Quote:
Originally Posted by esquire
The western CIS football teams all want to model themselves on Laval and Sherbrooke which are practically arms-length organizations and therefore not required to adhere to the "every sport is the same in our eyes whether it's co-ed badminton or men's football" rigidly egalitarian philosophies of university administration.
I think the Sask CIS teams have made some moves in that direction, but that's about it... most are still a long way from attaining the lofty heights of Quebec's clubs.
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The Rams and Huskies football teams get a fairly sizeable amount of funding from the Riders, so that definitely helps their ability to pursue a bit of independence. I don't know what other teams do with 50/50s or the size of the jackpots (I suspect some are quite a bit less as the Hamilton fan we sat beside was impressed with the $30k jackpot at the 2012 Grey Cup), but at Rider games they have typically been at least $30k per game the last number of years (reaching $250k at the Grey Cup last year).
It's also partially why the Regina and Saskatoon teams of the CJFL have historically been such strong programs.
I had a look at the financial statements and it said $160,000 was split between Football Saskatchewan (Amateur Youth Organization), the Huskies, Hilltops, and Thunder in 2012 - the Rams get a cut separately because they sell it. Last year the grand total for all 50/50s (Pre-season, Regular Season, Playoff game, Grey Cup, Paul McCartney) was ~$820k. This would give the Rams $410k, with $410k being split between the other 4 groups.
There was also a "Centennial Fund" that was set up that took profits from the Riders' Centennial year and distributes some of them annually to different amateur sports groups all across Saskatchewan requesting assistance; these could be school sports programs, community fields, etc.
It's a pretty virtuous cycle: the better the Riders do, the better the amateur/junior/university programs do; the better these programs do, the better the talent the Riders can pick up in their own backyard.