CFL Commissioner Randy Ambrosie took time out Friday during the Gray Cup festivities to talk about the state of football and touch on the improvements the league is making.
“I’m talking about progress, not perfection,” Ambrosie noted.
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He spoke about the importance of the players’ health, noting that they had no recurrence of concussions this year.
Ambrosie said they are working to understand concussions, how they happen and how to prevent them going forward.
“One of the real characteristics of our league is we have our injury marker, and we’ve had four times where we’ve asked the injury marker for that player to be removed from the game,” Ambrosie said.
He said it was a difficult decision to pull a player from a game, but added that the sole purpose of the injury marker was to take into account the player’s health.
Noting that they also have mental health support, Ambrosie said they have a screening process for players coming out of training camp, with each team also having a consultant on staff.
He also delved into the business side of things and noticed that their online engagement had increased.
“Things like the number of online page views, it’s up five percent this year. In fact, we had more online page views this year at the end of the regular season than last year in the entire year.”
Ambrosie said they have gained some traction on social media and have launched five free-to-play games, which are part of their digital transformation.
“The world of fandom is changing so much.”
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He noted that they are building a foundation to start bouncing back from the pandemic.
Ambrosie said he expects to have a significantly improved economic situation when it comes to US media rights negotiations in 2026, adding that there have been some very positive talks.
He noted that they are tapping into the fandom of NCAA players who come to play for the CFL.
“Things like revenue sharing; things like the seven-year collective bargaining agreement that allows us to be partners with the players, as opposed to constantly negotiating and being adversaries; the partnership with Genius Sports and the chance to create a real platform for long-term marketing success, our marketable fan strategy.”
“Everywhere I look around the league I see positives, there’s definitely work to be done.”
Ambrosie said they aim to announce the 2023 schedule at the end of December.
He said they are starting to plan for their league meetings and teased that they are developing some content projects that are well underway.
“I want our fans to see nine teams, then 10, and we will start that conversation about our tenth and our commitment to expansion.”
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