2020 CFL season

Per the collective bargaining agreement, the 2020 salary cap will be at least $5,300,000 (average of $115,217 per active roster spot).[1][2][3] That number is subject to change as players will now have revenue sharing of 20% from broadcast deals with TSN and international deals.[3] The base individual minimum salary increased to $65,000 in 2020 for National and American players and is set at $54,000 for Global players.[2][4] CFL Draft picks will be subject to a pay scale starting in this season, with first round picks earning $80,000, at maximum, with the lowest round picks earning a maximum of $75,000.[2][5] All National and Global players signing their first CFL contracts have to sign two-year plus an option contracts while first-year American players must sign one-year plus an option contracts.[5]

On December 10, 2019, the proposed revival of the Atlantic Schooners expansion team received a $20 million one-time rebate from the Halifax government towards the building of a stadium there, conditional upon support from the government of Nova Scotia and building the stadium at an alternate site after the council rejected building at the proposed site in Shannon Park.[6] Ownership of the Schooners had originally hoped to start playing during the 2020 season in Croix-Bleue Medavie Stadium in Moncton, New Brunswick while the new stadium would be built, but, as of December 2019, were planning to start play during the 2022 CFL season.[7]

For the second consecutive season, the league will impose cap regulations on coaching and operations staff, with the total compensation of the combined 11 coaches and 14 other football operations staff being set at $2,588,000.[8] In the same manner as the player salary cap, teams that exceed the cap by up to $100,000 will be penalized the same amount they are over and for teams that exceed the cap by over $100,000, they will also forfeit draft picks.[8]

On January 6, 2020, the CFL announced that Sid Spiegel and Gary Stern of Crawford Steel had acquired the Montreal Alouettes.[9]

On July 21, 2020, Edmonton's CFL team officially retired its "Eskimos" branding; the term "eskimo" has been considered an offensive term to refer to the Inuit, while team sponsor Belairdirect had threatened to cut its ties with the Eskimos unless it dropped the name. The team will temporarily use "Edmonton Football Team" and "EE Football Team" until a new name is decided.[10][11]

On November 21, 2019, the CFL announced that it had renewed its media rights with Bell Media's TSN and RDS for an undisclosed long-term period.[12] Independent reports indicated that the agreement extended to 2025, adding four additional years to the existing agreement that had been set to expire after 2021; TSN has held exclusive rights to all CFL telecasts since 2008.[13]

The 2020 free agency period officially began on Tuesday, February 11, 2020 at 12:00 p.m. ET.[33][34] Pending free agents and teams were able to negotiate offers for one week starting February 2, 2020 at 12:00 p.m. ET and ending February 9, 2020 at 12:00 p.m. ET.[35] Previously, players and teams could only discuss potential contracts once the free agency period had started. All formal offers to a player during this time will be sent to both the league and the players union and could not be rescinded.[35][36] Once that negotiating window closed, all teams had until February 11, 2020 at 10:00 a.m. to exclusively negotiate with their own pending free agents, including being able to review contract offers that their players received from other teams.[35] Thereafter, players had two hours to review all offers that they have received and may select one and inform the league.[35] If that player did not select any contract offer in that period, he becomes an unrestricted free agent.[35][36] The most prominent signings during the free agency period are listed in the table below:

*denotes the player was re-signed by their original team

On December 13, 2019, the CFLPA filed a grievance against the league regarding the NFL window.[38] According to the terms of the collective bargaining agreement (CBA), which was ratified between the league and players in May 2019, all players under contract would be eligible to pursue NFL opportunities for a specified period of time during the offseason. However, the CFL and NFL are not able to come to an agreement on the parameters of this process. The CFL wants all players who do not make the final 53-man NFL rosters to return to their parent CFL club. The NFL however, wants to be able to place these potential CFL Transfer Window players on their practice rosters.[39] At present only players who are not under contact are eligible to work out for, or sign with an NFL team. However, as a show of good-faith many teams granted their players a release from their contracts so they could pursue NFL opportunities.[40]

Following their introduction in the 2019 season, the league will have two active roster spots for players designated as "global" players for each team.[41] Each team will also have up to three spots on their practice rosters for global players.[41] Global players are defined as those who do not hold Canadian or American citizenship nor do they qualify as a National player in any other way.[42]

The league will feature international combines to allocate designated global players to CFL rosters. The league held the first of these scouting combines in Finland and Sweden on January 11 and 12, 2020, respectively.[43] In the following week, on January 17, 2020, a scouting combine took place in Paris.[41] Additional combines were announced on November 5, 2019, to be held in a total of seven different countries and spanning three months.[44][45] As of February 29, 2020, 11 total combines were scheduled with additional combines added in Sweden, Denmark, Brazil, and another in Japan.[43][46][47] The combine in Mexico was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[17] The players were evaluated by CFL head office staff and the Director of Global Scouting, Greg Quick.[43] The top players identified were intended to be invited to the CFL National Combine in Toronto which was scheduled to take place from March 26 to 28.[45] However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the combine was cancelled and these players will participate in a separate combine to be held shortly before training camps open.[18] All of the participating global players will be eligible to be selected in the 2020 CFL Global Draft with the date to be rescheduled (originally planned for April 16, 2020).[18][45] The order of the draft will follow the same waiver priority as the CFL National Draft (reverse 2019 standings with Grey Cup participants picking last) as opposed to the lottery systems from the previous year's separate LFA and European drafts.[34] Complete details of the Global Draft have not yet been announced.