Ambrosie’s final state of the union

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This article was published 12/11/2024 (391 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

VANCOUVER — In what was Randy Ambrosie’s final state of the league address, the outgoing CFL commissioner opted for a change-up on his first pitch.

While standard practice the last few years has seen the commissioner open up his annual press conference every Grey Cup week with a brief introduction before taking questions from reporters across the country, Ambrosie decided instead to start with a 20-minute Q and A with TSN’s Kate Beirness.

Beirness asked a handful of softball questions, allowing for Ambrosie to answer unchallenged, digging into the time allotted to reporters. Once that ended, the fastballs started coming, with Ambrosie covering a wide range of topics, good and bad, facing the CFL.

Here are five takeaways from the nearly 35-minute chat.

CFL OWNERSHIP

Of all the positive things Ambrosie has done for the league, getting a group of deep-pocketed and dedicated owners across the CFL is near the top of the list. If you look around the league, all nine teams appear to be in good hands.

Ambrosie helped bring in Amar Doman, who has breathed new life into the B.C. Lions, and made up for his gaffe in Montreal by replacing Gary Stern with billionaire Pierre Karl Peladeau. This season, the CFL helped the Edmonton Elks move from community-run to private ownership, with local businessman and Edmonton football lifer, Larry Thompson, beating out more than 10 other interested ownership groups.

But while those clubs offer few concerns, the recent purchase of Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment (MLSE) by Rogers Communications from Bell Media seemed to create some uncertainty for the Toronto Argonauts. The Argos are part of the MLSE portfolio and the shift away from Bell — who owns TSN, the CFL’s most important partnership — to Rogers had many wondering if they could be in search of a new owner soon in the event the now sole owners of MLSE want out of the CFL.

Bell’s stake was acquired by Rogers for $4.7 billion, with the deal still needing to be finalized despite first being announced in September. After meeting with Rogers executive chairman Edward Rogers III and CEO Tony Staffieri following the news of the sale, Ambrosie was quick to pour cold water on the Argos leaving anytime soon.

“Nothing in the conversation with Edward and Tony led me to any other conclusion other than they were committed to the ownership of the Argonauts. It was not a long meeting, but it was long enough for me to leave with a very good feeling to what I had seen and heard.”

EXPANSION

There’s been a lot of talk about expansion during Ambrosie’s tenure and while it seemed to get close, he never could get that 10th team.

Most of the focus was on getting a team in Atlantic Canada, with a bit of interest in Quebec City, too. There was a brief infatuation with the XFL during the COVID-19 pandemic, but it fizzled out as fast as it came.

I’ve been hearing a lot about U.S. expansion lately. Part of that is because Wally Buono has been pushing for it and the veteran CFL manager kind of knows his stuff and people in the league.

But I’ve also heard that with the United Football League back on life support, there’s the possibility of the two leagues creating a joint venture. It’s purely speculative at this point, but the ideas have included joining together but remaining separate leagues. How that works, who knows.

Ambrosie threw cold water on that, too.

“Personally, I’m not convinced that U.S. expansion is the way to go,” Ambrosie said. “I think we have something very special here with our Canadian content.”

HEALTH OF THE LEAGUE

Ambrosie noted there’s been growth in TV viewership and progress in attendance with the Lions, Alouettes and Argonauts. He conveniently ignored the Elks and Calgary Stampeders, both of whom have been struggling on and off the field the last few years.

The CFL doesn’t reveal its finances publicly, so we really don’t know how well they’re doing in this regard. As for the value of a specific franchise, Ambrosie wouldn’t divulge the answer or he didn’t really know it, saying the values have remained “flat” since he got there in 2017.

As for Ambrosie’s goal of doubling league revenue when he first took over, he admitted that hasn’t happened and it doesn’t sound particularly close. He deserves some grace here for navigating through a global health crisis, which wouldn’t have been easy and impossible to turn a profit in a gate-driven league.

“It’s an area where we did underperform,” Ambrosie said.

Ambrosie did talk about the potential of increased revenue from a new media rights deal. The current contract is with TSN, which pays more than $50 million per season, with the deal running out at the end of the 2026 campaign.

GENDERED-BASED VIOLENCE POLICY

Chad Kelly dominated headlines this year not for what he did on the field but for his actions off of it. News broke over the offseason that the Argos starting QB, and the league’s reigning Most Outstanding Player, had violated the CFL’s gender-based violence policy for harassment of a strength and conditioning coach prior to last year’s Eastern final.

Following a third-party investigation launched by the CFL, investigators found Kelly made persistent advances on the former coach and, when confronted, got aggressive and later directed derogatory words at her.

Kelly was suspended nine games and was required to undergo a rehabilitation process that was kept private but said to be led by sexual violence experts. The 30-year-old Kelly ultimately passed whatever process he underwent and was re-instated after the nine games.

I always had my doubts that Ambrosie understood his own gender-based violence policy, going all the way back to early 2018 when I wrote about how he ignored it to allow Johnny Manziel to fast-track his way to Canada. Now, I know he doesn’t.

I spoke to several members of the Ending Violence Association, which helped the CFL draft the policy, and took a deep dive into what the policy meant and how it should be executed. The whole point of the policy is to try and work with the player in violation so that he’s aware of the harm he’s done and the work he needs to improve so that he can return to his community a better person.

It’s not supposed to be zero-tolerance, which has been the path Ambrosie has always taken up to this point.

So, while fans might disagree with Kelly returning to the league, the CFL used the policy the way it was intended to be used. The question, then, is why didn’t other players get that same treatment?

Clearly, Kelly was deemed worthy of exploring options to return while other well-documented cases of policy violators were booted out the door immediately — a move that, in some cases, was celebrated by the commissioner with a league press release that followed.

When I asked about it, Ambrosie danced around the question before settling on the other cases had criminal charges, even if they were considered innocent before guilty in the eyes of the law.

That’s just not how it’s supposed to work.

PIECE OF ADVICE

I think Ambrosie did a pretty good job, all things considered. His biggest problem was his penchant to over-promise and under-deliver.

Whether it was doubling league revenues, suggesting CFL 2.0 was going to change the landscape of the league or talking about expansion as if it were a done deal, Ambrosie always dreamed big whether it was realistic or not.

I asked him what his advice would be for the next commissioner, and he provided two main things: surround yourself with really good people and go in with an open mind.

Jeff.Hamilton@freepress.mb.ca

X: @jeffkhamilton