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“I’m going to approach this with the same enthusiasm and passion as I’ve tried to do everything else.

“I look at the future of the league and I know that the best way for us all to win is to grow it, to make it bigger.

“I was looking at some statistics a couple of days ago. In 1990 only eight and-a-half per cent of the players in the NHL were international.

“In fact I was with NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly at a conference on Monday and he said now 30 per cent of the players are international.

“And I pulled up the stats on the average player salary and I think they’re up almost 1,300 per cent. And I thought, wow, I can get excited about that.”

Obviously salary cap is going to be an interesting issue and Ambrosie wants it to go up. With the attendance in places like Toronto and Vancouver, you have to wonder how he’s going to be able to do that. Obviously he’d have to get creative.

“When I think of all the challenges, you can either turn right into the wind here and think about how you take off use all of this as an opportunity to grow our league.

“I love the players. I really do. I was so proud that I was one of them. I’m proud to be around them whenever I have a chance. And what I really want to do is grow this game.

“There are lots of chapters to be written but it’s clear that in the long run, that’s how we’re all going to win.”

Selling the big picture isn’t going to be easy with all the empty seats at Argos and Lions games, the issues regarding officiating, the video command centre.

The issue on quarterback head hunting and the way the officials are handcuffed by rules preventing them from using a replay such as the one on the Brandon Bridge incident in the final minute of the West Division final will be on the front burner.

Randy Ambrosie will be an interesting study all week.

E-mail: tjones@postmedia.com

On Twitter: @ByTerryJones