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Q: It’s a nine-team league right now, what are your thoughts on expansion?

A: The whole business of expansion is really simple. When we are where we’re going to be and we have nine teams that are strong and our TV ratings and attendance are checkmarks across the box, a 10th team is going to show up. And who knows, an 11th team and a 12th team might show up. Good things happen to successful organizations, they happen to successful leagues. It’s going to happen when we have our business in the place where we want and need to have it. I don’t know where it’s going to be, I don’t know what lines it will cross or not cross, but I know it’s going to happen when we get to where I think we can be within the next few seasons.

Q: What about the U.S. Would the CFL expand there?

A: For the moment, my entire mindset is driven around nine incredibly strong teams. Indulging myself in those questions is a bunch of energy that I’d rather redirect to the task at hand.

Photo by Craig Robertson / Craig Robertson/Toronto Sun

Q: Officiating has been an issue early this season. Is that on the to-do list to evaluate?

A: I’ve made a habit of yelling at refs in all sports. I yell at the umpires in baseball, I yell at the referees in hockey, I yell at the referees in football. I basically like to have a good yell at the referees as a fan of all sports. When you separate yourself from that, we have a great group of officials, we should be doing everything we can to help train and develop those officials to maximize the opportunity for them to be as good as they possibly can be. But we’re talking about gigantic human beings playing at speeds, like really fast. In a blink of an eye, things are happening. To expect these guys to be perfect is not a realistic expectation. In some ways, it’s the imperfections that make the game so special. It’s human beings, we’re all flawed, we all make mistakes. In one sense, what I fear is that we use technology to try and make something perfect that’s not. We have a really cool project we do with the National Football League where we are doing a referee exchange, all with the goal of ultimately giving the referees a chance to be the best they can be at what they’re doing.