Image is everything.
It鈥檚 a catch phrase that was used by Canon in a commercial campaign which featured tennis star Andre Agassi many years ago and it鈥檚 endured the test of time.
It also has relevance when talking about the Canadian Football League and Major League Soccer and the perception of those leagues in Canadian markets such as Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal.
The CFL is the second-best professional football league in the world. MLS? According to Opta Analyst 鈥� a website devoted to world rankings of leagues and teams 鈥� MLS is ranked as the 12th-best league on the planet.
Yet in the three aforementioned Canadian markets, the CFL is battling an image problem while MLS sells itself as, well, Major League Soccer.
MLS franchises on average are valued at $500 to $700 million. LAFC is the most valuable franchise in the 30-team circuit at $1.25 billion while Colorado is at the bottom of the list at $415 million according to Forbes. In case you鈥檙e wondering, Toronto FC is 11th at $725 million, Vancouver 27th at $440 million, and Montreal 28th at $435 million.
CFL franchises are valued at a fraction of their MLS counterparts with a range of $15 million to $50 million.
I鈥檓 still bamboozled on how the MLS teams are so valuable. Simply look at Vancouver and explain to me the difference between the Lions and Whitecaps in terms of attendance and revenue generated and try to justify the enormous gap.
I鈥檓 not trying to start any sort of conflict, I鈥檇 just like it explained to me.
With the Whitecaps for sale for a rumoured $500 million, any potential sale of the franchise hits a major obstacle given annual losses are in the $10 million range according to Forbes. A big part of that is that the Whitecaps 鈥� like the Lions 鈥� are tenants at BC Place.
I know of at least one potential owner who looked at the books for a possible purchase and came away saying none of it made sense.
According to Forbes, 16 of 29 franchises in MLS operated in the red in 2024, yet franchise values continue to soar. San Diego was granted an expansion franchise for 2025 and their ownership group paid $500 million to join the league.
Last season, average attendance for MLS was 23,234. The CFL averaged 22,780 fans per game in 2024.
TV revenue? MLS has a 10-year deal with Apple TV worth $2.5 billion. That鈥檚 $250 million per season, which divided into 30 teams equals $8.33 million per team. TSN鈥檚 deal with the CFL which runs through 2026 is rumored to be $50 million annually. Sliced up into nine pieces, that鈥檚 roughly $4.5 million per team.
Yes, MLS has other sources of revenue such as expansion and player transfer fees but generally speaking the numbers don鈥檛 add up when comparing the value of franchises in both leagues.
One thing I can鈥檛 question about MLS is its branding and image. And those factors subsequently helping secondary revenue streams such as merchandising. What the MLS does 鈥� and does extremely well 鈥� is bring in star power.
It can do so under its Designated Player proviso, which allows a player to be paid outside the salary cap. Whether it鈥檚 a David Beckham, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Lionel Messi, Son Heung-min or Thomas Muller, MLS has done a tremendous job of creating a big-league image despite bringing in players who are well past their prime.
Take the Whitecaps signing of Muller, the legendary German star who was part of Bayern Munich for 18 seasons. This signing is absolutely massive as any time you bring in a World Cup champion, your brand as a franchise is going to go to the next level.
Muller was making $20.5 million Euros annually in Germany according to a report by German SI, which is roughly $24 million U.S. Reports indicate he鈥檒l make $7.5 million U.S. next year in Vancouver.
It鈥檚 like that line in the movie Moneyball where Oakland A鈥檚 general manager Billy Beane (Brad Pitt) is talking to aging slugger David Justice (Stephen Bishop) while the latter is working out in the batting cage.
鈥淒avid, you鈥檙e 37. How about you and I be honest about what each of us want out of this. I want to milk the last ounce of baseball you got in you and you want to stay in The Show,鈥� Beane tells Justice.
That in a nutshell is what the MLS is doing by having these legends come over to North America. It鈥檚 a great strategy and it definitely creates a buzz among fans.
So why doesn鈥檛 the CFL try the same approach?
I have been told that there have been informal discussions at the highest levels in the league to give each team one player whose contract is exempt from the salary cap but not enough traction has been gained to take it to a formal process.
But think of the possibilities if it did become reality.
All it would take are a couple of players coming in at the tail end of their football careers to create a buzz not only for the team that they play for but for the entire league.
The other possibility is getting players BEFORE they become stars in the NFL. Maybe it鈥檚 a recognizable college star who decides that playing in the CFL beats sitting on the sidelines or being on a practice roster making $225,000 U.S per season.
Take Shedeur Sanders for example. The Cleveland Browns quarterback signed a four-year deal worth $4.6 million U.S. after finishing his college career at the University of Colorado. Maybe a CFL team signs him to a two-year deal for $3 million which gives him the option to return to the NFL after a couple of
seasons.
You think that if Sanders wound up in Edmonton that it wouldn鈥檛 inject some life into that organization?
There would have to be a real, long hard extended look to see how this could work but it should be examined.
Remember. Image is everything.
Veteran B.C. sports personality Bob 鈥渢he Moj鈥� Marjanovich writes about the B.C. sporting scene for Black Press Media. This column is brought to you by:
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