FENCE-SITTING FANS A PRIORITY
Boosting attendance among Ambrosie’s concerns
With Labour Day action in the books, CFL commissioner Randy Ambrosie tackled a handful of topics in a Q&A with Postmedia writer Dan Barnes. The content has been edited for brevity.
Q: Average attendance has finally cracked the 23,000 barrier per game. Is it a function of people having too much else to do in the summer and how concerned were you when the average was around 21,000?
A: Quite honestly, this is a topic we’re discussing almost daily and not just through the lens of the CFL, but we’re talking to other leagues and many leagues are experiencing a similar phenomenon. People have a lot of choice these days. I’ll tell you what was incredibly gratifying was to see how much excitement there was in the three stadiums this Labour Day weekend. I was in Hamilton and I would give the Ticats an A-plus for the game-day experience. They had so many cool things going on and the fans were completely engaged. It’s a work in progress and we’re going to have to continue to push to create that total experience. Good football, yes, but a lot of other things will go into how a fan will decide to join us in a stadium.
Q: Do you target millennials or also focus on families because you need to grow an audience for the next 20 years, too?
A: We are a remarkably affordable sport for fans to enjoy and we want to get the families to be part of our league because that’s the long-term future. And I saw so many kids at the stadium having a ball. I’d say that strategy is in place and working. The millennials, they’re such an interesting demographic. In Hamilton, it was a sold-out stadium, but we saw throughout the game a lot of empty seats. If you looked into the area between the two levels, it was just jam-packed. People were standing, there are all kinds of bars back there. It continues this theme that our stadiums are becoming pseudo-nightclubs. That generation of fans is not so inclined to sit in a seat. They’re definitely enjoying the game experience, but on their own terms.
Q: It’s been pretty quiet on the CFL 2.0 front. There was a TV deal announced in Mexico and there are supposed to be streaming deals in Mexico and Europe. What else should fans expect?
A: We’ve spent a lot of time over the last two months working with all the federations on our strategy for how we do scouting and combines this off-season. We’re going to do individual combines in a lot of countries, including Mexico and across Europe. Out of those combines, there will be invitations extended to the best of the best to come to Toronto for our big combine. … We kind of did last year on the back of an envelope. We wanted to get some momentum, so we took a very quick decision to invite players from around the world. We now have a much better plan of attack for going into the 2020 football season. … We’re going to be inviting all our global partners to come to Grey Cup this year and there will be some announcements made when we bring that group together. We’re launching an International House at Grey Cup 2019. It’s going to be a big step forward to acknowledge that we’re going to be the big global football league and we’re going to make sure all our international partners are part of our Grey Cup festivities. … We won’t be making a formal announcement, but we’re in great discussions with the Japanese. We’ve had them here. There’s a lot of progress being made on that relationship.
Q: I have been told there is an agreement in place to have two Canadian players on each Liga de Futbol Americano Profesional team in Mexico for the 2020 season. How is that working out?
A: We’re doing really well. The partners and friends at the
LFA have been tremendous in acknowledging it as an important part of this agreement. I can also tell you there is a very good chance we’re going to have roster spots in Germany this coming year for Canadian players. Those two stand out. And we had that very same conversation with our friends in Japan about an opportunity to have players there. My personal goal is I’d like to see within the next three years a minimum of 200 jobs for Canadian players around the world. So if you’re drafted by a CFL team and you don’t make it on your first attempt, you could potentially go back to university for your fifth year or if you’ve exhausted your eligibility you go play a season or two somewhere else in the world.