CFL Commissioner Randy Ambrosie has admitted for the first time that a canceled season is the "most likely scenario" for the league this year, according to Dan Ralph of the CP. Ambrosie's appearance Thursday before the Canadian House of Commons standing committee on finance came after news broke last week that the league had requested up to $150M (all figures C) in financial assistance from the federal government due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Ambrosie said the CFL's future is "very much in jeopardy," adding that CFL teams collectively lost about $20M last year. Ambrosie: "Ours is a big brand, but not a wealthy business. Unlike large U.S.-based leagues, our biggest source of revenue is not TV -- it’s ticket sales." He added the league's "best-case scenario for this year is a drastically truncated season." Ralph noted the CFL has "already cancelled the start of training camps -- which were scheduled to open this month -- and pushed back the opening of its regular season to early July, at the earliest." Ambrosie acknowledged that more cancellations of games "could be looming." He said, "The day is fast approaching when we will have to cancel several games and perhaps the season. And then our fans and partners will have every right to demand their money back. At that moment, our financial crisis will become very real and very big" (CP, 5/7).
