CFLPA expects revenue share amount allocation decision by January 22

Photo edit: 3DownNation

The Canadian Football League Players’ Association sent a memo to its union membership on Friday, procured by 3DownNation, which provides a deadline for new revenue disbursement.

The CFLPA is writing to advise that on January 15th, 2026, we received the CFL’s Defined League Revenue estimation and the CFLPA Revenue Share Amount. Pursuant to the revenue sharing model that was negotiated in our Collective Bargaining Agreement (“CBA”), the CFLPA’s decision on the allocation of the Revenue Share Amount will be completed by January 22nd, 2026.

This amount may be allocated to lift the salary cap or to alternative direct player compensation categories, such as training camp pay, post-season pay or pension.

A reminder that the minimum salary cap for the 2026 season will be $6.062 million per club. For further clarity, once the salary cap increases, it stays at the new amount for future years and will not decrease. Please consider the potential impact the CFLPA Revenue Share allocation may have when negotiating any contracts before January 23, 2026.

As set out in the collective bargaining agreement, the 2025 salary cap was $5.65 million, but jumped to $6.06 million. That 7.3 percent increase came from growth in the revenue-sharing model outlined in the CBA.

Last October, the CFL and Players’ Association agreed each team had an extra $50,000 to spend in 2025, which was excluded from salary cap calculations. That happened after a settlement between the parties was finalized following a grievance claiming teams were stashing healthy players on injured reserve with “load management” designations to meet minimum spending requirements.

According to the CBA, the CFL established an initial baseline mark for defined league revenue during the 2022 season, which takes into account income for the league itself and its nine franchises. If revenues exceeded the initial baseline in subsequent seasons, that uptick can be added to the following year’s salary cap, although that comes at the union’s discretion.

For every dollar revenue increases above the baseline, 27 cents is supposed to be allocated to the salary cap, which is then split evenly between all nine teams. However, the cap increases are not compounded, and the formula result needs to exceed the previously mandated minimum increase per team to take effect.