A year ago this week in Edmonton, Randy Ambrosie was joined in front of the national media by the CFL’s new partner, Mexico’s Liga de Futbol Americano Profesional (LFA).

On Friday afternoon, Ambrosie will show how much things can change in just a year. The commissioner of the CFL will share a stage with representatives of 11 other football leagues from around the world, to officially form the International Alliance of Gridiron Football.

This year, Mexico (and Canada, of course) will be joined by Japan, Great Britain, Austria, Germany, France, Finland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Italy.

There has been much talk about CFL 2.0 over the last year, about Ambrosie’s ambitious plans to take the CFL to world and to recruit the best football players into the Canadian game. Friday will mark a rare opportunity for fans and media in Canada to see what this will look like.

CFL 2.0 was the commissioner’s biggest focus on Friday morning, when he met with the national media for his annual State Of The League address.

“We are no longer the much smaller of two (leagues),” Ambrosie said in his opening remarks. “We’re the second-biggest of many. Get used to that idea.

“We’re about global partners. We’re about global players who can stand…shoulder to shoulder with their Canadian teammates and their American teammates to take this game to new levels of success.”

Ambrosie mentioned the other side of CFL 2.0, which gives Canadian players the chance to pursue football opportunities abroad. Twenty-five Canadians were recently drafted into the LFA and will have the opportunity to play in Mexico in 2020.

“That’s about growing our game and giving Canadian football players more opportunities,” Ambrosie said.

“Playing football and being a Canadian football player cannot just be about playing in the CFL. It has to be about more than that. I think we should all collectively all set our sights on being able to tell the stories of the 25 and then the 50, the 75 and 100 (playing abroad) and so on.

“Canadian players that are living out their football dream in other parts of the world and perhaps taking a little bit of Canada with them along the way. (They’re) being ambassadors for our game and ambassadors for our country and I can get really excited about that.”

Ambrosie looks at the legwork done on CFL 2.0 this past year, all of the partnerships formed and the sees the talent pool (a talent ocean, maybe?) opening up. He calls the CFL the world’s largest global football league.

“We had nine players on our active roster this year and two practice roster spots, that’s 27 (across the league),” he said.

“This coming year, we’ll have two global spots with three practice roster spots that’s 45. The biggest global football league in the world. We have to start thinking like that. We have to start acting like that It is time for some good, old-fashioned CFL swagger to acknowledge and recognize our place in this sports landscape and be proud of it.”

Here are a few other key points from Friday’s state of the league.

Teams for sale

The for sale signs on the BC Lions and the Montreal Alouettes both came up fairly quickly once the floor opened to reporters.

On the Lions, Ambrosie said that the team’s owner, David Braley and the Lions’ president, Rick LeLacheur, have asked for the commissioner’s participation in the process of finding new ownership for the team.

“I’ve had a chance to meet some remarkable people who are interested in owning the team,” Ambrosie said.

“Those conversations are ongoing and I’ve had follow up discussions with a number of them.”

Ambrosie called it a “Tuesday morning conversation” to be had after the Grey Cup and its festivities have wrapped up.

“I sense in David, he’ll never yield his love for our league, never, because he has been such a big part of everything that’s been been good about us. My sense is that David is committed to the sale of the team and now we just got to find the right partner and David has to work out the business deal.

“It’s kind of hard for some of these things to happen in the midst of all the noise of playoffs and the Grey Cup. I expect that those conversations will intensify in the coming weeks.”

Ambrosie acknowledged that the on-field success the Alouettes have had this year has helped in the process of finding new ownership for that team. Their Eastern Semi Final appearance was a near sellout and the team was revitalized this year by head coach Khari Jones and the emergence of quarterback Vernon Adams Jr.

He said that he’s working with a group that would prefer privacy until the deal is finalized, calling them the Montreal Alouettes Ownership Group.

“I come from the investment industry where I spent…almost three decades and I know that these transactions take time,” Ambrosie said, noting that there have been conversations with strong candidates going back to May.

“I would confess that I would have liked to have gotten this done sooner,” the commissioner said.

“We are very encouraged, very optimistic that the conversation we’re in today is going to yield a successful outcome and get down to those last steps in the process. There’s lots of i’s to be dotted and T’s to cross.

“I can’t commit to a timeframe. I can’t commit to a date but what I can say is I am very optimistic that the group we are in active discussions with today are deeply committed. They’re a remarkably strong group. They would bring a whole host of capabilities to an ownership situation in Montreal.

“I don’t know the answer specifically. What I can tell you is there’s an amazing commitment being made by the Canadian Football League to getting this done and an equal commitment by the groups that we’re in discussions with. That process continues and I hope to have a successful announcement sometime in the next few weeks.”

Halifax update

Having Halifax become the CFL’s 10th team hinges on a stadium being built in the Nova Scotian capital, Ambrosie said.

“The understanding with our friends at Schooner Sports and Entertainment is that it was always going to be…the discussions that where we go next always have to be based on the stadium issue being resolved. I believe that vote is going to be held by Halifax regional council on Dec. 10.,” Ambrosie said.

“What I’m encouraged by is the dialogue they’ve had with the Halifax regional council. They’ve been doing a lot of learning there have been a lot of adjustments made to their plan that I think have helped bring about much-needed positive energy to the program.

“We are optimistic that the stadium will be approved. We will then move into full business planning…and that will be done in collaboration and partnership with Schooner Sports and Entertainment.

“Then we’ll take that to our governors and share with governors. It’s hard to build a business line until you know what the stadium is going to look like, because the stadium is the epicentre of your business model so to get that done, you just very quickly and intensely work with them to get that done and we’ll take it to our governors. I’m optimistic.”

After a successful Touchdown Atlantic game in Moncton in August, Ambrosie said that he wants to establish a regular presence in Atlantic Canada.

“We should always be in Atlantic Canada in some way,” he said.

“Somehow, some way we should always be there because those are great football fans. Our ratings in Canada were up 50 per cent this year. We went there for a football game and we embraced them and they embraced us back.

“We’re hoping for our 10th team, but I’d like to say to the people of Atlantic Canada you are part of the CFL family. We are in fact the coast-to-coast league.

“We’re going to find creative ways, if not through a franchise right now…we’re going to find creative ways to be there. We’re going to go back to Halifax and talk to Mayor (Michael) Savage we’re going to go back to Halifax and talk to the Premier. We’re going to find a way to be in Atlantic Canada. We’re going to help find a way to be in Nova Scotia and in New Brunswick and every part of that great part of our country because there’s a lot of football fans there and we need to embrace them.”

The Argos and growing the game within Canada

Ambrosie would like to also take strides with embracing fans in the country’s most densely populated area. The Argos had a difficult season on the field and still lag behind in Toronto’s sports conscience. This despite a strong and productive partnership with Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment, Ambrosie said. He was clear to say that when it comes to growing the Argos’ fan base and simply growing a football following in Toronto and the GTA, it’s not on one team or one sports behemoth that has many responsibilities.

It’s a CFL issue.

“I’d actually argue that (MLSE) has had some early successes,” Ambrosie said.

“Theirs is a business plan that is designed to be methodical. This situation that Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment inherited was created over a very long period of time.

“The problem wasn’t created overnight and won’t be solved overnight.”

Ambrosie said that whether it’s the respective sales of the Alouettes or Lions, or the Argos’ attendance issues, those teams can’t be expected to solve their problems on their own.

“This is not a Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment challenge. This is a CFL challenge this is an all-of-us challenge,” he said.

“We’ve got to create an army of committed and passionate partners to march into this massive market. We’ve got to get into the classrooms. We’ve got to go see grade four kids, kids in grade five, kids in grade six and we’ve got to tell them the story of our great game. We’ve got to take footballs (with us).”

Ambrosie told the story of an inner-city school in Hamilton that was won over by the Ticats. He sees that and thinks, why not in Toronto?

“That’s the opportunity, to get into those communities that might not know us today and invite them to (a game),” he said.

“I don’t want to send them a flyer. I don’t want them to see an ad in the newspaper. I want them to be actually invited by a human being that loves our game.

“(We need to) explain why this game is so important to Canada, explain some of these quintessential moments that so many of us identify with and then talk about the future with them being part of it. I think that’s the answer in our major markets and it’s something that we’re deeply committed to.”

Positive drug tests and award voting

Andrew Harris’ positive drug test created a wave of controversy in Winnipeg this year, with the ripple spreading out across the national football landscape.

A positive drug test for such an impactful player in the CFL is rare. While Harris contested the result, arguing he unknowingly consumed something in a supplement, he had to serve a two-game suspension. He proceeded to lead the league in rushing for the third consecutive year.

In any other season, he would have likely been the runaway choice (running back pun unintentional) for Most Outstanding Canadian — an award he won in 2017 — and perhaps even a Most Outstanding Player candidate.

That’s where things got complicated.

Those awards are voted upon by members of the Football Reporters of Canada and CFL head coaches. Harris didn’t secure enough local votes to become a team nominee, which eliminated him from any further award consideration (local nominees go on to division voting then finally league-wide voting).

Like the media, fans were divided on this too. Harris has his supporters and detractors.

Ambrosie was asked if a rule might come into place in the future to eliminate those that test positive for performance-enhancing drugs from award voting.

“My honest answer is I had not thought about it. I don’t know that we had thought about it,” Ambrosie said.

“This has to be something we talk about with the players this offseason, is ‘Should we should we think about it differently?’

“I have to say, I’m excited to watch Andrew play this weekend. He’s definitely one of our game’s stars and I’m excited to see him play in the Grey Cup. But we haven’t thought about (the rule). I think it’s a conversation we will have with the players in the weeks to come.”