandal?

Every team in this league loses guys every year. And every team keeps guys (including core guys).

"A town they like and that respects them." Is that that how you would describe Toronto?

[OV Argo]

Really don't care if you think it's been "hashed out repeatedly" to some undeniable conclusion.

Top sports teams have often been able to retain a lot of their key, core players cause they like: being on a good/smart, winning team, playing for an organization they like and that treats them well, or in a town they like and that respects them; and that maybe offers the chance of play-off bonus ca$h.

You mean key, core players like Kelly, McManis, Daniels, Brissett, Ungerer, Hunter, Nicastro, Grant? Giffen, Hajrallahu, McMahon, McFadden, Vandal?

Every team in this league loses guys every year. And every team keeps guys (including core guys).

"A town they like and that respects them." Is that that how you would describe Toronto?

Yes - I mean those guys; but also losing piles of good FAs for 2 straight seasons, indicates something else as well IMO, possibly.

And I would not describe GTA wannabe-landers as having a lot of respect for CFL/Argo players; hence a reason they might not mind getting out of town, and nothing to do with money.

[ArgoRavi]

Really don't care if you think it's been "hashed out repeatedly" to some undeniable conclusion.

Top sports teams have often been able to retain a lot of their key, core players cause they like: being on a good/smart, winning team, playing for an organization they like and that treats them well, or in a town they like and that respects them; and that maybe offers the chance of play-off bonus ca$h.

You mean key, core players like Kelly, McManis, Daniels, Brissett, Ungerer, Hunter, Nicastro, Grant? Giffen, Hajrallahu, McMahon, McFadden, Vandal?

Every team in this league loses guys every year. And every team keeps guys (including core guys).

"A town they like and that respects them." Is that that how you would describe Toronto?

Yes - I mean those guys; but also losing piles of good FAs for 2 straight seasons, indicates something else as well IMO, possibly.

And I would not describe GTA wannabe-landers as having a lot of respect for CFL/Argo players; hence a reason they might not mind getting out of town, and nothing to do with money.

Ultimately, with short careers, it probably is about the money more than anything else, OV. Also, the higher cost of living in the GTA likely factors in.