Ambrosie says it’s ‘the right time to be passing the baton’

Randy Ambrosie’s time as CFL commissioner is coming to an end. 

Exactly when that end comes will depend on the hiring of a new commissioner, with Ambrosie intending to stay until his successor is hired in 2025. 

“It just kind of felt like the right time to be passing the baton to someone else,” Ambrosie said on Saturday from Regina, where he is attending the Roughriders-Stampeders game.

“For me, it’s about the fact I feel great about all that we accomplished and my contributions to the league. I believe passionately that the league is much stronger today … with up arrows pointing on so many different things.

“And being able to leave and feel grateful for having had the opportunity to do this.”

Ambrosie informed the league’s board of governors of his intention to step down after a vote on his future held earlier this month indicated he didn’t have the full support of the board. 

That vote fell short of what was necessary to remove him from the job, but Ambrosie subsequently made the decision to step down on his own. 

“I think my legacy is that I loved the job,” he said. “I would challenge the next person to love the job as much as I have loved it. I think what I did was put my heart and soul into it, ​and for that I will always be proud.”

Ambrosie is among the CFL’s longest-serving commissioners and will leave behind a record full of successes, as well as some challenges he was unable to overcome. 

While he took his share of criticism during the pandemic, which cost the league its 2020 season and produced serious discussions about merging with the XFL, the CFL ultimately emerged from that period under his leadership intact. 

Ambrosie was also critical to the recruitment of new owners in Montreal and Vancouver, and gave his blessing to the Edmonton Elks franchise transitioning this past season from public to private ownership.

The overall wealth and stability of the league's current franchise owners has provided the CFL with strength at the board of governors level. 

He also secured a seven-year labour agreement in 2022, giving the league long-term certainty with its players, and introduced digital enhancements for marketing and game data. 

However, his goal to establish a tenth team in Canada fell short, as efforts to drum up ownership and stadium commitments in Atlantic Canada ultimately failed. 

Ambrosie also launched aggressive plans to integrate global players to the CFL and welcomed Genius Sports as a partner to enhance and advance the league's football data and statistics. 

His critics complained that his ideas involved considerable costs that weren’t justified by the revenues they returned. Ultimately, his inability to raise league revenues to the expectations of the owners was the biggest factor eroding his support. 

“Like all things, I try to be an objective evaluator,” Ambrosie said. “We certainly haven’t grown revenues as fast as I would have liked to. But I also recognize we had a significant disruption in the loss of the 2020 season because of COVID … but we have set the league on maybe a better foundation than it’s ever had.

“… I think there’s a foundation that’s been built that will allow the next commissioner and all of the teams to harvest the opportunities in front of them.”

Board chair Scott Banda said there is no timeline target for hiring a new commissioner.

Banda also said that he was grateful for Ambrosie’s leadership over seven years through much transition and for his willingness to stay on the job until his successor is hired.

“What that allows the league to do is have a seamless and successful transition,” said Banda. “It gives the league and the board of governors the comfort that it will be business as usual, which gives them the security of ensuring they do what is right in terms of the process [of hiring a new commissioner] and they take their time to find the right person.”