Around the CFL: Ambrosie's thoughts on improved play, neutral sites, Olympics

The CFL wouldn't be the CFL if a season went by without hiccups or problems.

This year is no exception — the Chad Kelly and Shawn Lemon suspensions, the Command Centre confusion, and the refusal of the league or team to give a direct answer on if the Edmonton Elks will revert to an old name under new owner Larry Thompson come to mind as things that could have been handled better.

But — and it's a big but — the CFL does have one very important aspect of its business back on track. Heading into the always anticipated Labour Day weekend, the play on the field looks better than it has in years.

The rare clunkers — take last week's Toronto Argonauts-Saskatchewan Roughriders game decided by a rouge on a missed field goal — have been very much overshadowed by regular thrillers.

"We were just looking at some data and 67 per cent of the games have been decided in the last three minutes. Seventy per cent of the games so far this year have been come-from-behind victories," commissioner Randy Ambrosie said in a telephone interview from Victoria, site of Saturday's Touchdown Pacific game between the host B.C. Lions and Ottawa Redblacks.

"With quarterback play, it wasn't that long ago there was a little bit of question about the quality of our quarterbacking. I would say, man, just look across the country at the names and new stars that have emerged in the quarterback ranks. I think the play has been exceptional. It is certainly living up to our fun, fast and entertaining mantra. It's just been a great season so far and frankly, we're just getting started. The Labour Day weekend really kicks off the drive to the playoffs."

Labour Day weekend — featuring three traditional rivalries (Winnipeg at Saskatchewan on Sunday, Toronto at Hamilton and Edmonton at Calgary on Monday) and a neutral-site contest this year — is a great time to take a look at the state of the league. Ambrosie took some time to chat about a number of storylines this week.

The Touchdown series

Touchdown Pacific is a spinoff of Touchdown Atlantic — held three of the past four seasons in Atlantic Canada — and it looks to be doing quite well.

The initial wave of 14,000 tickets sold out in under an hour, and Saturday's game now has the bonus of seeing Victoria-born quarterback Nathan Rourke start for the host Lions.

So what's the plan for neutral-site action next year?

"I don't know if it's only going to be one," Ambrosie said, leaving the door open to a couple of trips to non-CFL sites. "It's certainly going to be an interesting conversation to see where we go from here."

Quebec City seems like the obvious choice with Montreal Alouettes owner Pierre Karl Peladeau having deep ties to the city.

"I think you can say Quebec City is on our list for lots of reasons," Ambrosie said. "It's such a good football market."

Meanwhile, Windsor, Ont., city councillor Renaldo Agostino confirmed this week he's interested in bringing a game to the southwestern Ontario city

Other medium-sized Ontario cities like Kingston or London could be fits, too, and could help the box-office-challenged Argos have a more successful home game.

A return to Victoria also is a very real possibility. Whatever the case, it does appear the CFL has options.

"When people want your product, when there is an appetite to bring your product into new markets, that's a really good sign of your overall health," Ambrosie said.

Expansion

While the Touchdown series has been successful, it hasn't yet led to expansion and a much-needed 10th team.

The CFL has long held hopes of expanding to Atlantic Canada. At last year's Grey Cup, Ambrosie said he was talking to one potential owner from the region.

This week, however, Ambrosie acknowledged nothing is imminent. Even if there is a truly interested ownership group, there is no suitable stadium in Atlantic Canada.

"Getting to 10 teams would certainly have many, many benefits, which we've talked about a lot," he said. "But ultimately we have to be patient because it's not going to happen overnight. I believe it is going to happen. It's just going to take time."

Would Ambrosie consider another crack at American expansion?

"That is not part of the mainstream conversation," he said. "It's always out there. It would be disingenuous to suggest it never comes up, because it does. But I wouldn't say that's front and centre on our radar right now."

Big markets

For decades, the CFL never could get it right consistently in the league's three biggest markets — Toronto, Montreal and B.C.

Toronto certainly hasn't been solved, despite being owned by sporting giant Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment. The Argos routinely attract fewer than 15,000 fans, and are barely visible in the crowded GTA market.

But the Lions and the Alouettes, at least right now, are two Ambrosie success stories. He recruited Peladeau and Lions owner Amar Doman to take over bumbling franchises, and the results are promising.

The Als won the Grey Cup last year in Peladeau's first season and the buzz is back at Molson Stadium with Montreal 10-1 this year. Doman, meanwhile, has Touchdown Victoria and a big Grey Cup on his 2024 agenda, to go along with increased attendance at other games.

Despite the Lions' recent struggles, don't bet against the two franchises clashing for the '24 Grey Cup.

"One of the things I'm excited about here in B.C. is Amar's passion to make the Lions a team that belongs to the entire province," Ambrosie said. "I think they have been walking that talk. With training camp in Kamloops and now being here in Victoria for Touchdown Pacific, I think they've just done an amazing job of putting out the open-for-business sign across the entire province.

"What Pierre Karl has done, coming in that first season and winning the Grey Cup and now the atmosphere at McGill, has been just spectacular. You have to tip your hat. They have brought a ton of energy to these two major markets."

The schedule

Elks quarterback McLeod Bethel-Thompson criticized the league for two-games-in-five-days stretches, while the Saskatchewan Roughriders had their worst crowd in years for one Thursday night game.

With nine teams, the league simply can't have a perfect schedule — and there are ways it can do better (the Argos should try to play two consecutive home games during the Canadian National Exhibition and the Roughriders, with fans across the province, never should play a home game on a Thursday).

The league can get more creative too — how about a school or camp day weekday matinee for the Argos, a la the Blue Jays and Marlies?

But having one game on most Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays before Labour Day has given the league a degree of consistency it hasn't had until recently.

"I think we have to start by saying this program has really been successful for us," Ambrosie said. "Could it be better? Is there a better approach? We always have those discussions to kick things off every fall."

The Olympics

The NFL has said it is exploring the possibility of having its players be eligible to play flag football when it makes its Olympic debut in 2028 in Los Angeles.

Ambrosie wouldn't quite go that far when asked if he's interested in the CFL participating (it would be in the middle of the league's season, and in the better-for-business summer months). But he didn't dismiss the thought, either.

"We see flag as a huge opportunity to expand the game, get more people playing, get more kids participating. The pathway to being a fan by being a player is a really good one. But we haven't had the conversation (about CFL players participating) and we certainly haven't made any decisions at this point," he said.

Like Major League Baseball, the CFL owes it to itself to consider taking an Olympic break and having its players experience a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

The inclusion of flag football on the Olympic program is open for criticism, but how fun would it be to see Canada's Rourke and American Patrick Mahomes squaring off for a gold medal? You can't buy that kind of publicity.