CFL unveils revamped organization with three new senior vice-presidents

It's almost a full year since CFL commissioner Jeffrey Orridge was appointed last March, and he's starting to make some major changes to the league's structure. The CFL announced Wednesday that it's created three new senior vice-president roles to oversee various aspects of the league, all of which will report directly to Orridge. These roles will all be filled by people already within the league, but they're each taking on some more responsibility, and it looks like they'll continue to lead the CFL in new directions.

This is going to lead to some significant changes in the league's organizational structure. Glen Johnson is moving up from vice-president, officiating to senior vice-president, football, while Christina Litz is moving from vice-president, broadcast and media assets to senior vice-president, content and marketing, and David Cuddy is moving from leading the team services and analytics group to senior vice-president, finance and business operations. Meanwhile, vice-president (football operations) Kevin McDonald now has the role of vice-president (football operations and player safety), and will be focused on day-to-day football operations, player safety and the CFL's links with amateur football (something he's already been leading the way on). Matt Maychak remains in his current role as vice-president (communications and public affairs), while Tyler Mazereeuw remains vice-president (corporate partnerships).

Why make these moves? Well, according to the league release, they're about "a new strategic direction":

That doesn't actually say much, but these particular promotions may indicate more. Johnson, Cuddy and Litz are all relatively recent additions to the CFL office (joining in December 2013, April 2014, and September 2014 respectively), and while they all pre-date Orridge, they've all taken the league in some new directions already. Johnson, a former referee, has brought a substantially different approach to the officiating side and overseen huge rule changes on converts, the play clock and video review, while Litz has led the redesign of the CFL's website and brand and created partnerships with Twitter, Facebook and Whistle Sports, and Cuddy, a long-time former vice-president (finance) at concert company LiveNation, has shifted the CFL's business approach to a much-more data-driven one and one that's more consistent across teams, especially on the ticketing side.

All of these hires have been significant innovators in their time with the CFL, and promoting these three suggests Orridge is big on further movement in those directions. It further signifies some of the league's key priorities, including marketing, business analytics and continued changes to make the football product more appealing. It also suggests Orridge wants to continue to change the CFL's approach to everything from the rules to the web to selling tickets. We'll see how it works out.