Randy Ambrosie may be the CFL’s new commissioner, but he isn’t about to cover up his feelings for the Eskimos’ organization.
For starters, he played five years with Edmonton from 1989-93 after then-general manager Hugh Campbell convinced him to put off retirement, capping his nine-year CFL career with a Grey Cup championship.
Two of Ambrosie’s three daughters were born in Edmonton.
“It just was part of one of the greatest times of our lives,” said the 54-year-old Winnipeg native. “My wife and I just loved every bit of being part of the Eskimos family and here in Edmonton, so it’s been special from Moment 1.”
And, of course, there’s the “Once an Eskimo, always an Eskimo” slogan displayed in the team’s locker room.
“So I’ve got to hide my tattoo when I’m with the other eight teams,” Ambrosie said with a smile during Friday’s visit to Commonwealth Stadium. “I think it’s impossible not to feel that it’s special here, but Page 1 of the commissioner’s handbook is you can’t cheer for anybody, so I’ll watch with impartiality, but clearly this has been a special place for me and it always will be.”
Like probably every fan, Ambrosie has had his armchair quarterback moments where he wondered why things were done a certain way, but he’s taking his time to familiarize himself with the league as he visits every CFL team.
“For me, I’m coming into this trying to do a lot of listening,” said the league’s 14th commissioner. “I just had a fantastic visit with (Eskimos president and CEO) Len Rhodes and I’ll look forward to meeting all of the executives of all the teams and really listening to how I can take what they’re doing, some of the lessons they’ve learned, some of the challenges they’re facing and then formulate a plan to take the league to the next level.”
There is no timeline as to when that plan will be delivered to the CFL’s board of governors, but it could be weeks or even a couple of months.
“My plan is just to keep listening and observing and asking questions like I did with Len for the last hour and I bounced some ideas off him and I said, ‘What do you think?’ because I saw this,” Ambrosie said. “He gave me some great feedback.
“I like a lot of the things that are going on here in Edmonton and I’m trying to learn in each city what they’re doing that’s special and unique that maybe we can share with the other teams. Because at the end of the day, it’s driving fans into the stands, having fun, enjoying the games and then making sure that the game itself that they’re watching is the best game we can put on the field. I can say this. In these early stages of my tenure as commissioner, I’d say we’re off to a pretty good start because the games, including the one (Thursday) night in Winnipeg, have just been amazing.”
Ambrosie already knows that “we want to grow our game, we want to get more fans in the stands because the game is so worth watching.” As he visits each CFL stadium, he is watching what’s happening on the field, but also the game experience for the fans “because at the end of the day, you’ve got to create that environment that people just want to be in the stadium.”
“It’s a very competitive landscape for entertainment,” he said. “When they come into our stadiums, it should be a cathedral for entertainment. They should just come in and be having fun and enjoying themselves.”
Ambrosie talked to the CFL about the commissioner’s role before Jeffrey Orridge was hired in March 2015, but he was “right in the middle of a big corporate transformation and the timing wasn’t very good for me.”
“This was perfect because we had completed the sale of the firm to Raymond James back in the fall and my duties were over as of December 31 and I was having a lot of fun,” he said. “Let’s just say my wife, Barb, and I were doing some travelling and we were enjoying just hanging out together.
“It was almost like this was serendipity because I was thinking about what I wanted to do next. I had been in the financial services industry for almost 30 years and kind of thought, ‘Do I want to do some of the same things?’ I’ve talked to some amazing firms.
“But when this surfaced, it was like, ‘Wow, can you imagine what that would be like to go back to the game that I loved so much? I liked playing, but I think I’m a better business person than I was a player, so it’s nice to come back in this role. And in this role, nobody’s going to hit me.”
Especially considering the size of today’s players, Ambrosie said he was going to stay more than 30 feet away from the play at all times when he’s at field level.
Being a former player could be a plus, but so will Ambrosie’s financial background.
“Stephen Covey famously wrote ‘First seek to understand before you seek to be understood.’ In that context, I’d like to think my relationship with the players will be really good because I understand how hard it is to play this game professionally and the grind of the game is very tough, so that’s something I can use to my advantage,” he said. “Dealing with the teams and the owners is also because I can speak their language. I like a good spreadsheet as much as they do. To sit in a room and think about things from a business perspective, I think I can use that to my advantage as well.
“Really, on both sides of the equation, I’ve now experienced the corporate world and the life of a player so I’m hoping those things will really help me to be a good commissioner.”
Before the game celebrating equipment manager Dwayne Mandrusiak’s 1,000th CFL game with the Eskimos, Ambrosie recalled going over to Mandrusiak’s mother’s place so she could sew their jerseys tight against their shoulder pads because the offensive linemen didn’t like having any loose fabric for the defensive players to grab.
“I have a picture of myself with Dwayne’s two boys,” he said. “We also shared some family friends outside of the game that were special and important, so just being here tonight and being able to celebrate with Dwayne is a real honour.”
Ambrosie was injured during his last year with the Eskimos in 1993 and had been already scheduled for a fifth surgery on his left knee once the season was over.
“At this point, I knew my career was coming to an end and it was these last few games,” he said. “I remember making a block down here against Calgary and we got into the end zone. Whoever the sideline reporter was at the time came up to me and said, ‘Wow, you’re just playing so great,’ and all I could think was I was just literally hanging on by the tips of my fingers.
“I just so desperately wanted that win and that feeling I had of being here and then, of course, winning in ‘93. You’ll never replace that feeling with anything in your life, so those things come flooding back.”