Randy Ambrosie holds final state of the league address as CFL commissioner

Randy Ambrosie has some friendly advice for his successor: Surround yourself with quality people and always be open-minded.

Ambrosie held his final state-of-the-league address as the CFL commissioner Tuesday. Last month, the 61-year-old Winnipeg native announced his plan to retire in 2025 once his replacement is named.

Ambrosie, who played nine seasons as an offensive lineman with Calgary, Toronto and Edmonton (1985-93) was named the CFL’s 14th commissioner July 5, 2017, succeeding Jeffrey Orridge. His seven-plus year tenure is the second-longest ever behind the late Jake Gaudaur (1968-84).

Ambrosie said his successor need not worry about revamping the league office.

“We have really, really good people in place,” Ambrosie told reporters. “I’d tell (new commissioner) to trust those people because they’re trustworthy and have earned the right to be trusted.

“Secondly, I’d tell him to have an open mind because you don’t know what’s coming next and there’s going to be something you’re going to learn. It’s a totally different job … there’s nothing like it. To me, what I tried to do was be a good learner, take the opportunity with everything new that came my way to try and understand it better.”

A significant accomplishment of Ambrosie’s tenure has been the CFL solidifying the ownership situations of the B.C. Lions (Amar Doman), Montreal Alouettes (Pierre Karl Peladeau) and Edmonton Elks (Larry Thompson). Currently, all nine franchises appear to be on solid footing.

There was definite parity within the league this year with eight-of-nine teams finishing with seven or more regular-season wins. CFL attendance surpassed 1.84 million, or an average of 22,764 fans per game.

Attendance was also up in B.C., Toronto, and Montreal – the CFL’s biggest markets — and the league says television ratings have risen as well.

But Ambrosie’s decision to retire followed a recent vote by CFL governors where it became apparent he no longer had the board’s full support. The main reason for that was league distributions — monies it distributes to franchises via partnerships and sponsorships — did not reach the governors’ expectations.

Upon becoming commissioner, Ambrosie boldly predicted he’d double league revenues. He admitted Tuesday to falling short.

“It’s an area where we did under-perform,” he said. “We have had growth in our revenues … game-day revenues in the league are up this year seven per cent and we have seen growth in our league revenues.”

But with the CFL’s broadcast agreements expiring after the 2026 season, Ambrosie says the league is in a good position to boost those revenues.

“That’s the big lever we have to pull,” he said. “Like almost everything in life, you have to build the foundation on which your future is going to rest.

“You have to build a solid base, I think that’s what we’ve done.”

Ambrosie also remains bullish on CFL expansion, but within Canada and not back into the United States. He has long supported the addition of a 10th league franchise in the Maritimes but it doesn’t appear closer to that goal despite having played games in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.

“I think the one thing I’ve learned is it’s hard, maybe impossible, to push your way into a market, a market has to pull you in,” he said. “We’ve put down some breadcrumbs in markets like Halifax and Moncton and we had fantastic success this past season in Victoria.

“I wish it (expansion) would’ve happened these past few years but I think eventually it will and I think some of these breadcrumbs that I referred to might ultimately help to make that possible.”

This season, Ambrosie also had to deal with the suspensions of Toronto quarterback Chad Kelly and Montreal defensive lineman Shawn Lemon. In May, Kelly was suspended for the preseason and the Argos’ first nine regular-season games for violating its gender-based violence program after Lemon was banned indefinitely in April for betting on league games while with the Calgary Stampeders in 2021.

Kelly was reinstated in August but won’t play in the Grey Cup game Sunday against Winnipeg after suffering a season-ending broken leg in the East Division final. Lemon remains suspended indefinitely after unretiring and launching an ultimately unsuccessful appeal.

In both instances, Ambrosie said the league underwent a thorough process with experts before ultimately deciding on a suspension.

“I can promise you this, no matter how thorough you’ve been … you still have to wonder whether in the end if you did the right thing,” he said. “And I think that’s going to be for me one of the things I’ll probably carry with me for many, many years to come is looking back on those two situations and asking myself whether I got it right.

“I can say this: To the best of my ability I think I did what I thought was right at the time.”

Despite the challenges he faced in the role, Ambrosie said he has thoroughly relished being the CFL commissioner.

“I’ve enjoyed every minute of it,” he said. “My big priority is to love this Grey Cup (and) continue to do this job to the best of my ability.

“The day the next commissioner is ready to start, I’ll shake his or her hand, grab my coffee mug and then head for a stadium to watch some CFL football where I can be a good, old-fashioned fan and love the game as I’ve loved it basically my whole life.”

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