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Set to start discussions on a new collective bargaining agreement with the CFL Players’ Association on Monday, Ambrosie spoke passionately Saturday about a grand international vision that grows the game to the benefit of the league and its players.

“Talk about things like the Premier League and how they’ve seen their entrance into the international world of soccer as opposed to what used to be a national league in England called the EFL, now we’ve seen some of the greatest rises in players’ compensation of any sport in the world,” said Ambrosie. “The Premier League wasn’t preordained to be the most important international soccer league in the world, they just decided to do something differently.

“I can’t imagine why we would think the CFL couldn’t sit in a similar spot where we decide to be the aggregator of all these nations that have football, create opportunities for Canadian kids to go play in these countries, bring the best of those players here, generate TV revenues around the world and ultimately to the benefit of all of our most important stakeholders — the players being one of those groups.

“I can’t really imagine I’d be doing my job if I wasn’t thinking about how to grow this game so the players could ultimately benefit.”

The commissioner wants the beauty of the CFL game to be part of lives far outside these borders.

“We can ultimately be the epicentre of the international football community; maybe not as the Canadian Football League, but as the CFL,” he said. “We’re sitting in TD Place. If you went to the U.S. today and asked what the TD stands for, they don’t know — it’s just TD. The CFL will stand for whatever people want it to stand for. It will be a big international brand. It will be a place where people watch players from all around the world playing this super fun and super fast game. When’s the last time you saw a CFL game that was 3-3 at halftime. There’s no reason, in my mind, that the world, when shown how cool this game is, won’t embrace it. But we’re never going to know unless we try.