For a few years now, Commissioner Randy Ambroise’s State of the League address has become the first real event of Grey Cup week.
The annual gab session with the assembled media is a chance for reporters across the country to ask the commissioner his thoughts on league affairs and to question things that have happened over the last year. The press conference used to take place later in the week but it has since moved to Tuesday mornings.
This year also happens to be the last time Ambrosie will have to stand on this stage, as he’s set to step down whenever the league hires their next figurehead.
Here’s the good, the bad, and the dumb of the State of the League address.
The Good
During the session, the outgoing commissioner was asked his thoughts on potential CFL American expansion. Those talks specifically heated up recently with this potentially being the final season of the UFL if things don’t improve.
Fans and some media alike then started to wonder out loud if the league should consider expanding to a market like St. Louis, given their relative success in both the XFL and the UFL.
Ambrosie didn’t seem all that convinced.
“Personally, I’m not convinced that U.S. expansion is the way to go,” Ambrosie said in Vancouver. “I think we have something very special here with our Canadian content.”
As far as straight answers go, this might be one of the straightest we’ve gotten from Ambrosie in his time as commissioner. He didn’t flat-out say that the league will never expand to the United States, but it wasn’t a ringing endorsement either.
There are several challenges for the league if they were going to put a team south of the border including the fact that they cannot apply the ratio rules. If there is a suitable facility that can hold a CFL field and whether that team have a huge advantage when it comes to attracting free agents are two other serious concerns.
However, the biggest issue I think the league would face in the United States is if anyone would actually care. I think it’s been proven time and time again that other than the established leagues — NFL, NCAA, and high school — there isn’t much appetite for more football south of the border.
The league should be looking at opportunities to grow south of the border, but it shouldn’t come in the form of expansion to the States.
The Bad
A few years ago, the league and Ambrosie took some heat for unveiling the CFL’s 2.0 initiative at the State of the League address.
The problem wasn’t so much that the program was announced but when. For those who don’t know, this event is only scheduled for about 45 minutes. By rolling out the Global program, Ambrosie and his team seemingly accomplished their goal of limiting the time available for the open question-and-answer period.
Since then, the league has taken that criticism to heart and following a short opening statement, the floor has been opened for questions. Well, that was until this year when, like a team with the lead late in the fourth quarter, killing the clock was once again the name of the game.
Before the floor opened for questions, TSN’s Kate Beirness hosted a roughly 20-minute interview with the Commissioner that didn’t include much substance. I don’t even remember much of what was said, frankly.
My message to whoever the next commissioner is: just get on with it! I get this isn’t the most fun part of being the face of the league, but it’s a part of it. Make your opening statement and get on with it. Everyone will appreciate it.
Commissioners are trained politicians at this point, they’re very skilled at saying a lot without saying anything. We don’t need almost half of the allotted team eaten up by filler.
The Dumb
I have to wonder if Ambrosie likes his coffee cold.
For sponsorship reasons, the Commish held the largest cup of Tim Horton’s coffee he could find in his hand from the very start of the address to the end — about 50 minutes in total.
After a while, I hadn’t seen Amrbosie take a sip from the cup and I started to wonder if there was even anything in it. He finally took a sip some 10 minutes into the open question period but there weren’t that many throughout the entire session.
I’m not sure why Tim’s felt it necessary to have their sponsorship include this event but they did. If Ambroise is that slow of a coffee drinker, couldn’t they get him a travel mug? Or if he does like his coffee cold, why not show off an iced option?
Either way, hopefully, Ambrosie got something better once he was off the stage.
