Randy Ambrosie is less than two years into what is expected to be a lengthy tenure as CFL commissioner, but he already knows what he'd like his legacy to be.

"Right now I want to be a great champion for this game," Ambrosie said on his second annual Randy's Roadtrip through nine CFL cities, plus prospective expansion site Halifax.

"I want to be remembered as somebody who loved the game and was a big fan of the players and helped them to be better. I want our owners to remember me as a serious executive who took the responsibility that they've given me and done something positive with it, and helped the league grow and become stronger.

"I want the fans to know - call this my 'mom dimension' because I watched her (Alice) always make time for people - that I'm accessible and listened to what they had to say."

Having ears is a big part of his gruelling cross-country tour that includes 14-hour days like Thursday, when he met with 75 Tiger-Cat fans in the early morning, with the team's sponsors for lunch, four local minor football representatives in the afternoon and local media and 200 more Ticat fans in the Ticats' dressing room through the dinner hour.

Ambrosie is not only selling his CFL 2.0 concept - revolving around making the CFL the undisputed leader of a coalition of three dozen countries not named the United States, which play a brand of professional football - he's taking the football temperature on the ground in 10 Canadian cities. Then he'll cart the anecdotal data back to his owners and board of governors to help make policy decisions.

And those straw polls - five-for-five heading into the Hamilton stop - are indicating there will be Saturday playoff football: perhaps as early as this November. The Grey Cup would remain on Sunday but the conference semifinals and finals would be on the previous two Saturdays. Fans want it and that would not only continue a viewing pattern from the heavy Thursday-Friday-Saturday TSN broadcast emphasis during the regular season but might also provide some quality-control benefits for the Grey Cup game.

"Coach O (The Ticats' Orlondo Steinauer) made the observation today that you could use the extra day from a Saturday conference final to your advantage," Ambrosie said. "You'd have an extra day to prepare your team."

As he's done in a few cities, Ambrosie listened to local youth football leaders and shared his concerns for the future of the game at the grassroots and overall levels.

He told them of a new program called Try Football designed to sell to families the virtues of playing football, through inspirational stories from past and present players.

"He wanted to get a feel for how it is going at our level," said longtime Hamilton football coach, Anthony Macaluso. "It means a lot that he would take the time to spend with us. In my time no other commissioner has done that."

Ambrosie would not address any specifics about salary cap, minimum salary or other issues that will be the contentious points of the impending Collective Bargaining Agreement meetings with the CFL players union. But he did say he'd be selling his concept on giving Canadian players a chance to play internationally, and international players a chance to play here.

As a graphic reminder, the backdrop to his evening speech to fans comprised four jerseys: belonging to Ticat veterans Simoni Lawrence, Delvin Breaux and Brandon Banks, plus Luis Humberto Lopez, the running back Hamilton selected in the Mexican League draft.

"We have lived in a shadow of a giant (the NFL) and have long thought of ourselves as the second biggest of two leagues," he told the gathering. "Now we are second of 40 and that's a lot bigger than second of two. We have the opportunity right now to redefine the CFL..to make the it the epicentre of pro football."

Ambrosie, who lives in Burlington, says that he and his wife Barb now consider Hamilton the destination for restaurant dining and he considers Tim Hortons Field is a microcosm of "the new Hamilton."

"I think there's a great alignment between this team and this community," he said.

smilton@thespec.com

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

905-526-3268 | @miltonatthespec

Read more about: