‘Tis the season for making lists and checking them twice but there is only one thing most around the CFL want in their stocking this year: a new commissioner.
Unfortunately, Randy Ambrosie’s successor won’t be coming down the chimney with Santa, as Saskatchewan Roughriders’ president and CEO Craig Reynolds revealed this week that little progress has been made in the search for the league’s next public face.
“First and foremost, I’m going to certainly miss working closely with Randy. He brought such incredible passion for the league and our game,” Reynolds told 980 CJME’s The Green Zone. “Where we’re at in the process, Randy has indicated he’s going to stay on until they find the new commissioner and, from my understanding, they’re just working through that process right now and actually defining that process. I think it’s going to take some time as we get into 2025 but they’re just at the starting stage of that search.”
Ambrosie announced in October that he would be stepping down from his role as commissioner once a replacement had been found, bringing an end to one of the longest leadership tenures in CFL history. Despite the move being publicly dubbed a retirement, multiple reports have indicated that the decision was preceded by a board of governors vote which indicated the 61-year-old did not enjoy the support of a majority of franchises.
Reynolds dodged the question when asked how the Riders cast their vote in that decision, instead choosing to praise Ambrosie for the things he managed to accomplish in more than seven years at the helm.
“I really enjoyed working with Randy. I think Randy has done some incredibly great things. I know our governor, Greg Yuel, who represents us on behalf of our board at the league table, has tremendous respect and admiration for Randy and the work that he’s done. If you look at the ownership group itself, I think Randy deserves a lot of credit for that,” he said.
“We have across the board the strongest ownership group I think you could argue that the CFL has ever had. We’ve got a long-term labour deal. And the other thing I think that Randy doesn’t get enough credit for is where the product is at. Scoring is up. Randy led a product review a few years ago where we made some significant changes and those changes have resulted in an outstanding product. Our TV ratings are very, very strong in an environment where a lot of TV ratings are struggling from a sports perspective and just generally. I think Randy’s done some great work and certainly, I think he’s left the league in a much better spot than he found it.”
That hasn’t directly translated into improved bottom lines for those employing the commissioner, however, with several franchise owners reportedly unsatisfied by the CFL’s slow financial growth.
When he was hired back in 2017, Ambrosie publicly promised to double league revenue. During his final Grey Cup week, he acknowledged that he’d fallen well short of that mark and that franchise valuations had remained mostly flat throughout his tenure. That has been a tough pill for some to swallow with profits and sale prices ballooning in other major pro sports leagues.
While Reynolds said that mirroring Ambrosie’s passion for Canadian football would be key for any prospective commissioner candidate, the most important criteria for the job will be a savvy business plan.
“At the end of the day, it’s a CEO job and I think there are lots of interesting things ahead of us in terms of revenue. We’ve got a media rights deal that’s coming up here shortly,” he explained. “I think it’s someone who can drive revenue, who can grow revenue — I think that’s really important — and who brings a general business acumen to the role — that’s important.”
All of the CFL’s current media rights contracts are slated to expire simultaneously at the conclusion of the 2026 season, including their exclusive Canadian broadcast deal with TSN valued at over $50 million annually. With the network’s parent company, Bell Media, rumoured to be looking to divest itself from sports media, the next commissioner will need to properly position the three-down league in an evolving landscape that continues to shift towards online streaming.
“That’s the work that we’re doing in proper preparation for that right now. I know the league’s working with a consulting group and gathering feedback from all the teams. When you’re working with experts in the field, they really have a good sense as to where the industry is going and certainly you see the growth in streaming,” Reynolds said. “You see it with Netflix starting to enter into the game with NFL, Amazon Prime doing NFL, MLS is on Apple. Certainly, you see the large streamers starting to enter the sports market a little bit more frequently and a bit more in general. Those types of conversations are all ongoing and all into consideration, for sure.”
Even a business savant with deep media connections could struggle as the CFL commissioner, given the unique challenges of operating such a small league. Keeping all of the governors on your good side can be almost as tough a task as revenue growth — as Ambrosie found out the hard way.
“It’s a small league, nine owners, so I think somebody who can build really good, healthy, strong relationships at the board level, and then team level with the team presidents and management team, GMs, coaches — those types of things,” Reynolds said of his final requirement for the next commish. “I think somebody who just really builds good, strong, healthy relationships.”
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