Thursday marked the first day of full Lions training camp in Kamloops (Image Credit: CFJC Today)

By Chad Klassen

LIONS TRAINING CAMP

Lions training camp resumes with new deal; FanFest back on

May 19, 2022 | 4:20 PM

KAMLOOPS — With the first CFL strike in nearly 50 years is over, the B.C. Lions are back at Hillside Stadium.

The team took to the field for their first full practice as a team on Thursday afternoon. Training camp is now back on after the league and players’ association came to a tentative agreement on Wednesday night.

The players and coaches are just happy this is all behind them and they can focus on football.

“Yeah, I’m excited. I’m really excited. It felt like a long time in terms of these last couple weeks because I wasn’t participating in rookie mini-camp and regular camp didn’t start on time,” said Lions quarterback Nathan Rourke. “I feel like I’ve done a lot of watching and not a lot of actual playing, so I’m excited to finally get on the field.”

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Lions head coach Rick Campbell added, “There was good coming out of rookie camp. Obviously that was stalled here for the few days we’ve been off, but everybody’s just been patient. I give coaches and players credit for just hanging in there and just hanging tight and making sure they were ready to go, so that when we did get the green light that we’d be ready to go and make the most of it.”

While the exact details of the CBA haven’t been released, reports say the players gained small annual increases in percentage of league revenue in the final five years of the deal.

Lions player rep David Mackie, who stressed the revenue sharing aspect as well as player safety, is satisfied with the deal.

“I believe that the revenue model, based on how our executive has broken it down, can be beneficial for the players long term,” said Mackie. “And the healthcare coverage, I don’t think we can put a pricetag on that — the protection that we have. We’ve seen guys get hurt and it shortens their career, it ends their career. It breaks our heart to see that, [but] to know that guys are protected for four or five years starting in 2023 will be fantastic.”

Now there is some catch-up to do for both the players and coaches, missing four training camp practices from Sunday to Wednesday.

“There’s no question that each training camp day lost is big,” said Campbell. “It’s not like a regular season practice. It’s a whole day of meetings and practices and doing a lot of learning and evaluating. But it is what it is. We’ve adapted our schedule and we’re going to try to squeeze some more practices in here and there as we can.”

The Lions and six other teams are also at a disadvantage, as the Calgary Stampeders and Edmonton Elks still went ahead with training camp, not able to strike due to Alberta’s labour laws.

The Lions open the regular season against Edmonton on June 11.

“Anybody that knows football knows it’s a huge advantage and us playing Edmonton in Week 1, there’s no question they’re at an advantage with the time they got in and the time we missed,” said Campbell.

With the players reaching a deal with the CFL, B.C. Lions’ Fan Fest is back on at Hillside Stadium. It runs from 3:00 to 6:45 p.m. on Saturday (May 21).