Less than a week from the Canadian Football League's self-imposed deadline to amend the 2020 CBA, TSN Football Insider Dave Naylor and Farhan Lalji discuss where the situation stands, and provide an update on the future of Edmonton’s team name.

Lalji: The CFL and CFLaPA have been meeting essentially every second day and while those talks have been constructive, they’re still dealing with 2020. And there’s a lot to deal with. From my perspective, if the league is still adamant that in order for there to be a 2020 season, they need to get 2021 and beyond agreed to, it’s simply not going to happen.

They’re going to have to put 2020 to bed between now and July 23rd and then have to agree at that point to continue the dialogue on the future of the league and a new CBA before the 2020 season starts. They would still have a couple of months at that point to hammer out those issues. I know there’s a pressure point they’ve put in place on July 23rd, if that’s a true pressure point for getting it all done, it’s simply not going to happen.

Naylor: The CBA talks are just one of the things on the league’s to-do list. I’m led to believe they also have to have an indication from the federal government next week that it is going to provide financial assistance, even if there are questions that still have to be answered and details to be ironed out.

The same thing with the hub city the CFL is planning. Again, if it’s not all done, they have to have made a decision, they have to have approval that they’re going to be able to go somewhere and house all the teams in one place. And while there may be a bit of time they can stretch, they really need an indication those things are going to be happening.

And then you have the players. We still hear from some who look at it and say, ‘is this really something I want to do?’ [They’d be playing for] one third of a salary and living in a hub for two and a half to three months. One player told me this week every other player in the league right now has a job or is looking for one. A lot of players are preparing their contingency plans.

Lalji: Money is front and centre in all of this. You talk about prorated salaries, how does that impact all the bonuses? … Any games played or incentives during the year, is all of that expected to be prorated?

The players also have concerns around hub cities and what their living conditions are going to be like. The hub city hasn’t been decided yet so there’s no complete clarity on what it’s going to look like for the players.

And one thing that’s been underreported is the health and safety piece of this. That is, what happens if a player contracts COVID-19 during his CFL employment at some point and there is long-term ramification. Where does that fall in terms of health and safety benefits? In the last CBA, the players really fought to get three years’ worth of benefits; does a potential COVID-19 situation fall into that?

The players know there’s going to be risk involved in all of this. It’s a case of how much risk they’re willing to take and for how much.

Naylor: In terms of location of that hub city, Dr. Brent Roussin, the chief medical officer in Manitoba, acknowledged this week they had conversations the CFL. He said he believes there are safe ways for the league to create a hub in Winnipeg. But the league continues conversations both with jurisdictions in Ontario and Saskatchewan. But we still think Manitoba is the most likely place that hub city would land.

And in other league news, the Edmonton Eskimos name is going to be retired. Still no official word from the club, the organization had said end of July for a deadline to make a decision on this but apparently it’s happened a lot sooner than that.

Lalji: It’s something the organization has been dealing with for five years now as they’ve tried to stay engaged with the Inuit community and really get a feel for what’s going on there. But then when Washington in the NFL makes a decision to change their name, it put a spotlight on Edmonton in Canada. And you’ve got sponsors involved asking for a name change.

The team decided to send out a survey to all of its season-ticket holders and fans in general and that survey was highly criticized for some potential leading questions and they didn’t get a lot of feedback, there was quite a bit of pushback. That accelerated the process. This has been a weight on the organization for some time, and I believe it was a weight they were really looking to shed, and move on from this fight.

Naylor: Attention turning now to what the new name may be. As someone close to the organization told me, things are very raw right now. There is not a specific plan laid out right now although that’s expected to come together quickly. Edmonton Empire, a name that’s been bandied about, is very popular – part of that is because the team has used that name for marketing purposes – and in fact they registered the domain. Others that are out there include Edmonton Elk and Edmonton Eagles. All of those names would allow the team to keep the EE logo we are all so familiar with.