2015 All Things Lions Marketing & Promotions

[MikeAK]

I don't know. I can relate with a lot of what that guy had to say. I obviously much prefer to be at games live, but prices have gotten to the point where it's just not worth it for me anymore. Too each their own though.

[David]

I really hope this pervasive "I prefer to stay at home at watch in the comfort of my own couch" trend is just a passing fancy. I get it. You love your big screen TV. The beer is cold. No line-ups to pee yada, yada.

But for me, nothing beats watching my favourite teams "live." It's the bonding with like-minded fans and cheering the club on with unbridled energy - and all the other "stuff" going on around the stadium - that you simply can't experience from a TV screen. If I was to watch a Leos home game on TV, I'd really feel like I was "missing out."

Now, the ideal is to PVR/DVR, watch live, then view on TV later that night or the next day. But definitely not B over A.


DH

[TheLionKing]

As Skulsky said, you see things at the game that you don't get to see on Television.

[Toppy Vann]

I think the writer is speaking for more than himself. I have variations on this same theme from others - even when I was offering them a free ticket, free parking and a ride there and back in my vehicle.

As TV gets better and better and the TSN cover of the CFL has arrived at that there is just as much of a case to stay home and get replays and commentary from the panel - stories from the play by play on a player's background or what he said in the pre-game walk thru the day before - all things you'd have to grab off your radio if you go to the game.

Businesses are free to ignore them and maybe nothing will happen but then again look at McDonalds - under pressure for its food quality, now closing hundreds of stores and now promising better food. That is the worst position to be in. Airlines continue to ignore their customers but then again their customers can't always take the other options - train, bus, car.

I just discovered these articles on my Linkedin feed today about online viewing apps like Periscope and Meerkat - being used to show a the Mayweather fight as they grabbed it off TV.

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/what-do- ... dan-taylor

Who Really Won Mayweather v. Pacquiao & Other News You Need to Know Now

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/who-real ... ed-roughol

Floyd Mayweather beat Manny Pacquiao by unanimous decision from the judges (but not the viewing public). The boxing “match of the century” brought in an estimated $300 million from pay-per-view alone, in addition to the $74 million in ticket sales, with viewers charged $100 a pop and cable and satellite systems buckling under the pressure. But it also demonstrated the old business model’s limits in this brave new digital world: many caught the match, for free, on Twitter’s live streaming app Periscope or competitor Meerkat, thanks to viewers holding up their phones to their TV. Live events were TV's one argument against Netflix and the like – and live sports, whether you watch them or not, are why your cable bill is so high. Now that is threatened too. Even Twitter CEO Dick Costolo boasted of periscope stealing the show – HBO and Showtime are readying the legal papers.

What do apps like Periscope and Meerkat mean for the future of PPV?

I clicked onto one of the streams and there was a guy holding his phone up to a large TV in America, the quality wasn't amazing but I was watching and listening to the last under card fight. Then came the main event, as the fighters entered the ring the stream I was watching had over 3,500 people watching a live stream straight from 1 guys kitchen.

Twitter's CEO came out today with the below Tweet:

And the winner is Periscopeco
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/what-do- ... dan-taylor

In the long term, what impact will there be for pay-per-view channels and broadcasts? In England a number of professional football clubs (notably Queens Park Rangers, Crystal Palace and Hartlepool United amongst others) have began using Periscope to live stream exclusive pre-game content, player interviews and behind the scenes reportage. Today for example I watched as a journalist broadcast pre-game happenings from the press box and Stamford Bridge (Chelsea v Crystal Palace 3 May 2015).

[jcalhoun]

Hey all,

This will be long. Apologies up front.

I really don't think the problem with attendance is fans have big-screen high-def televisions and prefer to watch from home; I view this as a symptom rather than the cause. The BC Lions are in fact the Vancouver Lions and everything they do caters to a Vancouver-proper audience at the expense of the suburbs. Coupled with this are a bevy of government decisions (over which the team has no control) which further serve to alienate the suburban fan.

David's profile states he posts from Kits; I post from Port Coquitlam (and I use him purely to illustrate the geographical or urban/suburban difference). To make a 7:00pm kickoff, I have to leave my house by 5:00 or so to allow for rush-hour and finding a parking spot. I don't have time to stop for dinner on the way in. I'm going to hit a road-block, sometimes two and on rare occasions three on the way home, which I won't get to until close to midnight. Why would I want to endure all that hassle, not to mention cost, to watch a football game? And I'm only 36.2 km from the stadium (as the google crow flies). Any fans from say, Maple Ridge, Abbotsford, Langley (to say nothing of any of the closer interior towns like Kamloops or fans on the Island) are going to have an even more costly and time-consuming experience just to get to the game. So we're going to collectively shrug and watch from our living rooms. A fan living where David does might understand the suburban fan's plight, but I don't think he gets it, because going to a game for him is a relatively hassle-free experience.

The thing with being in the burbs is that we have to pay for everything but receive considerably less bang for our buck than those who live in the more densely populated urban areas. So I pay as much for transit (on average) as anyone else in the GVRD, but it's more or less impossible for me to use because there isn't the population base to support a service out here that actually works. (Things have no doubt improved since I was a student at SFU, but I once walked home to Poco in three hours, because it was quicker than taking the bus). It rankles the suburban tax-payer whenever government wants more from us, only to spend those dollars on infrastructure serving those who already have, by our standards, the Lions' share (pun intended) of the benefits.

A new road to Whistler? Yeah, the government will fund that. But the busiest bridge in the province, linking Surrey and Coquitlam, well....let's toll that. A bridge between Maple Ridge to Langley? Is that in BC? Well, I'll be damned....yeah, toll 'em. But we must, we simply must have a skytrain line to the airport. A new convention centre? Stadium? *World Class City!* But the whole province benefits, so let's spread those costs around.

This reality cuts across just about everything. When you're in the suburbs, you're going to be suckling the hind-tit, and that's the trade-off for having a big backyard, friendly neighbors and plenty of places to park. (This sense of being second-class is even worse outside the lower mainland).

But when it comes to the Lions, the post-Ackles era has been one that has entrenched the team ever more deeply in Vancouver -for Vancouverites- while alienating its product from the suburbs. Then they wonder where the fans have gone. So the team polls their fans on what they want, and discover (after having driven suburban fans away) that they want things that cater exclusively to the Vancouver-proper market: Friday and Saturday night games, being a prime example. They poll their fans on household income, and again, without the suburban fans to pull down the average, they set ticket prices accordingly.

It's a self-fulfilling prophecy, which is foolish in the extreme. Vancouver is more or less tapped out when it comes to the team growing its game-attending fan base, but the 'burbs are a largely untapped market, especially the further one heads east. If the Lions want more fans, they need to accommodate game-day logistics that enable suburban fans to get into Vancouver more easily. I'm looking to go to one or two games this year: Ottawa & Saskatchewan. Both are afternoon games, starting at 1 & 4 respectively. Weekend traffic knocks a good twenty minutes each way off my commute. I can park for free and walk several blocks to the stadium. I even have time for lunch and a pint before hand. There won't be road checks on the route home at 5-8pm, either. And get this: I might even go with some kids, because their parents can get them home in time for bed.

Think of the game day promos that are no longer held: bobble head & lunch box night immediately spring to mind. Who were those for? Suburban kids. Where is the cheap ticket family section now that they've effectively closed the upper bowl? Who does that effect? Why is there not a child's price for tickets? The answer to all of these questions is they all have negligible returns, particularly when you view the team as a Vancouver-proper phenomena, as the current president does, so they were axed. What things has he introduced? The BC Lions Russel Beer --a bust. The BBQ sauce --a bust. BC Lions 60th anniversary wine --(and here I'll admit to being a wine snob, and I wasn't willing to try it but I suspect it was...) --a bust. How much time and effort was put into these products? And who were they for?

Of the Skulsky innovations, only Operation Orange has been a success, and only those with the most disposable income can take part. That doesn't in any way diminish what is, I think we'll all agree, a fantastic offering for fans. But I just wish the team would put as much thought and effort into how to get middle class families from the burbs into the stadium.

A further problem, related to the above, is the Lions provide a "game day experience" that is essentially homogenous; they are the department store of yesteryear, wondering why dollar forty-nine day isn't bringing 'em in like it used to. I've written before about breaking up the stadium into zones, based less on price-point and more on self-identifying tribes/demographics. Make a huge kids/family section (between the 20 yard lines in the upper deck) and cater to them. Create a BC Lions band, put it in one lower end zone, and market it as the crazy fan area. Etc.

The author of the article posted earlier, complaining about going to the stadium being forced to endure the fan from Port Moody, the "bridge and tunnel crowd," the over priced, under pored beer, the unhealthy food, etc, is, I think, less disappointed in each of these things in and of themselves, than in the realization that they all signify a yawning gap between an ideal and the current reality.

Sports are supposed to be about something more. They're idealistic. They're about teamwork or sacrifice or community or whatever. This is how they're marketed and how they appear in their best moments. The reality is this ideal is rarely achieved, that it's a facade buttressed by marketing. Sports are merely a capitalist enterprise, playing on our emotional ties and interest in their product, trying to squeeze every dollar from fans. Everyone knows this. There is a willing suspension of disbelief, much like in the theatre, that allows us to participate in, enjoy and derive meaning from the experience. When that facade crumbles, when the marketing is clumsy, when every moment is ruthlessly monetized --it's disenchanting, and one comes to the realization that they're being gouged. Then you walk away.

The suburban fans, who have to spend more time and money to get to a game, have been neglected. They sense this implicitly, resent it, and have done a quick bit of mental math. That tabulation has less to do with the actual numbers (the cost of the gas, the parking, the tickets, the burger, the beer) than what they signify: that they're being gouged and taken for granted. You see this in the declining numbers at the gate, and the increasing television audience.

Sitting at home watching the game with friends is a way to reclaim the experience of football from those who are undermining it --but I don't think the Lions management are self-reflective enough to realize that it's not hi-def big screen TVs that are the problem, it's them.

Cheers,

James

[Ballistic Bob]

If more people could stand and cheer and not be evicted for over celebrating I think the Seahawk type fan would creep in over time. The old farts would have to stand up too to see the game or go home and watch it on their HD tv.

[TheLionKing]

I'm sure not all the Whitecap fans aren't from the South Vancouver area.

[David]

This is an interesting read. Seems like at least one Esks fan has the same grievances that Leos fans do.

https://mauricetougas.wordpress.com/tag ... -dropping/


DH

[B.C.FAN]

One little tidbit of potentially significant marketing news jumped out at me when I read LU's blog post on the Lions' preseason game at UBC: Jamie Pitblado has taken over responsibility for Lions' marketing this year and was the team official tasked with finding a location for the preseason game when the Women's World Cup forced the Lions from B.C. Place.

Pitblado's title, according to bclions.com, is "Director, Fan Engagement." I don't know exactly what that entails but he and club president Dennis Skulsky both come from marketing backgrounds and worked together at the Vancouver Sun and Province. They were also original members of the Lions Waterboys. Pitblado was general manager of last year's Grey Cup festival. I suspect he and Skulsky have similar marketing philosophies, having worked together for so long with the Lions and elsewhere. That philosophy was evident last year when the Lions refused to cut Grey Cup ticket prices to officially sell out B.C. Place in the week week before the game. In the process, they probably maximized revenue but also drew a lot of negative attention to the fact the game wasn't sold out.

[Hambone]

Interesting and well thought out diatribe jcaloun. I guess I see things a little differently. As someone who has held STs for about 20 of the past 35 years while living on the north end of Vancouver Island, Prince George or Tumbler Ridge I can only dream of enduring the cost and pains of getting from the lower mainland 'burbs to BC Place. I'm really not sure how much the Lions can do to alleviate some of the factors you've mentioned that lead to a sense of being gouged. About the only thing they can control is the price of game tickets. Gas, parking and transit costs are something they absolutely have no control over. PavCo controls concessions and pricing so unless the Lions want to somehow subsidize the fans there is little they can do about that. I assume that be it a Lions game, Whitecaps game, concert or any other event requiring food and beverage services the prices are the same. Certainly they aren't going to lower prices for Lions games because they'd have to do the same for all other similar events. I'm unfamiliar with the whole Port Moody, Coquitlam, POCO area. For all the time I've spent in the lower mainland I've never spent any time whatsoever in those areas. It's like the Bermuda triangle for me. Out of curiosity will the new Evergreen line help folks get in and out of the burbs to Lion games when it opens in the fall of 2016? Obviously it will help many but not necessarily all.

I suspect some of those old promotional things were at little or no cost to the Lions through some of their sponsors. For sure the Dickenson lunchboxes had a big Save-On logo indicating their promotiion. I don't recall off the top of my head if the Damon Allen bobbleheads were a corporate sponsored item. I guess the question there is are the Lions disregarding those things or are they trying unsuccessfully to get a sponsor on board?

If Skulsky had anything to do with the Russell Beer thing it was as a member of the Waterboys. The partnership with Russell was negotiated under Bob Ackles' watch. It was announced in spring of 2008 a couple of months before Bob's passing with the announcement of the BC Lions beer brand coming only a few weeks after his death. Skulsky didn't become Lions' CEO & President until April of 2010.

[SammyGreene]

The Lions held their league-wide tele-conference today and according LU the upper deck will be curtained off like it is for Whitecaps games. I guess it can work for football too.

— President Dennis Skulsky reignited what surely will become a debate item in some quarters again when he said the Lions have indeed decided to follow the lead of soccer’s Whitecaps and utilize the secondary roof structure at B.C. Place now that the club is concentrating on lower-bowl ticket sales.

That was counter to what the club thought about the roof structure when the Whitecaps brought it to the dome, and a reflection of the reality the Lions are facing this year with respect to sales.

Acknowledging that a year following a Grey Cup always results in a drop, Skulsky admitted that season ticket sales “are lower than what we had hoped.” He said capacity of the lower bowl will be relisted in the range of 27,500, which means the club will be able to announce as many sellouts as the soccer team does on a regular basis.

Those were the highlights. Fans will get their chance to throw better questions at the Lions in an online fan forum being lined up next week.

Wonder where the season ticket base sits after last year's sour season? Skulsky is usually pretty upbeat about everything. My guess is somewhere in the 14,000 range.

[sj-roc]

The Lions held their league-wide tele-conference today and according LU the upper deck will be curtained off like it is for Whitecaps games. I guess it can work for football too.

— President Dennis Skulsky reignited what surely will become a debate item in some quarters again when he said the Lions have indeed decided to follow the lead of soccer’s Whitecaps and utilize the secondary roof structure at B.C. Place now that the club is concentrating on lower-bowl ticket sales.

That was counter to what the club thought about the roof structure when the Whitecaps brought it to the dome, and a reflection of the reality the Lions are facing this year with respect to sales.

Acknowledging that a year following a Grey Cup always results in a drop, Skulsky admitted that season ticket sales “are lower than what we had hoped.” He said capacity of the lower bowl will be relisted in the range of 27,500, which means the club will be able to announce as many sellouts as the soccer team does on a regular basis.

Those were the highlights. Fans will get their chance to throw better questions at the Lions in an online fan forum being lined up next week.

Wonder where the season ticket base sits after last year's sour season? Skulsky is usually pretty upbeat about everything. My guess is somewhere in the 14,000 range.

So does this mean there will be no upper deck seats available at all in 2015? After he said around a couple months ago that they wouldn't be turning fans away?

I believe Toppy mentioned something on here in that interim about the confused, unfocussed marketing message coming from Skulsky lately. This would be more of the same.

[Toppy Vann]

Two things:

1. Why lower ticket sales?

One take is the abject failure of the Lions President to create the right marketing message. All this negative talk - guaranteed win night, cutting off upper deck, etc with nothing positive to fill the gap leads to more of the 'I'll watch from home'.

2. Closing upper deck:


Following the Whitecaps cutting off the upper deck would not surprise me one bit.

I honestly think the marketing is failing in the CFL to grow the game versus just improving the quality of the broadcast.

It was good to be reminded by Hambone that there are those outside of the lower mainland who make a huge sacrifice to get to games versus those tired of the game day experience and can now stay home.

However there are those not as well as Skulsky's numbers of income show and I know that real incomes in Canada have been flat for over 3 decades. I believe the lower taxes accompanied by higher user fees in BC are hurting the lower middle income earners and families and that's forgetting high house prices. When I started in sports as a kid in soccer all I needed was boots and for football - boots and you had to buy your own pants. Today it's brutal what is happening in kids sports and also with user fees now that weren't there before.

My mantra has always been that fans of the Lions need to be wary of what they dream of - as it might be a night mare for the casual fan if the Lions say we aren't opening the upper deck except for play offs.

A closed upper deck does three things:

1. it creates scarcity for tickets like a Canucks game.
2. It allows the club to increase it's ticket prices per seat with no extra costs to run the stadium, fund security and cleaning. It's easier to raise ticket seat prices if you know you can sell out.
3. A better game day experience as it feels cozy - or so they say.

To paraphrase Vic Rapp referring to long pass - "three things can happen and two of them are bad.'

[Hambone]

Wonder where the season ticket base sits after last year's sour season? Skulsky is usually pretty upbeat about everything. My guess is somewhere in the 14,000 range.

Hard to guess but based on my lack of success in relocating my STs this year I'd say there was little to no attrition in the prime seating locations. We tried to relocate closer to the aisle than our current seats 5 & 6 from the aisle. We were a bit picky in that we didn't want to go any lower than our current 15 rows off the field. They gave us an option higher but even farther from the aisle or aisle seats but down around the 25 instead of our current 45 yard line location. That told me most folks in the prime seating areas renewed and if there was attrition those of the 150 being relocated from the upper bowl gobbled up the non-renewal seats. Most likely the ST losses would come out of the lower priced sections as those in the best seats tend to be longtime season ticket holders who have endured times that make 2014 look pretty darned good. Most will always be ST holders until something other than the club or its success dictates they can't.

[BC 1988]

One thing for sure is it will be difficult to make the Flex pack option workable for the sections other than the end zones and corners. The Lions will have to require buyers to commit to their selection of games/seats before general onsale. (Kind of defeats the purpose of the flex). The 3 game pack already requires you to select the games and seats at the time of purchase.

I received an email (having attended the SSK game last year) offering a "Rider game 3 pack" which was for the 2 SSK games and the Nov 7 CGY game. They are floating the idea of having a Riders supporter area in the East yellow and blue sections from 219 to 236. (This offer is for May 20-29th only).