CFL FANS DESERVE SOME ANSWERS

By: Braedyn Wozniak, RP Show Intern

Randy Ambrosie is catching a lot of flak from CFL fans for his state of the league address with the media Friday.

CFL fans have concerns about the league’s willingness to grow and improve, however it seems Ambrosie is content with how the league is currently operating.

His biggest announcement Friday was the moving of the Divisional playoff games to Saturday instead of Sunday, likely to avoid the NFL’s broadcasting hours.

On the Rod Pedersen Show Friday, viewers wrote in with their complaints directed towards Ambrosie’s answers, including future broadcasting deals and his ‘everything is fine’ attitude.

“Don the Navy guy writes in and he says ‘Randy Ambrosie is getting roasted by the fans at the state of the league,’” said Pedersen. “’He’s not getting how frustrated fans are at the direction of the CFL.’”

Pedersen responded with his take on Ambrosie and the league.

“Randy is not the same guy I met in 2017,” he said. “He’s changed … I don’t like the direction of the CFL. I think I’ve made that very clear. But I’m not going to sit here and bang on the guy every day,”

That didn’t stop the viewers from writing in with their complaints, so Pedersen parlayed the questions toward his live guests.

Seattle’s Reid Johnson, host of the MarkCast, attended the address held by Ambrosie that morning.

“Randy, what actually happened with that? Can we just get some answers? Because that’s the point of the state of the league address,” said an exasperated Johnson.

Johnson said Ambrosie mentioned the possibility of an American TV deal coming soon, and that they need to promote the game in America better.

“They’ll get 86,000-100,000 viewers with literally zero promotion at all … it’s really hard to be a CFL fan in America is really hard,” said Johnson.

The Sports Doctor, Dave Petrishen, had a few more choice words on what the CFL is doing, especially in regards to the moving of the playoff games.

“Why do they keep screwing around?” he said in frustration. “Why do we have this inferiority complex? It is tradition. We got almost 31,000 people to Winnipeg in the Western Final last week. None of those people were watching NFL.”

It is an interesting decision by the league, considering American College Football gameday is Saturday, so American viewer conflict is still there.

“That was largest crowd of the year for the Eastern Final in Toronto, and we’re a league that a lot of success is determined on live gates. The other ratings are good … what are you going to watch, Jacksonville and Baltimore or do you want to watch Toronto vs. Montreal?”

The moving of CFL playoff games isn’t the biggest issue in itself, it’s moreso the fact they are making a change like this when there are changes in broadcasting deals and TV rights that fans actually want to see done.

It diverts attention from the lack of media attention and television variety for fans across North America.

Petrishen pointed to the fact the Super Bowl is broadcast on Canada’s national television network, CTV, but the Grey Cup is exclusive to TSN.

“Why isn’t the Grey Cup held in that same regard as the Super Bowl in the eyes of television in Canada?”

Ambrosie’s media address was just the CFL doing what the CFL does. Leaving their fans in the dark on what’s to come, and leaving them to imagine there’s nothing new on the horizon.

Dodging questions and giving half-truths is simply becoming the norm. Pedersen expected nothing less.

“Here’s the thing with Randy Ambrosie: ‘Everything’s great. We’re very happy. The future is bright. We’ve got some great things on the go, just trust us’,” he said. “Honesty would be nice.”

(The Rod Pedersen Show airs daily at 12 pm ET on Game+ TV and WQEE Radio)

Photo: Adam Gosse