The 2024 CFL season is the 70th season of modern professional Canadian football. Officially, it is the 66th season of the Canadian Football League. Vancouver is scheduled to host the 111th Grey Cup on November 17, 2024.[1][2] The regular season started on June 6, 2024 and is scheduled to end on October 26, 2024, with playoff games on November 2 and November 9, 2024.[3]
CFL news in 2024
Salary cap
According to the new collective bargaining agreement, the 2024 salary cap will be at least $5,525,000 (or $124,111 per active roster spot) plus an unlimited non-football related services (marketing fund) with a minimum spend of $110,000 per club.[4][5] With the unlimited marketing fund, most teams spent $12-14 million on football operations in 2023 with the majority of that on player costs. This will be the first league year that players will begin to receive revenue sharing, which will be set at 25% this season (or a cap increase of 2.78% for every dollar increase).[4] The salary cap is officially announced in late April every year as well as fines/luxury tax from the previous season. On April 19, 2024, the league announced that Hamilton, Winnipeg and BC paid luxury tax for exceeding the cap in 2023, but not by more than $100,000, which would have resulted in fines and the loss of draft selections. As was the case in 2023, the minimum player salary will be set at $70,000.[4][5]
Draft changes
Beginning this season, the two teams that had National players play the most snaps from the previous season will each receive additional second-round draft picks in this year's draft.[4]
Scheduling
During his commissioner's state of the league address on November 14, 2023, Randy Ambrosie confirmed that the 2024 schedule would return to a more balanced format instead of focusing on interdivisional match ups. In an 18-game schedule, western teams played 12 divisional and six interdivisional games and eastern teams played 10 divisional and eight interdivisional games in 2022 and 2023, but would return to playing at least two games with every opponent resulting in western teams playing 10 divisional and eight interdivisional games and eastern teams playing eight divisional and 10 interdivisional games.[6] This was confirmed with the schedule release on December 14, 2023.[3]
The 2024 free agency period officially began on Tuesday, February 13, 2024, at 12:00 p.m. ET.[8] Pending free agents and teams are able to negotiate offers for one week starting Sunday, February 4, 2024, and ending Sunday, February 11, 2024.[9] All formal offers to a player during this time are sent to both the league and the players union and cannot be rescinded.[9][10]
The CFL will continue to be broadcast on TSN and RDS across all platforms in Canada as part of their current contract.[11] The broadcast rights are reported to have been extended through 2025.[12] In June 2024, Bell Media announced that CTV would broadcast TSN-produced CFL coverage on digital terrestrial television, including a late-season package of exclusive 3 p.m. ET games beginning on September 7, continuing with playoff coverage of the East Division, and concluding with a simulcast of the 111th Grey Cup, returning the CFL to terrestrial television for the first time since 2007.[13]
Broadcast rights for the CFL in the United States remain with CBS Sports Network (CBSSN) following their acquisition of the rights during the 2023 season.[14] CBSSN's package consists mostly of Saturday and Sunday contests during June and July, a majority of August games, and the Labour Day and Thanksgiving Day Classics.[15]
The league will continue the use of its own streaming platform, CFL+, which will stream the TSN broadcast to US audiences (when CBSSN is not broadcasting a game) and international audiences (all games) at no cost. The CFL also expanded on its functionality, allowing VOD replay for up to 48 hours after the game and used CFL+ to broadcast most of the preseason using in-stadium video feeds and local radio play-by-play commentary.[16]