‘We’re looking at every possible scenario’: CFL Commissioner on 2021 season

CFL Commissioner Randy Ambrosie says the league is doing everything it can to have football in 2021.

The league cancelled the entire 2020 season due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

But Ambrosie said the CFL’s governors don’t want 2021 to suffer the same fate.

“Right now, June 10th we will kickoff, that’s our plan,” Ambrosie told the Green Zone on Friday. “We’re looking at every possible scenario that we can be flexible if necessary to make a season happen.”

“We want to play, we want to get our players out on the field,” Ambrosie continued. “We’re hoping the (COVID) vaccine rollouts begin to accelerate because there’s nothing like a CFL game with fans— but right now I’m just feeding off the energy from our board of governors.”

Ambrosie admitted the single biggest issue facing the league right now is thinking about how a season without fans in the stands would work. Being a gate-driven league, it’s where the CFL makes up most of its revenue.

“Is it possible that there’s a few weeks of the season where we maybe don’t have fans? That’s a scenario that we’re talking about and then maybe after that governments will start to allow larger gatherings and we get 25-30 per cent of our stadiums filling up,” Ambrosie said.

Ambrosie said a bubble environment isn’t even being discussed right now.

“We’re talking about playing in our stadiums, we’re talking about playing in our stadiums with a smaller group of fans and then we’re hoping that as the season goes along, people are vaccinated and they are desperately wanting CFL football,” he said.

If there’s a silver lining to cancelling the 2020 CFL season, Ambrosie believes it’s that the league has had a chance to review its business model and become more profitable.

“We’ve done more work on that than the league has done in 50 years. We’re going to make substantial improvements to our business model starting this year and running through years to come,” Ambrosie said.

Another issue is how to get American players over the border to participate in the league. According to Ambrosie there is still “enormous work being done” on that front.

Fans reactions mixed

While Ambrosie is confident the league will be able to hold a 2021 season, fans we spoke are split.

Some believe with no fans and other COVID measures, it makes sense that the Roughriders should be able to return to Mosaic Stadium.

“I certainly think we’ll see some form of a season. If the NFL and all other professional sports can seem to manage, I’m not sure why the CFL can’t,” Ken Hoff said.

“The WHL is holding their season (in Regina) in the bubble. There are ways to get around it, but we won’t see see what we’re used to. We won’t see a stadium full of people,” Judy Hoff agreed.

Brent Jeffson would love to see football back in Saskatchewan. He said he’s about 75 per cent sure it will happen.

“I’m confident that if they say it’s going to happen, let’s make it happen. All of the other sports leagues went ahead and did it. For some reason, the CFL was a little slack in their dealing with it. There’s no reason to rush into it. Obviously, it would be without fans,” he said.

However, Murray Kyle, another big fan, isn’t as sure.

“If I had to put a number on it, it’s hard to tell. Flip a coin, it’s 50/50. I hope it (goes ahead), but who knows?”

–With files from 980 CJME’s Dom Lucyk