CFL OUTREACH BEGINS IN MEXICO CITY
Ambrosie looks to begin work on long-range vision while dealing with current problems
The Canadian Football League has come here to put flesh on the bones of commissioner Randy Ambrosie’s global initiative to expand the CFL brand.
A combine Sunday and player draft Monday will theoretically tap into the Mexican football talent pool at both the pro and university level. These groundbreaking activities could also be seen as the unfurling of the CFL 2.0 blueprint for potential incursions into Europe and Asia.
“I see this as a really big, important first step, but it’s part of a big idea,” said Ambrosie, who has also scheduled exploratory meetings with football officials from Germany, France, Austria and all four Nordic countries in the next few weeks.
“I think all of these pieces are part of what ultimately will be this magnificent patchwork quilt called CFL 2.0.”
While Ambrosie and proponents of his plan call it a bold move beyond Canada’s borders, critics maintain his attention and the league’s money is better spent on domestic issues like the impending collective bargaining agreement with players and constantly flagging attendance in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver.
But it’s ludicrous to suggest Ambrosie and the CFL leadership won’t be able to groom his pet international project and still attend to the most pressing domestic issues in a timely fashion. And the stakeholders most affected by CFL 2.0 — team governors and presidents — have already been convinced it’s a worthwhile gambit, perhaps in part because it’s a minimal budget expense. There hasn’t been a huge capital outlay.
“Because really what we’re talking about is people,” said Ambrosie. “And it’s something we’re already good at, recruiting great athletes.”
So the CFL has come to this sprawling metropolitan area of 21 million to begin that global talent search. Fifty-one Mexican players have been invited to run, jump, lift and be interviewed by CFL scouts at a Sunday combine in 33,000-seat Estadio Azul. As many as 36 players will be drafted by the nine Canadian teams on Monday.
Some are seniors at Mexican universities, some hail from the eight-team Liga de Futbol Americano Profesional (LFA), and others graduated years ago from university and haven’t played serious football in ages.
Wide receiver Humberto Noriega could be the prize of the combine, according to a couple of observers. He’s a big, physical specimen who led the nation in receiving yards for a couple of years. But Noriega is a lawyer who hasn’t played anywhere lately and nobody knows how good he’ll look on Sunday.
But appearances at this combine might well be deceiving.
“I think they will find good, quality players with good football skills. Probably they will not have good times for the 40-yard (dash) or the broad jump, but on the field they can play,” said Fox Sports football commentator Carlos Rosado.
The LFA pays its players a relative pittance — 10,000 pesos or just CDN$690 per month during the four-month spring season — and most players work full time, practise sparingly and play a game per week.
What’s more, half of the eight LFA teams are located in the Mexico City area, so many university grads in other locales, even those with plenty of football acumen, take a pass on the LFA and concentrate on careers that pay better and allow them to stay closer to home. The aim of the combine was to get the best players from all those groups onto the field.
“We’ve got very good talent here in Mexico. I think it’s commensurate with what you would have at the college level in Canada,” said Eric Fisher, a Kansas City native who has coached high school and university ball in Mexico for 15 years.
“We graduated quite a few fantastic players over the last few years. But I haven’t seen them for a couple years and don’t know what kind of shape they’re going to be in. They’ve been working, so they’re coming out from behind a desk. They would have still been active, and they’re young, so they’re cross-fitting and maybe playing some tochito (flag football).”
Fisher was a member of the six-man committee that selected players for the combine. He believes they should have capped invitations at 30 or 40 to wow CFL scouts with a core of undeniable Mexican talent.
But the CFL is open to the idea of a two-tier draft; players who might make rosters immediately, and others who are longer-term projects. And the LFA clearly wanted to fling open the doors to as many players as possible, inviting 12 receivers, 10 defensive linemen, seven defensive backs, six linebackers, five offensive linemen, four kickers, three running backs, three quarterbacks and one fullback to the combine.
“We’re not just thinking of the LFA. We’re thinking of the development of Mexican football,” said commissioner Alejandro Jaimes.
“We want more kids to dream to play professional.”
The CFL represents real hope for Mexican players, the vast majority of whom can only dream about taking a shot at a National Football League roster.
“With Canada coming in, they’re looking at it as a viable option to play professionally,” Fisher said of his players at the Universidad de las Americas Puebla, located 130 kilometres from Mexico City. “When you’re looking at Canadian dollars, here in Mexico that can be a real positive income. And it’s a higher level of ball for them.”
The prospect of placing Mexican, German and French players on CFL rosters plays into the ultimate goal of CFL 2.0; reaching millions of new fans through international broadcast and streaming deals that will strengthen the league’s finances. Some Mexican football fans would surely pay to watch Humberta Noriega catch passes for the Toronto Argonauts.
And there are issues to be solved, like the designation of Mexican or French or German players. Will it mean roster expansion and higher salary caps? Ambrosie said he will tackle those questions in conjunction with the CFL Players Association when they negotiate the CBA.
For now, he’s ready to take the first step and he has a willing partner in the LFA, a modest league that kicks off its fourth season in February with eight teams, up from six last season and four in 2016.
Jaimes, the LFA commissioner, wants to see two regular-season CFL games played in Mexico, starting in 2020. He wants to see coaching exchanges and Canadian college grads in the LFA, though that won’t happen this season.
He also has a much bigger, far less realistic dream for the fledgling partnership with the CFL.
“We are thinking we could maybe have a Mexican team in the CFL or a CFL team in the LFA. I think it could be a possibility,” Jaimes said.
“We are not closed to any idea. We spend a lot of hours talking. Formal meetings. Informal meetings. I think it’s not short-term or medium-term goal, it should be long term.”
The LFA plays four-down American ball, and the rules discrepancy is just one reason there won’t be a CFL team in Mexico.
And if their partnership is to survive long term, the LFA has to survive its growing pains. The health of any sports league depends on TV money, and the LFA doesn’t charge for rights. In fact, it pays to produce games for Fox Sports.
Just as the CBA has to be Job No. 1 for Ambrosie, getting a TV deal is that crucial for Jaimes.
“The CFL is very important for us, but it is not our main focus,” he said. “Our main focus is our regular season. We need to have a good regular season to have more fans in the stadiums so that TV looks to the LFA and so they should think to pay for the TV rights. The networks don’t think we have a good enough product yet to pay for it. We’re working to be stronger.”
TSN pays a reported $40 million-plus per year for the CFL rights, almost covering the salary cap for all nine teams. The LFA’s single-entity business model is instead funded by its key investors, sponsorships, ticket sales, concessions and merchandising. The league’s co-owners pay for stadium rentals, travel and accommodations, and the modest salaries of the coaches and players.
“As you can see it’s not enough for a player to live on football,” said Jaimes. “This is very important. All of our players are working. We want one day for the Mexican players to be able to live on the salary of football. It’s one of our goals.”
Ambrosie’s global vision and business focus have certainly changed the way the league sees and presents itself. Soon enough he’ll preside over the addition of a history-making 10th Canadian franchise in Halifax. And he is adamant the CFL tap into the growing appetite for the game outside the country’s borders.