Ambrosie: The Right Choice

[R.J]

Interviewed by the National Post's Dan Barnes: http://nationalpost.com/sports/footb...usiness-vision

Video segment with Dave Naylor: https://www.tsn.ca/cfl/video/ambrosi...alifax~1410339

[R.J]

One bit I found interesting in the video with Dave Naylor, was Ambroise talking about a potential football ops cap, as the football ops expenses are growing too quickly.

[rdavies]

CFL approves cap on football operations costs for 2019 season
Dave Naylor TSN.ca June 5 2018

The Canadian Football League has approved measures aimed at controlling football operations costs beyond those of player salaries, according to league sources.

The CFL has had a salary management system for more than a decade that applies to players. However, costs related to coaching and other non-player football expenses haven’t been capped – until now.

The new measures will limit teams to a coaching staff of 11 and other football operations staff to 17. The total compensation for those 28 employees is not to exceed $2.738 million. Player salaries are capped at $5.2 million for the upcoming season.

These measures, passed recently by the league’s board of governors, will go into effect for the 2019 season.

The league is also planning to enact measures that would control costs on other non-player football expenses, like mini-camps and scouting budgets.

The subject of non-player football expense was discussed in January when the team presidents met in Banff, Alta.

“One of the things we did this winter, we did a complete breakdown of our financials coast to coast, looking at where our revenues and expenses are. What we found is there were some incongruities in the way we operate our businesses,” said CFL commissioner Randy Ambrosie during a visit to TSN on Monday. “Our players’ salaries are capped, but we had some other expenses that were growing significantly faster than our revenues so we started to dig in and look at those … Our non-player football operation costs have been growing much more quickly than other expenses.”

While the new measures may result in some teams having to cut costs before the start of the 2019 season, the league’s primary objective is to prevent the escalation on non-player football operations.

“It’s a little bit like an arms race. Someone hires a person for a position and somebody wants to match them,” Ambrosie said. “It’s this game of ongoing escalation that we need to bring to an end.”

[R.J]

Honestly today must have been media day for Ambrosie. I like it; reminds me of Cohon's media blitz' his first couple of years.
https://www.sportsnet.ca/shows/tim-a...joins-tim-sid/

[R.J]

A must read IMO. I for one am glad he's our Commish; he's already made quite a few changes (for the better), and I hope he does grow the League.
https://www.thestar.com/sports/footb...ay-to-run.html

[jerrym]

He's been an enormous improvement over Orridge in understanding what the fans want and in his communication skills.

[rdavies]

He's been an enormous improvement over Orridge in understanding what the fans want and in his communication skills.

The league played the race card and also thought Orridge would be the guy to bring them into the future with an increased social media focus. He may have had a lot to do with CBC's fantastic online presence (I'm not sure) but it was also on his watch that CBC went out of the sports business. The real shame is we could have had Ambrosie a year earlier, but hindsight is 20/20

[jerrym]

Ambrosie continues to bring new ideas and change to the CFL.

Others have tried and failed, but as he confronts the many and varied problems facing the CFL, know one thing about Randy Ambrosie. He doesn’t come to the battle short of ideas.
“There are (over) 100 million fans in Mexico,” says the league’s commissioner over lunch at a downtown beanery. “We have to stop thinking small. I think that’s part of what’s happened to us. We’ve been small and we have to think big. Part of that is reaching out to the international community. That, to me, is part of building the CFL on a more ambitious platform.”
Mexico, you are forewarned, but that’s just a start. Take, for example, the possibility of a franchise in the Maritimes and what that could mean to the CFL.
Ambrosie certainly has. “This is a big idea,” he says. “Having a CFL team in the Maritimes isn’t just about football. it’s about opening the door for the Atlantic region to so many things. ...

As long as anyone can remember, the CFL has operated as nine, sometimes eight, separate fiefdoms under a weak, ineffectual king. The league office, such as it was, existed largely to maintain a presence in Toronto’s corporate community but failed to create a central authority for the league, a place that offered both a plan and a vision for all nine teams.
Ambrose is trying to change that. This off-season he toured the offices of the major North American sports leagues and was struck by the NBA’s model, pioneered by former commissioner David Stern in the 1980s.
“The NBA found 80 per cent of their business plan applied to every market, then they customized the last 20 per cent,” said Ambrosie. “We had nine plans and then there was the league plan. I said, no, there has to be one business plan.”

To that end, the league is now formulating a model that identifies the best business practices and metrics for measuring their success. Ottawa, for example, has succeeded in breaking down the wall between millennials and the CFL. How have they made their brand cool in the nation’s capital?
“Not everyone has to build their own widget,” says Ambrosie. “Maybe we can build one widget that applies to all teams.”
The league will also be more active in the Grey Cup presentation. In the ’90s the league started selling its flagship event to the host city, which would then reap the profits. That model has existed ever since, but the league will now be more involved in marketing and selling the game while grabbing a larger share of the pie. ...

The league has done well by its TV deal with TSN, extended through 2021 at $40-plus million annually. But it hasn’t expanded its audience or revenue streams since that deal was first signed in 2013.
Ambrosie, as you must know, has some thoughts on that. Citing the rule of seven — by growing a business seven per cent annually, you’ll double it in 10 years — he believes he can double CFL revenues in short order. Watch out if he secures the Mexican market.
“It takes discipline,” he says. “You start with a vision. If you don’t know where you’re going, any path will do and that doesn’t work in business. You have to know what you want to be when you’re grown up.”

http://vancouversun.com/sports/footb...8-7289d9b1c9b4

[jerrym]

Once again Randy has made the right choice by helping bring about a relaxation of the rules governing TD celebrations following a controversy involving a penalty being called on Edmonton's Duke Williams and several other Eskimos for crawling through on field advertising signage after a TD while no penalty was called on Darvin Adams for grabbing a TV camera and filming teammates.

“The stakes in our league are very high and the intensity level is second to none,” said Commissioner Randy Ambrosie in a release. “But at the end of the day, football is a game and it should be fun for players and fun for fans.”

What this means is, effective immediately, props can be used in a TD celebration – provided they aren’t hidden in a player’s uniform or in the padding around the goal post, and that they are not demeaning or discriminatory or simulate the firing of a weapon or ‘unduly’ delay the game. The league will still prohibit any TD celebration that applies to the broader standards and rules for objectionable conduct, including unnecessary contact with the officials, throat slashes or any action ‘with a sexual connotation.’

https://www.bluebombers.com/2018/08/...mer-wpg-cgy-2/

[jerrym]

Ambrosie shows his communications skills as he talks about Maritime expansion, the CFL video game, how players have changed since Ambrosie played, what previous experience has been most important in helping him deal with being commissioner, the impact of two new American leagues over the next two years on the CFL, attracting younger fans including to the Argos, the possibility of changing the name of the Edmonton Eskimos and football in Mexico and Japan, in the following podcast.

In a special edition of 2 and Out, @Travis_Currah and @Brazilian_Ty are joined by @CFL Commissioner @RandyAmbrosie!

2 and Out is a member of @albertapodnet powered by @atbfinancial.#CFL #CFPN https://t.co/qksnOvBMFj on #Podbean

— 2 and Out Podcast (@2andOutCFL) August 30, 2018

[macspectrum]

i think wally buono would have been a better selection for commissioner
wally has been player, coach and management in CFL
very successful at each level
.

played 10 seasons with the Montreal Alouettes as a linebacker and punter, appearing in 152 games. He appeared in five Grey Cups between 1972 and 1981, winning two in '74 and '77.
.
Buono's post-season coaching record is 23–17, with five Grey Cup victories in nine appearances.
He retired in 2011 with a CFL record 254 regular-season wins as head coach
.
Buono (2003–2007), the Lions went 62–27–1 in regular-season play, with five straight playoff appearances,
[it can be done for those who said it was too hard]

[jerrym]

Wally Buono is the winningest coach in CFL history and in the role of GM he was very good at selecting talent. However, it was Bobby Ackles who in his first go round with the Lions in the 1980s as GM built up the attendance to an average of 46,638 in 1986 without Wally Buono (https://stats.cfldb.ca/team/bc-lions/attendance/1986/). His success led to Ackles being hired by the Dallas Cowboys in 1986. Ankles rebuilt the attendance upon his return to the team in 2002 as President and CEO, after it had crashed under terrible ownership in the 1990s that resulted in the Lions going into receivership in 1992 and 1996 and attendance crashing. Ackles also hired Wally in 2003. When Ackles died in 2008 he had the attendance up to a 34,082 average. Since that time under Buono attendance has steadily declined from a ten year average of 26,564 to an average of 23,705 over the last five years to 19,156 this year (https://stats.cfldb.ca/team/bc-lions/attendance/2018/).

In other words, despite all Wally Buono talents, he has shown no skill in promoting his team and building fan interest and therefore would be unlikely to succeed in building interest in the league, something that Ambrosie has shown both skill and finesse in and something that the league is most in need of now.

[ArgoGabe22]

i think wally buono would have been a better selection for commissioner
wally has been player, coach and management in CFL
very successful at each level
.

played 10 seasons with the Montreal Alouettes as a linebacker and punter, appearing in 152 games. He appeared in five Grey Cups between 1972 and 1981, winning two in '74 and '77.
.
Buono's post-season coaching record is 23–17, with five Grey Cup victories in nine appearances.
He retired in 2011 with a CFL record 254 regular-season wins as head coach
.
Buono (2003–2007), the Lions went 62–27–1 in regular-season play, with five straight playoff appearances,
[it can be done for those who said it was too hard]

Why would he be interested in being the commish when he's been involved with football his entire career and is on the cusp to retirement? Ambrosie has been involved with business. This job isn't just about football W-L.

[CFLfan]

Why would he be interested in being the commish when he's been involved with football his entire career and is on the cusp to retirement? Ambrosie has been involved with business. This job isn't just about football W-L.

You are right, it's about business, leadership, management not about knowing football. I think Ambrosie was the first player in many years to be a Commish. Orridge, Cohon, Lysko, Wright, Tory, Gaduar etc were not selected because they played football.

[gilthethrill]

Jerome Messam could be available....sorry mac I couldn't resist...😉

[macspectrum]

Why would he be interested in being the commish when he's been involved with football his entire career and is on the cusp to retirement? Ambrosie has been involved with business. This job isn't just about football W-L.

i did contact buono via twitter and received a 'like' when i suggested he be CFL commish
i think buono would be very relatable to players and GMs

[macspectrum]

Jerome Messam could be available....sorry mac I couldn't resist...

messam's court case is today - see his thread in 'cfl room'

[ArgoGabe22]

i did contact buono via twitter and received a 'like' when i suggested he be CFL commish
i think buono would be very relatable to players and GMs

This reminds me of the story I just read, Leafs prospect followed the Ducks on Instagram and all of the sudden trade rumours were swirling.

[macspectrum]

This reminds me of the story I just read, Leafs prospect followed the Ducks on Instagram and all of the sudden trade rumours were swirling.

i do not understand how u can equate trade rumours w/ buono being commish
to each his own, i guess

[ArgoGabe22]

i do not understand how u can equate trade rumours w/ buono being commish
to each his own, i guess

Him liking your tweet means nothing. Doesn’t mean he’s interested. Just like how a hockey player following the Ducks doesn’t mean he will be traded there.