He is no stranger to being a leader, and taking control of a situation. He�s been President and CEO of Salomon North America, as well as President of both Adidas and Spalding Canada and over a year ago, he became Commissioner of the Canadian Football League. He is none other than Tom Wright.
After past debacles with CFL Commissioners, Wright is a welcome change. He�s already been put into tough situations, and succeeded with handling them. The Hamilton and Toronto ownership issues looked as if one of the two teams would not make it into the 2004 season.
For the past few years the CFL has enjoyed a resurgence, increased interest in the game, high attendance and T.V numbers and helped increase the popularity of the game around Canada. Last February saw a new television agreement with CBC, RDS and TSN. That agreement brought all but a few CFL games on T.V. TSN�s �Friday Night Football� has become a staple in it�s broadcasting. Since it�s inception over 5 years ago, �Friday Night Football� has grown by leaps and bounds year-by-year. It has become the NFL�s version of �Monday Night Football�.
The game is the strongest it�s been in many years, the trouble was finding the �Wright� man for the job to continue the success, and help promote Canadian Football. The CFL clearly hasn�t made the wrong decision.
After former Toronto Argonauts owner, Sherward Schwartz stopped paying the Argos�s bills, Tom Wright stepped in on July 28th, 2003 and made a bold move, that move was taking control of the storied franchise. The Argonaut situation was not a pleasant one. Attendance was pitiful, and the people of Toronto didn�t seem to care about the Argonauts. Sadly enough, a little over 2 weeks later, the Hamilton Tiger Cats would also be placed under league control with the Argo�s on August 16th. A promish was made, and more importantly kept that owners would be found for these teams, and it would all be resolved by Grey Cup. The whole ownership situation was handled seamlessly and with what seemed like ease, although it did take a lot of hard work.
The fact of the matter is that if Tom Wright keeps going the way he is going, keeps doing what he's been doing, he could place himself in an elite list of CFL leaders who have achieved a high level of success. He's already climbing the ladder, perhaps his next test will be a possible CFL expansion to Halifax or Quebec City. It will be the hope of CFL fan across the country that he passes, once again with flying colors.
