CFL's direction is unknown with Ambrosie hitting the exits

This Grey Cup week in Vancouver has had a bit of a different feel to it.

With commissioner Randy Ambrosie’s recent decision to step down once his successor is hired in 2025, there's been a sense of impending change in the air.  

And right now it’s not at all clear what that will mean. 

The CFL approaches the end of Ambosie’s tenure with many reasons for optimism balanced by some causes for concern. 

One the positive side, the league has never been in stronger hands, than with its current seven private owners, plus community owned-teams in Saskatchewan and Winnipeg, in terms of financial resources and thus stability. 

There’s absolutely no sense of the league facing any impending doom. And while that might seem like a low bar, historically speaking it is not. 

The game as an entertainment product is coming off a fabulous season, reflected in strong television ratings despite competition from events such as the Stanley Cup final, the Olympics and the Copa America soccer tournament. 

And it’s three biggest markets – Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver – are doing collectively as well as they have in memory.

There are those concerned about an impending ownership transfer of the Argos under Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment to Edward Rogers in 2025, although Ambrosie said this week he came away from a recent meeting with him feeling reassured. 

Among Ambrosie’s accomplishments are stabilizing the league with three new owners, seeing it through the pandemic and striking a seven-year labour deal with the players association. 

But his biggest initiatives either couldn't get across the goal line or aren’t there yet.

The league spent considerable time and money trying to drum-up interest in a tenth team in Atlantic Canada but came away empty handed. An initiative to add international players to rosters hasn’t become a way to sell streaming rights in other lands, as Ambrosie imagined. And its deal with Genius Sports, which owns a 10 per cent stake in league revenues after investing in and dedicating its technology to the CFL has had mixed reviews thus far at best. 

In short, Ambrosie, like so many commissioners before him, wasn’t able to distribute enough money from the league office to its teams to keep them happy. 

And like each of them, from the big pictures, he leaves the league pretty much the way he found it. 

So what does the league want next?

There’s a sense the next commissioner will be a businessperson, with football not necessarily part of the resume. The desire is for someone who understands the current and future media environments in order to maximize value when the CFL's current right deals expire in 2026.

And beyond that, the canvass is blank. 

For roughly four decades, the CFL has been in search of ways to enhance its business model so that it can enjoy the fruits of growth that other professional leagues have in this era. 

That means bigger media deals, higher overall revenues and, most importantly, growing franchise value. 

That last one is an especially sore point among CFL team owners who are often forced to invest millions to keep their teams viable, yet never seem to reap the rewards in franchise value.

So how does the league change that?

First, the board of governors has to decide if it’s looking for a commissioner to oversee the status quo, or for someone they would hand hand licence to rattle the foundations, even moving beyond our borders with an eye to teams in the U.S., or even Mexico. 

Thirty years ago, the desperation for new revenues led the league down a three-year path of U.S. expansion, a crisis-driven strategy that changed with days of the week.

To those who witnessed it up close, it was clear the CFL never gave itself much of a chance. 

When asked about revisiting teams beyond Canadian borders during his state-of-the-league address on Tuesday, Ambrosie was clear. 

“I think the next best step to get a tenth team is in Canada,” he said. 

That means believing it's viable to finance and build a CFL-suitable stadium in a new Canadian market, which thus far has proven impossible. 

Which brings us back to looking beyond our borders.

Would the league put its toe back in that water, all these years later, only this time driven by a sound plan and a vision, instead of a crisis?

That’s perhaps a question the board of governors should give plenty of thought to before it hires its next commissioner.