1974 League Meetings: Voting Results and Final Announcements

Proposal 74.A: Expansion Partner for Kansas City
Result: Denver, Colorado - Passed
Denver was selected as the Expansion Partner for Kansas City. Don Farley will head the expansion bid, as Denver will join the NAAF as the league’s 20th franchise, while Kansas City, as of now, will be the league’s 19th franchise. 

The common opinion on the decision was that Denver, despite being the smaller market, had a better organized ownership group and plan. The city also gets the NAAF into a new region of the mountains, while Seattle is much an extension of Vancouver. However, most also agree that Seattle is a market where the league should place a team in the near future, so it is expected that Seattle will be a part of the next set of expansion teams. 

Proposal 74.A1: Year of Expansion
Result: 1976
Once Denver was decided as the Expansion Partner, proper expansion plans were drawn up and debated. The passed plan sets the Kansas City-Denver Expansion to take place for the 1976 season. Both cities would be able to have their stadiums ready to go for the 1975 season. However, with Jacob Cross stepping down from the KC bid, the league felt it was best to allow for more time to secure a new owner for the team. 

In more detail, here is what each bid has planned:
Denver, Colorado - Denver Stadium (Previously named Mountaineers Park), is set for renovations to properly house a Football configuration. The new renovations will bring in new seating options, expanding on the current capacity as well. The renovations should be completed by 1975. 

Kansas City, Missouri - The current stadium project is about a year out from being fully ready to go. Should be ready by 1975, assuming everything goes smoothly from here. However, there is a temporary pause as the NAAF looks for a replacement for Jacob Cross, who had stepped down as the prospective owner earlier. 

Seattle, Washington - With the uncertainty surrounding Kansas City, Seattle’s bid under John Orson is being maintained. If there is a case where Kansas City is delayed any further or the search for a new ownership fails, the league will replace Kansas City with Seattle for 1976. Orson will continue to organize his bid further and secure a facility to play at and plan for the 1976 season. If the plan for Kansas City follows through and KC joins Denver in 1976, Seattle will be awarded a team in a subsequent expansion before 1980.

Proposal 74.B: 56th McCallister Cup Host - Eastern Canada Region
Result: Anderson Stadium - Toronto, Ontario
Toronto was selected to be the host for the 56th McCallister Cup. The league agreed that Canada’s largest market deserved to have the spotlight this season as they continue to grow the game in the city. Toronto has hosted the championship game once previously in 1966. The 48th McCallister Cup featured Buffalo defeating Montreal 30-12 in the most lopsided McCallister Cup in NAAF history.


Proposal 74.C: Single Team Affiliations to Semi-Professional Teams
Result: Passed
The league passed the proposal to allow teams to agree to affiliation partnerships with Semi-Professional teams for the 1974 season. The agreements will allow teams to partner with a team and send their reserve players to play for them during the season. Teams are not required to have an affiliated team. If a team chooses to remain unaffiliated, players on the reserve are free to sign with any Semi-Professional team they choose during the season, which is the current rule. Once partnerships have been agreed to, a full list of team affiliations will be compiled and released for transparency. 
The debate did extend the idea of growing the Semi-Pro leagues, or forming a new league, into a proper Professional Minor league(s) which would more properly serve player growth in the NAAF. The NAAF values the partnership that they have had with the Semi-Pro leagues, as several undrafted players have gone on to have successful NAAF careers after starting in the Semi-Pro leagues, notably, DB Santino Arriola, LB Byron Seabrooke, and DL Ernest Schenn. 

Proposal 74.C1: Formation of Partnered Semi-Professional League in Western Canada
Result: Passed
As a result of the passing of Proposal 74.C, the NAAF will organize a smaller Semi-Professional league in Western Canada for the West Division team exclusively. As stated before, the league will only be available for West Division teams to create partnerships with. As for likely team locations, Victoria and Abbotsford are pretty much locks to get teams, with Lethbridge and Saskatoon as strong potential markets. The goal right now is to have at least 4 teams in place for this season. However, there is still potential for the league to push for 6 teams in total so that all West Division teams have an option.

Proposal 74.D: Increase to Player Minimum Wage
Result: Failed
This narrowly failed to pass this time around. With the proposed increase, there would be at least a $105,000 increase to the teams’ baseline (the amount needed in order to fill a roster of 42 players at the minimum wage). Regina heavily argued against the increase, stating that they believe the increase would potentially force the team back into a loss next season, which is not going to help with improving their current stadium situation. Ultimately, the league measured the arguments and believed the best course of action was to hold off on the increase and come back to it in the upcoming seasons. 

Proposal 74.E: Slowed Increase of League Salary Cap
Result: Passed - 10% Increase Upper Limit for next 3 Seasons
With similar arguments to the previous Proposal, the league voted to pass an upper limit to the salary cap that will be in place for the next 3 seasons (1974, 1975, and 1976). With this rule, the maximum amount the salary cap can increase is by 10% of the previous season’s salary cap. The 1974 season will have this rule come into effect as the cap will only increase to $863,500 for this upcoming season. The max it could increase for 1975 is to $949,850, then to $1,044,835 in 1976 if the limit is reached for the 1975 season; otherwise, the increase can only increase by 10% of what the 1975 salary cap ends up being.

Proposal 74.E2: Pre-announced Salary Cap Values
Result: Failed
The league ultimately decided that the 10% increase was enough information that this rule was not necessary. There is an upper threshold that the cap can increase, which should give teams enough information to manage their future finances.