Leaderboard

There's another factor here- the more eyeballs watching CFL football, the more that advertisers are willing to pay. Multi-national corporations like Coca Cola, Adidas etc are willing to fork out big bucks to reach international audiences. Big foreign ratings are not going to come immediately, but its always wise to build for the future.

I think the original branding had many (myself included) thinking it was another US expansion plan, when he more so wants to provide opportunities for Canadian college kids to keep playing if they can't crack the CFL by making connections in Mexico and Europe, and giving kids in those countries a goal to reach for by selling the Canadian game to them, and trying to expand the pool of players we look at, like the NHL and NBA did. He is also working on TV deals with Mexico and European countries, and extra revenue streams can't hurt. I commented to my wife at the event that he talks a good game and is quite the salesman. It may fall totally flat, but I respect his idea that the league needs to do more than just stay afloat in Canada and think bigger on a global scale, and that this can entice cities like Toronto that want to be more global. Will it sour the western purists who think "Canada first"? Maybe, but Ambrosie touched on that too, and recognizes the different mindset that western CFL cities have and their hatred of the East ("it's supposed to be that way - we get it"). But Winnipeg is not going to lose hardcore fans because we entertain the thought of Mexican players coming to our combines, and it might create a new stream of fans (and revenue) for the league by broadening our base. Not a bad idea overall. Let's just see how the execution plays out.

It's really saying something when Arizona Coyotes fans are saying "Can you believe what they are doing to give away these tickets?"

British (proper) English vs uncouth bastardized american English.

Like I said, Im not a fan of airing the negatives in public. But there has been some obvious (to anyone paying attention) and not so-obvious (behind the scenes things) that have resulted in a lot of negativity. To address your points, historically in wrestling at this level, its not really like you described. Im not a big band guy but in my experience, i've seen local bands pretty cheaply, including for free. Once you ask a regular wrestling fan to pay $20 a show 3 times in two weeks, that's an uphill battle. In fact, I'd suggest that the three shows in the last two weeks with "names" on them all drew less than anticipated. In the past, it was when there was more promotions and more shows that it was harder to draw. There is not any sense of camaraderie in local wrestling historically. What happens instead is, someone runs a show near you and charges half the price and then spreads negative "news" about you or buries you or your talent online. Its long been a situation where promotions, especially (almost entirely) the bad ones and/or new ones would rather tear down the others than try to build themselves up. Im not saying that about WPW, just explaining how its been historically. PCW's best drawing era was probably 2004-2008 (with highs and lows at other various times). And during that time, save a few periods where AWE/WFX cropped up, you essentially had all the top talent working for PCW and everyone pulling on the rope in the same direction. You had some other shows crop up, but never good and never sustained. In wrestling, MORE promotions all fighting for the same market has not made the local scene better or created new fans. In theory, creating a new fan is creating a new fan for everyone. It doesnt work that way and never has. If you go to CWE or PCW now, you see the vast, vast majority of difference faces at each show. I've worked with promotions in the past when we actively ran angles to support each others shows and still couldn't get cross over fans. There was a time when we had three shows per week and couldn't get cross over fans (we even rented busses to take regular fans from one venue to another and it didnt make them come out to the other shows). Plus, if you go to a WPW show, to be honest, any idea that new fans are being created, I would react dubiously. If one new fan is created and they come to a PCW show for the first time, that's great! And I appreciate that. As Im sure Danny at CWE would as well. But you also have to balance the good/bad in creating that one new fan. Usually, issues arent due to "on-screen", but what happens behind the scenes anyway. Ernie (CWF) would have been correct in his feelings that MORE competition would be bad. He was right, it was bad for him because the competition was better than what he was doing and the promoters were more respected than him. The CWF was the top promotion in Winnipeg for awhile, with great shows at Le Rendezvous and really good talent in Robby Royce, Assisted Suicide etc (they even had Paul Diamond for an extended period when he lived in Winnipeg). But unlike most promoters, Ernie wasn't a wrestler. He owned a local trucking business and was a fan and so when he bought into the CWF, he entered the business as the boss without a lot of knowledge of how things worked, but thinking he did. When things were good, it was because he was surrounded by talented veterans. But his personality was always his biggest issue. Guys were always looking to create new promotions to compete. A promotion called Power Pro was started by former CWF wrestlers who wanted to leave (and that was when the CWF was really good). They ran 2 or 3 shows and collapsed (because its never as easy as people thing), making a deal to go back to the CWF. But Ernie agreed to bring them back with a push doing a sort of invasion angle (Ernie's favourite) and making the Power Pro promoter the booker of the CWF. That angered the CWF guys who had stayed loyal to Ernie so they in turn left to start up (some elements of which were part of Ring Masters later on). There was a rival promotion called RCW but they were sort of the "young prospects" roster compared to the CWF and had an on-again, off-again relationship with Ernie. When RCW decided to sell in 2000, they made a deal with Bobby Jay, who had also left the CWF. But Bobby, wanting peace, called Ernie to tell him he was buying RCW and intended their rivalry to be friendly. Ernie immediately called RCW and made a deal to poach the promotion from under Bobby. Ernie's intention was to eliminate competition. But since Bobby was already well into his own planning stage and so many guys didnt want to work for Ernie, he started TRCW. TRCW & CWF had exclusive rosters and very very heated rivalries. In fact, in 2001 when the top guys in CWF all quit (known locally as the Garage Sale Massacre because they went to Ernie's house while he was holding a garage sale and told him they were all going to TRCW), the guys in TRCW refused to work with them because the CWF guys had publicly crapped on them for so long and that helped create a rift where many TRCW guys wanted to leave (hence, PCW). So while you mostly had the best workers split between CWF & TRCW, you still had promotions like RCW cropping up though they mostly made deals with the big two to use their talent and then augmented the roster with their own "trainees" or talent not good enough for the big rosters. When the garage sale massacre happened, it effectively ended the CWF's reign as a top promotion. Ernie ran for a long time though and the CWF was a major player. But he basically focused on out of town tours at that time, occasionally running Winnipeg because you sort of had to, to maintain any sort of local crew. But TRCW was THE promotion from 2000-2002. PCW started up for many of the same reasons TRCW did - a lot of talent who didnt want to be there anymore. PCW didnt create poaching. If you look at the history of wrestling in Winnipeg back to the 30's, it was always competitive, always with rivalries, always with exclusive rosters and guys jumping, dirty tricks etc. Some guys who are part of the modern era think its a new thing...what was new was message boards and social media, but everything else was the same. Its what happens when you have a grass roots business with lots of egos (you'll always have egos and pride in a business that is competitive and performance-based). When PCW started, our day one crew were all former TRCW wrestlers and left them with about 5 or 6 guys, most notably Robby Royce & Vance Nevada, both of whom had personal issues with our then-booker Mike and were not invited to join us. Nevada left town shortly thereafter. One thing we wanted to do was feature the best talent so fans didnt have to be split. If you wanted to see the best roster in 2002, you went to PCW. If you were a fan of Royce (and many were), you'd have to go to TRCW. But even then, we both drew our own audiences. PCW was almost a necessity. TRCW had lost their main venue and werent going to get it back (PCW was able to). The booking and management of TRCW alienated a lot of their crew who were looking to leave whether PCW existed or not. So we brought stability to the local scene. Ring Masters was another group of former CWF wrestlers who didnt want to work for TRCW and honestly, most would not have been invited to join PCW. So when you have promotions that reasonably can carry 20 or so guys but you have 60 wrestlers in the market, what happens? The top 20-30 find a soft landing spot. The bottom 30 end up running their own shows that arent very good. And if anything that hurts the local market because if a fan goes to their first show and its awful, how will anyone else get that fan to spend money? The only time since PCW started that there was really a talent split was when our booker quit and started AWE/WFX. Before that, like I said, 90% of the best talent all worked for us. So it wasnt much of a split. PCW was always the target for start ups (TRCW was a fierce rivalry and guys did jump back and forth for a few months before TRCW shut down following a serious injury that almost got everyone shut down). When AWE/WFX started (they sort of started, did a show, took a long hiatus, started up again, so on and so on). But that split the roster to a degree. Though in a way it helped things because when Mike quit in 2003, he took "his" guys which were the guys getting pushed on top and that left "my" guys to move up...Kenny Omega et al. Thats a good point. I know some guys still like to rail against the idea of being exclusive but it was always a thing in wrestling, not just here, and not just recently. The business case for it is to create a unique roster to draw fans. If fans want to see CWE guys, they have to go to CWE. Same with PCW. If one promotion has all the talent and the other has half, as a fan Im more likely to go to the one with all the guys. So if you're looking at the business aspect, you want to be protective. Of course, you dont have to be a control freak and run into the trouble Ernie did. Historically a start up would reach out and make a deal with a promotion (or promotions) to use their regular roster because 1) they want the best talent and 2) the existing promotions have put in the work, time, effort, money and so deserve some respect and deference. One argument I've often disagreed with is the idea there is a PCW universe and a CWE universe and so on. There isnt. Its not like 20 years ago when fans wouldn't know where guys worked the night before. Its all out there. I think it can create a better experience for the fan to embrace that. If you see a guy from CWE or HIW or RCW or wherever, in PCW and he's a champion, we'll acknowledge that. I think thats a win-win and since wrestling is a work, unless you're a lousy booker, its not hard to work around "restrictions" guys might have because they're champions or top guys with another group. It wasnt long ago (2000-ish) that guys had contracts so were barred from jumping, though they still did and some were sued. No one has a contract so its really about where they have fun and get development opportunities. But it works both ways. A wrestler has the right to work anywhere that wants him. A promoter has the right to book or not book anyone he wants. For example, if a wrestler makes homophobic remarks on social media, they arent welcome in PCW and wont be booked. And, in fact, talent would be strong encouraged not to work for any promotion that thinks thats okay. On the flip side, if I decided I only wanted to run the big money shows, I could decide to run 3 shows a year and make lots of money and rely on someone else to run more often, help build the community, create a good place for the talent to develop. But then when I went to that someone, I wouldn't expect them to actively help me leverage their efforts to make money for myself especially if I was also slandering their group and disrespecting their talent. I was once the young guy full of piss & vinegar wanting to take on the world, so I get it. But over 17 years, experience teaches you things you never knew and allows you to impart that knowledge on others if they're willing to take it. I know specifically that CWE's biggest concern when anyone starting up is that it doesnt disrupt the positive relationships in the local scene. ie. there is peace and harmony so if you mess with that, it causes unhappiness. To bring this novel back around, I was good friends with one of the guys in WPW (At least I think I was) so I was very supportive. But I think if you have a group ownership that lacks experience, they're inevitably going to run into trouble. Not insurmountable trouble. But if you actually say you're going to show the established promotions the right way to do wrestling, you cant be surprised when you get met with less than enthusiastic support...lol Generally, good communication can overcome that. Time will tell.

So much assumption and inference in this post... Firstly, where did Ambrosie say that we are "second rate" or that we somehow need to compete with the NFL? Sure compared to the NFL we are a much smaller league and our salary and expense structure reflects that. But we're not here to compete with the NFL. We're here to be the CFL. We offer Americans a chance to play pro ball, in our league. If they don't want to come here, no worries, we'll find someone else, which seems to be a part of what Ambrosie is doing in these trips. Secondly, what makes you think that this is the only thing he's working on? Sure he doesn't have huge numbers of staff, but that doesn't mean that multiple irons might not be in the fire. He knows about the player agreement negotiations and the markets that are struggling. There are always issues like negotiations and markets that are struggling. The agreement will get hammered out, as those things always do, but he doesn't have magic at his disposal to fix struggling teams, and for the most part that's not his job anyway. Those teams have owners. Maybe those owners should be dealing more directly with that. Or maybe those "hundreds of thousands of fans" that one of our Argo fanboys likes to talk about need to get off their collective asses and maybe, ya know, actually be a fan and go to a game? Don't see Ambrosie having too much to do with that. Lastly, what he's doing is formalizing or exploring relationships with Mexican and European leagues. That's completely different. The odd guy wandering to Europe or Mexico to play ball doesn't mean much of anything. Ambrosie exploring new markets and opportunities in Mexico and Europe is not at all the same thing. Not even close.

I've decided I'm voting for Miller. He was the ST Captain for a long time, and one of the smartest ST players we ever had. It was his responsibility to make sure everyone was lined up properly, and if he didn't like the looks of things, take the necessary OS penalty to get things lined up the way they should be. He took heat from a lot of stupid fans that didn't understand, but that guy was a truly great ST player. Gets my vote.

To be honest I think something like this is a long time coming....and expanding "viewership" and potential markets is a good thing in this day and age....it is by no means and was never mentioned as expansion to places outside Canada...just bringing exposure to the game, and as football itself is growing globally, and there are transplanted Canadians everywhere who would follow the league, if they don't already, as well as new untapped markets, with potential revenue...then thats a smart move If it also allows a way for a Canadian to develop if he can't crack a team out of college due to being just too green or raw, but is allowed a season or 2 to season himself and have another crack at it...well then this is a win win situation for all involved

With Morrissey out and Myers on the second unit, Trouba is the default. Chariot would have a more dangerous shot back there, but with Laine playing at the faceoff dot and not covering the point or securing wide shots off the wall well, I think Maurice sees the danger of a possible short-handed two-on-one and wants a reliable d-man to handle the counter-attack rather than another pinching guy like Myers or defensive liability back there. With Myers on, he can count on Ehlers' or Perrault's speed and Little's defensive-mindedness to cover on a backcheck. Although I am impressed with Niku's offensive vision, foot movement and puckhandling inside the other team's zone.

https://www.tsn.ca/red-wings-legend-lindsay-dead-at-93-1.1267488

Really like the idea of raising league minimum

Love the replies on this tweet by Jason Kenney.

Hoo boy!

Up until the last 2 minutes of the 3rd it felt like the team was in complete survival mode. 40 shots against us yet again is a scary thing. Also Panarin throwing his stick at Wheeler during the empty net goal was classless.

Ambrose addressed the rules and 3 vs 4 down game, and one interesting point he made was that the European leagues play their games in soccer stadiums on soccer fields, so they are already playing the game on a CFL sized field (the width is the same for both sports). Ambrosia wants to highlight the speed of the CFL game and uses the field size as a w at to exploit the speed. He talked a good game at the event, we shall see what if anything comes of it, but I like the idea that we need to think bigger than “we are a boutique league that is a stepping stone to the NFL”

My opinion on CFL 2.0. We are all here, I would assume because we think that the CFL is the most exciting brand of football right? Why would we not want for people in Mexico, Austria, German, France, Finland, ect, to think CFL when they think football. Share what we love with millions more people seems like a no brainer.

https://www.bluebombers.com/2019/03/04/two-months-draft-day/ Bombers' picks for 2019: fourth and fifth in the first round and then 14th, 23rd, 32nd, 41st, 50th, 59th and 68th overall. The Q&A with Walters is pretty informative, too. I like how he explains his views.

Totally. Word of mouth is soooooo much more valuable than any radio advertising or tv spots. It's the reason why anytime my band has a show coming up I get out a lot more, even if I don't feel like it. Inevitably someone will ask when the next show is then I can work in "oh man, we got some stupid stuff planed. You probably shouldn't miss it. Have you heard insert opening band yet? They're ******* great!" or whatever. That ends up registering a lot better than a facebook invite. And while it's not the way people find out about things anymore, I've found plastering the right areas in posters still goes a long way in constantly reminding people about an upcoming show and doesn't have to be terribly expensive.

https://www.bluebombers.com/2019/03/04/two-months-draft-day/?utm_source=dlvr.it

It's hands down the hardest thing to do in local entertainment. From a music perspective, I look at crowds of 10,000+ at the arena for a rock show and wonder how to convince even 5% of them that there's local options that are a) putting out incredible music and b) are cheaper to see than the big name acts. Plus you don't have to wait weeks/months between shows. You can go see a rock show almost any night. With wrestling, I would imagine it's similar. There's wrestling fans out there, now how do you convince them to check out a local product that maybe isn't as flashy as the big time? Edit: I take that back. Touring. Touring is the hardest thing to do in local entertainment in Winnipeg. Either you pay a ton of fees to enter the States or you drive for nearly an entire day just to get to a city that's larger that Winnipeg. And then that city is Calgary and you're not a DJ or selling cocaine so nobody cares...

in honour of Luke Perry

I thought it was just a Canadian vs American thing.

If Ambrosie doesn’t want to be second rate to NFL he better stop employing Americans. This league doesn’t have energy or resources (including time of the minimal staff they have) to waste. If Ambrosie things these partnerships are going to bring significant growth he’s really staking his future on it because they don’t have much else going in terms of league initiatives, beyond a bleak looking Atlantic expansion. This while at least three CFL markets are in crisis. BTW Canadians have always gone to play in these leagues and other semi-pro leagues in Canada too. Tons of ex-CFL players have as well, even between CFL stints. This isn’t treading on new territory.

I agree with this. It's not like Maurice needs to reinvent the wheel, just give the PK a tweak and sprinkle in some aggression. I believe we're 22nd in the league right now. That's not good. At the very least, a bit of aggressive play will throw the opposing team off, a time or two, and maybe not let them settle into our zone so easily.

Randy Ambrosie - according to flex..

Not angry at all. Just like pointing out that the obvious agenda is obvious.

Chill dude. Always so angry. You're always just short of a vein exploding in your neck whenever you post. Don't want to have a stroke.

Because it doesn't match with your agenda

Except that isn't it. More than 3 hours a week involved. That's way too simplistic.

Sounding like a spoiled Jets fan and armchair qb that I am, really think we should rethink how we scheme our pk. We need to play tighter on the point. We have the personal to play an aggressive style. Yes it can be a risk in opening up lanes but the collapsed box is too conservative and allows the opposition to much time to set up. Force them to make quick decisions.

http://www.espn.com/nhl/statistics/team/_/stat/scoring/sort/avgShotsAgainst

Agreed. Both Trouba and Myers are dumb... Low hockey IQ guys.. Ideally you got Buff or JoMo but for now.. Niku is the best option on the PP. He has high hockey IQ. Hayes in for Connor also on the PP would be good. .

If only they had Matt Hendricks!

Yeah too bad Maurice won't try Niku on the first PP over Trouba who just isn't a first PP Defensemen...his shot doesn't scare the opposition and his one time passing over to Laine is well...brutal? But Maurice will stick with Trouba no matter what.

Wheeler was out of his damn mind last night. What a beauty! Hellebuyck, Beaulieu, and Trouba had very nice games, too. It's only been two games but it looks like the team has finally woken up a bit. Makes me wonder if that loss to the Wild last Tuesday lit a fire.

Looks like we dodged a bullet by passing on Duchene too - that locker room looks broken

I did like the Sunday night stat where they were 19-1 in their last 20 Sunday night games....

Jets give up 42 shots... Christ. Helle the man Jets never trailed. Lots of BS penalties tho... Really inflate the shots.. Thought they were solid.... Minus penalty issues.

Helle and Lindholm looking good tonight.

Stop playing a collapsed pk box for the love of goodness!

Not gonna touch that comment Looks like we giving up 40 shots tonight.

Mr. Hayes welcome to our team. Now please shoot the puck.

Seriously a team like the Coyotes have one of the best pk's in the league for a reason. Why? Aggressive not passive.

Thumbs up to this Now have never seen a game from any of these leagues, but am picturing semi pro level or worse- there will be some talent and skill, but not a ton So now assuming we're not seeing high end skill with top coaching , the cfl game and rules would be far more entertaining than 4 down rules ,

It was Jeff Orridge who did this but Ambrosie could have overruled it as an act of good faith. Chose not to.

And Babcock promptly press boxes him.. D play sucks.

👁‍🗨 You have to admire Randy Ambrosie for all the effort he’s putting into his job. Never have I seen a more visible Commissioner who is putting the CFL first and foremost in the public’s eyes. You may not agree with some of his ideas, but it’s way better than in the past where the Commish would come out on Groundhog Day, then disappear again for 6 weeks.

Always knew that Trump didn't expect to win and was only in it for the grift but the to double down on that grift when he did win is incredible. The conman just couldn't help himself.