Ambrosie sends message with CFL’s ‘final’ offer

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Canadian Football League commissioner Randy Ambrosie delivered a strong message on Tuesday, the same day the league made its latest – and what it insists will be its last – proposal to the CFL Players’ Association for a new collective agreement.

Ambrosie wanted the players to know that they have the league’s final offer. Should the players reject it and force the league to cancel this weekend’s preseason games, neither the offer nor the bargaining tactics will get any friendlier from here.

“There is no way we can support that offer if we are losing revenue from preseason games or, heaven forbid, regular-season games,” Ambrosie said. “We want to get this deal done and if we don’t there is no way we can get back to the quality of the deal we have on the table today.”

The league was left scrambling Monday night when the players voted down the deal that had been negotiated by their bargaining committee and recommended by their player reps after a tentative agreement ended a four-day strike on May 18.

Overnight it seemed, the CFLPA had gone from one of the most passive unions in sports to its most militant.

The league responded in good faith, delivering a new proposal Tuesday morning that Ambrosie maintains addresses the two key issues highlighted by the union after its membership rejected the deal.

One is the lack of a ratification bonus, something the league had provided in the past. The other is the cumbersome and controversial Canadian ratio, which saw teams able to replace Canadians with Americans in many instances in every game.

The league addressed the ratification bonus issue by promising $1 million to be shared among the players. To balance that give, the league is clawing back