Ambrosie: 'Expansion is absolutely a priority' for CFL

CFL commissioner Randy Ambrosie was in town for the Ottawa Redblacks' home opener against the Calgary Stampeders on Thursday and joined TSN Ottawa 1200 to speak expansion to Atlantic Canada, the state of the league coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic and quarterback play in the CFL. 

With the defending Grey Cup champion Toronto Argonauts scheduled to play the Saskatchewan Roughriders in Halifax on July 29 for the fourth iteration of Touchdown Atlantic, talks of expansion continue to ramp up. 

"Expansion is absolutely a priority for us so we are having those conversations, real productive conversations in Atlantic Canada," said Ambrosie.

 "What we've said to our friends there is that this will be our fourth Touchdown Atlantic game. We love the heck out of that region, we'd love to be there, the people are amazing and the region is amazing. What they have to do now is to pull us in the rest of the way."

The idea of adding a 10th team in Atlantic Canada has been discussed heavily by the league since as early as 2018, when plans were laid out to have a team in Halifax by 2021.

However, the COVID-19 pandemic complicated things for the CFL. The obvious issue was the cancellation of the 2020 season, but the effects of the pandemic are finally being shrugged off now, three years later. 

"That was one of the great comforts for this year - we weren't planning around the provisions for COVID and all of the complexity that that brought to the table. I think it's just a tremendous relief to look at this season through a clear lens," said Ambrosie.

Another source of stability the league found over the eight months since the 2022 season ended was the purchase of the Alouettes by Pierre Karl Peladeau and the solidification of an ownership group Ambrosie is very excited about. 

"I think we've never had stronger ownership in the history of the league. We've got work to do but we are building off a very strong foundation now," he said. 

Ambrosie is firm on expansion to Atlantic Canada, but Quebec City is another location has begun to pick up steam. 

"We are at the very early stages of conversations with other markets and one that we've talked a little bit about publicly but that we should talk more about is Quebec City," Ambrosie said.

"It's an amazing city and of course the rivalry between Montreal and Quebec City in the old NHL format was second to none, it was as good as the Battle of Alberta many say. We're resolute in getting to 10 teams and in fact, you can't get to 12 until you get to 10, but expansion is definitely a priority for us," said Ambrosie.

"I have no doubt in my mind that an inter-provincial rivalry would be good for Quebec, and great for football in the CFL. Quebec City is a great sports town and it's a place we'll look to as a possible expansion partner."

With the emergence of the XFL and USFL in the United States in the past three years, the CFL is dealing with increased competition for players. Ambrosie notes the overall play in the league at the quarterback position is a talking point and something Greg Dick, the chief of football operations in the CFL is spending a lot of time focusing on.

"Of all the football-related topics we talk about [with Dick], quarterback development is probably one, two and three," said Ambrosie.

 "The positive note is there are almost 850 NCAA programs of various shapes and sizes in the United States, there's a lot of football being played in the US, there's college football and junior football being played in Canada. We've gotta find a way to find those QBs, we've gotta find a way to develop those QBs."

Ambrosie is confident the track record of the league will speak for itself moving forward. 

"We've always had a great track record of attracting phenomenal QBs, and we'll continue to attract them," he said. "But this is definitely a topic that is front and centre."