Randy Ambrosie brings vision of CF to Rider Fans

Ambrosie talked about how the pandemic had forced the league to re-examine how it did business and how things the league had been doing could be better done by individual teams and how what some of what the teams were doing could be better done by the league.

It is a change in culture and attitude that will continue Monday as individual CFL teams present their business plans to the league and Ambrosie talked about how the league relation with Genius Sports will hopefully result in a more interesting game for CFL established and potential fans.

TSN’s arrangement with ESPN ends at the end of 2022 and the league and its partners are looking at a new world where single game wagering is possible and to make it more enticing, the game has to be marketed better and better analytics provided to entice special to spend $10 on bets.

The new look includes installing cameras at CFL stadiums capable of taking 1,000 frames per second to give a new look to the game and allow things like seeing how fast the athletes really are.

Ambrosie talked about how important a new collective bargaining agreement was with the CFL Players Association and was very optimistic negotiations on a new agreement will go well.

The league also did a product review with 1,200 fans in January which identified issues of talent and continuity on teams and a better game flow which will result in fewer two plays and punting which seems to have marked the 2021 season experience.

The league is looking to find the next generation of fans and one aspect that will help will be to add a 10^th team.

Ambrosie said the CFL has a committee consisting of representation from a corporately owned team (one would assume Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment), a privately owned team and a community owned team. This committee is working with an investment bank and the first report is expansion of the CFL is not an option but a necessity.

In the current nine team league, each team has three bye weeks which Rider coach Craig Dickenson said is problematic with trying to establish continuity in the team. Having a 10^th team means each team will then only get one bye week per season and it is possible the season could end and the Grey Cup played in early November instead of rolling the dice in late November or December. Ambrosie said it was possible the Grey Cup could be played as early as November 7.

Rider CEO Craig Reynolds said the last two years have been tough on the team and while the team merchandising has picked up, he expects it will take another two years for the Riders to climb out of the fiscal black hole it had fallen into.

With league meetings scheduled for next week, the CFL will be looking to increase Canadian participation in football, in particular flag football. Ambrosie said the rest of the league should be investing in grassroots football like the Riders are and that one in 20 Canadian players in university sports in Canada end up playing in the CFL while one in 280 NCAA players end up playing in the NFL.

Other things to be discussed will be rule changes including things like changing the penalty for holding from 10 yards to five and moving the hash marks closer on the Canadian field.

What that would do would be to eliminate the previous practice of throwing a Canadian receiver on the wide side of the field where few quarterbacks have the arm strength to complete long passes. The closer hash marks would make both side of the field options for quarterbacks and Dickenson said defenses would be asked to play more man to man defense and there would be big plays as a result of that.

The Q and A session that followed had some criticism of the CFL seemingly abdicating sponsorship of flag football in Canada to the NFL, but Ambrosie said he was not willing to concede the future to the NFL and there was not a secret agenda to go to four downs.

While it was not made official, it appears the Riders and Toronto will make up the Touchdown Atlantic game on July 16 with the official announcement in about a week.

In the meantime, the CFL and the Riders will have to try to come to grips with the fact the current cost of attending games is becoming prohibitive for fans without feeling like they are getting their money’s worth.

Consider that back in the 1990s I made the regular trek to Regina from Prince Albert to cover the Riders and often came back the same night to write up the story.

So if I had a family of four in PA and driving my Camry with a 71 litre capacity gas tank, it would cost me $120.15 to fill my vehicle in Prince Albert at current gas prices for the 360 kilometer trip from Prince Albert to Regina. Gas in Regina is more expensive so filling up my tank in Regina would cost me $127.19.

A hotel would cost on average $148, and a pre-game meal would cost about $120. Once we got to the stadium, if the kids wanted Rider hats and the wife and I wanted hats, the cost would range from $81 to $203.98.

The fan replica jerseys are where the Riders make big profits and getting two youth and two adult blank jerseys would cost $468.97 but if we wanted to get four customized jerseys, the cost would then jump to $789.96.

Getting say four Grey Cup 2020 t-shirts would see us paying $59.98 for two adult t-shirts and $49.90 for two youth jerseys. Tickets for a family would be $99. So for one game, taking a family of four would cost $1,247.27 on the low side to $1,727.24 on the high side.

With the CFL schedule, it is highly difficult for an out of town family of four to make all games, but four games would not be unreasonable. Gas costs would range from $360 to $381, while hotels for four nights would cost $592, meals would cost $360, tickets would cost $297 and I have not factored in taxes on top of all of this.

So the cost to hit four games for a family of four from Prince Albert would range from $3,269.42 to $3,722.39. The time and expense to hit those games are a reason why the Riders season ticket packages have gone down from 27,000 to 21,000 with basically no waiting list unlike a few years ago.

With the cost of gas going up, it adds to coming down to Rider games and out of town fans may find it easier to pick up a dozen beer and a large pizza and sitting on the couch and watching, saving a ridiculous amount of money.

With the Riders being one of the most expensive teams to watch and cheer for in the CFL, they have to balance trying to pay down and pay off their contributions to the stadium with not pricing themselves out of the market with their insanely expensive concession prices.

The Riders have also blown opportunities to make money such as the Locker Room Sale where game worn jerseys and equipment is sold to fans. It has been at least four years since the last such sale and you can go online and see Montreal selling game worn stuff, Ottawa selling game worn stuff, Toronto, and Edmonton.

Part of it might be due to the Riders having to cut staff to fit under football operations caps, but it I suspect part of it is due to the Riders taking the easiest and probably laziest path of least resistance when it comes to sales.

Until I had sat down to figure out the costs, it was difficult to appreciate how expensive being a Rider fan would be in 2022. Maybe that explains all the empty seats in Mosaic Stadium.

by Greg Urbanoski

Randy Ambrosie brings vision of CF to Rider Fans

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