Ambrosie’s season won’t end after the Grey Cup
CFL commissioner will have little time to waste reaching new collective deal
EDMONTON The countdown to the Grey Cup is also the countdown to the collective bargaining agreement for Randy Ambrosie.
The day after he presents the Grey Cup, the CFL commissioner intends to focus on labour negotiations toward a new CBA with another ex-Edmonton Eskimo: CFLPA president Brian Ramsay.
You get the impression that when Ambrosie arrives here Monday, it will be almost like a campaign stop leading to the annual CFL state of the league news conference Friday.
Ambrosie, since the day he took the job, has been selling a vision, one that very much includes the players who appear to have 50plus new jobs being created with the potential arrival of the Atlantic Schooners or Storm (it’s apparently close in the name-the-team contest) for the long-awaited 10th franchise based in Halifax, realizing the vision of a coast-to-coast league.
“In some respects, I’m not planning on changing my playbook at all,” Ambrosie said of the challenges concerning the CBA talks that lie ahead. “I’m going to approach this with the same enthusiasm and passion as I’ve tried to do everything else. I look at the future of the league and I know the best way for all of us is to make it bigger.”
He used the evolution of the NHL as an example.
“I was looking at some statistics a couple of days ago. In 1990, only 8½ per cent of the players in the NHL were international. When I was with NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly at a conference on Monday, he said now 30 per cent of the players are international.
“And I pulled up the stats on the average player salary and I think they’re up almost 1,300 per cent. And I thought, ‘Wow, I can get excited about that.’”
Obviously the salary cap is going to be an interesting issue and Ambrosie wants it to go up. With the attendance in places like Toronto and Vancouver on the decline, you have to wonder how he’s going to be able to do that. He’s going to have to get creative.
“When I think of all the challenges, you can either turn right into the wind or use all of this as an opportunity to grow our league. I love the players, I really do. I was so proud that I was one of them. I’m proud to be around them whenever I have a chance. And what I really want to do is grow this game.”
He’s confident it can be done. “There are lots of chapters to be written, but it’s clear that in the long run that’s how we’re all going to win.”
Selling the big picture isn’t going to be easy with all the empty seats at Argonauts and Lions games, not to mention the issues regarding officiating and the video command centre.
The issue on quarterback headhunting and the way the officials are handcuffed by rules preventing them from using a replay, such as the incident involving Saskatchewan quarterback Brandon Bridge in the final minute of the West Division semifinal, figure to be on the front burner.
Ambrosie will be an interesting study all week.