The Montreal Alouettes have told their cheerleaders that they won't be back at Molson Stadium in 2020.
Annie Larouche, the squad's longtime director, broke the news on Facebook on Wednesday morning.
"It's with a broken heart that I'm announcing that the cheerleading team won't be back in 2020," Larouche wrote. "In the current context of the organization, there are difficult financial decisions that have to be made, and we're a part of it."
Larouche has directed the squad since the Alouettes rejoined the CFL in 1996. Last year, the squad added men for the first time.
The Als' communications director Charles Rooke also cited financial issues as a reason for the team dropping its cheerleaders.
"In the current context of financial turnaround, difficult decisions must be made," Rooke told CTV Montreal. "It is with regret that we informed the cheerleader team this morning [Wednesday] that they will not return in 2020.
"This has nothing to do with the hard work they put in or their popularity. Our cheer team was among the top in the league."
Rooke told CTV he wouldn't close the door to an eventual return of the cheer squad, "but that will be a decision for another time."