CFL Commissioner - Randy Ambrosie's Fan Tour

[R.J]

I'm good with 12 and 6, I never thought the League would go with 9 and 9, that's never what they meant by "balanced schedule", it about evening out the times when teams play, having an even number of bye weeks etc. Teams save a lot of money by busing to locations, as opposed to flying cross Country, and divisional match ups tend to sell better. As a whole, this works a lot better with 10 teams. I'm not sure why having each Western team play at BMO is so important when we can watch them on tv and the internet, just my opinion.

[Scooter McCray]

For as long as I have been watching the CFL (since 1973), the West has on average been the better division. And it makes sense, there are 5 teams and the competition is greater to make the playoffs. Add an expansion team in the maritimes and they will be a weak team for at least 1-2 years. Ottawa Redblacks were an outlier as are the Vegas Golden Knights. Montreal could continue to be a tire fire as long as Kavis Reed is there.

My preference would be to see each team come in once. The West division in 2018 is going to be highly competitive. Any one of those teams could finish first. I would rather see each of those teams once versus some of them not at all and seeing the Alouettes twice or Maritime Schooners twice, much less both of them four times versus not seeing Calgary at all. I don't know how that would be sold to the ticket buying public. It would also provide ammunition to critics pointing to the competitive imbalance in the league and the ARgos not being full value for their first place east division standing.

We have waited so long for that 10th franchise and if it comes to pass, 2 - 5 team divisions why would we now play some teams fewer than today. It doesn't make any sense to me.

The most I would be willing to budge would be play your natural rival one extra time. So one western team would not come here per year. Natural rivals are Toronto/Hamilton, Ottawa/Montreal, Winnipeg/Saskatchewan, Calgary/Edmonton. You could create a new coastal rivalry - BC/Halifax, but that probably messes up the scheduling again. Playing everyone twice per year would much simpler to schedule.