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“As far as the Alliance, it’s too early to know how it’s all going to unfold,” Ambrosie said.

“It’s another reason why opening our minds to international players is important. It creates a new potential supply of players. I talked to the NFL in December about this very thing. Football is growing around the world and athletes around the world are finding their way onto the football field because it’s a great way to apply their athleticism.”

HOPE FOR TORONTO

Toronto Argonauts general manager Jim Popp is a firm believer that things can and will turn around, attendance-wise, in the CFL’s three biggest markets.

The Argos had the lowest average attendance in the league (14,210.7 per game), while Montreal (17,332.1) and Vancouver (19,975.1) weren’t much better.

While it’s concerning and it makes people wonder if those markets have completely lost interest in the CFL, Popp maintains a positive outlook.

“I look at things half-full, not half-empty,” Popp said Monday.

Popp has been in these situations before. He was the general manager in Montreal when the Alouettes were selling fewer than 2,000 season tickets and was a big part of building a success story that lasted more than a decade. Though the people haven’t responded yet in Toronto the way the CFL hoped they would, there are still ways to bring them back on board.

“When I came to Saskatchewan for my first two years in the CFL, it was in dire need, it was in real trouble, and look at it today,” said Popp, who worked in Saskatchewan in 1992 and 1993. “We turned that team around, got it competitive, and it built up to what they are today, which is fantastic.”