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Bring back male cheerleaders. NOT !

Any season ticket holders for more than 30 years should be able to watch the games for free for the rest of their lives. They have suffered enough.

TheLionKing wrote:Bring back male cheerleaders. NOT !

Any season ticket holders for more than 30 years should be able to watch the games for free for the rest of their lives. They have suffered enough.

That might be half the clientele. Revenues would plummet!

TheLionKing wrote:Bring back male cheerleaders. NOT !
Any season ticket holders for more than 30 years should be able to watch the games for free for the rest of their lives. They have suffered enough.

No, it's not 30 years yet as the last time the Lions had male cheerleaders was only 25 years ago in 1990.

I suppose it's totally okay that the Lions have not followed suit with regards to sexism and politically correctly by allowing male cheerleaders - unlike three other CFL teams:

Edmonton Eskimos


Winnipeg Blue Bombers


Saskatchewan Roughriders


And in that sense, Canada is ahead of America in terms equality of the sexes as there are three CFL teams with male cheerleaders while there's only one NFL team with male cheerleaders.

Baltimore Ravens

WestCoastJoe wrote:James, that is amazing. A very fun read, along with many serious, constructive ideas.

X2

Brilliant stuff

I'd want to diversify my fan base. Reach into every key community - ethnic, etc. especially build up the following in Vancouver and espec. DT where folks live and practically can walk to games as well as Skytrain it.

A good way to start would be to learn any lessons from the mistakes that the previous owners made and think of a way to resolve those issues so that there won't be a repetition. Repeating a post earlier about how all four previous private owners were mentioned in an article about the top 25 BC Lions personalities and finding out their mistakes.....

Owner #1 - MURRAY PEZIM
Pezim is one of 120 members inducted into the Canadian Mining Hall of Fame, though he was never a candidate for inclusion in the Canadian Football Hall of Fame. Still, the butcher turned gold mining promoter was willing to strip and wave a huge orange mitten that looked like a Lions paw to promote his team. It was like having Don Rickles in the owner’s suite. He signed ex-New York Giants defensive end Mark Gastineau to become a Lions superstar and promoted him as the next heavyweight boxing champion. The Pez was wrong about that one, but he did get it right by realizing the potential box office appeal of Doug Flutie. Las Vegas was Pezim’s natural environment, not the CFL. Tired of the circus act, the league revoked Pezim’s ownership and took control of the team on Aug. 27, 1992 after Pezim refused to pay off debts and creditors.


So the biggest mistake is.....if you know that Doug Flutie is the #1 asset in terms of ticket sales then do whatever you can to retain him and outbid any other CFL owner which Pezim couldn't do as he allowed Larry Ryckman to outbid him.
And instead of taking your chances when it comes to defence by bringing in Mark Gastineau who has long passed his prime....use your money to retain existing and proven all-stars like Alondra Johnson and Willie Pless - losing those two to Alberta rivals resulted in an absolutely terrible defence.

Owner #2 - BILL COMRIE
At 19, after playing major junior with the Moose Jaw Canucks and Edmonton Oil Kings, Comrie decided to abandon his hockey career and join his father’s furniture business, creating what is now The Brick Warehouse Corporation. Having proven himself as an astute businessman, he thought he could be an astute sports owner. Three weeks after previous owner Murray Pezim declared bankruptcy in 1992, Cromie bought the Lions. Two years later, the team won a championship under the direction of head coach Dave Ritchie and general manager Eric Tillman when the Lions defeated the Baltimore Stallions in the first Canada vs. USA Grey Cup game. In March, 1996, however, wearied by the team’s chronic financial instability, Cromie sold out to a group of 10 local businessmen headed by Nelson Skalbania and Michael Jensen.


Bill Comrie found out that apparently having a lot of free giveaways and improving their defence to win a championship is still not good enough to increase attendance and must have lost a lot of money in his 3.5 years as owner with the team. Better stick with furniture and not football.

Owner #3 - NELSON SKALBANIA
The flamboyant real estate flipper from Vancouver (seen on the left) is best-known for signing 17-year-old Wayne Gretzky when he was owner of the Indianapolis Racers of the World Hockey Association. Over a span of 10 years, in the 1970s, Skalbania owned hotels, shopping centres, apartment buildings and sports teams, including the Edmonton Oilers, Montreal Alouettes, Vancouver Canadians, Memphis Rogues and Calgary Boomers. He was instrumental in the move of the Atlanta Flames to Calgary. His final foray into sports ownership came with the Lions in 1996, but Skalbania developed a case of the shorts and was forced to hand over control to a receiver after only six months.


Too many bad things can be said about him so I can simply summarize everything by saying.....

Owner #4 - DAVID BRALEY
Late in 1996, with the Lions orphaned by Nelson Skalbania and his group and the CFL hanging on life support, Hamilton businessman David Braley rescued west coast football when the Vancouver corporate community was seized by a collective case of wallet-clutching. Two of the Lions’ five Grey Cups -- 2000 and 2006 -- have come under Braley’s stewardship. His willingness to withstand large financial hits kept Lions football going during the bleak years before the arrival of Bob Ackles in 2002 and Wally Buono a year later. Since ‘03, the Lions have never won fewer than 11 games and the present couldn’t be much better. B.C. has won four straight West Division pennants. The franchise is moving closer to the situation of the mid-1980s, when the Lions sold 30,000 season tickets and averaged more than 40,000 fans per game during the honeymoon phase of B.C. Place.


It's hard to criticize any mistakes he did, but I suppose a good example was that he took over the team when they were in the dark ages from 1996 to 2002 with attendance was often less than 20,000 and just like Comrie and his 1994 team, a 2000 championship did not increase attendance. Best move he ever made was hiring Wally Buono and increasing attendance. Nevertheless, attendance under his many years still cannot compare with 1991 and the mid-1980's.

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Being a football owner will likely bring about a conflict of interest with the team, with the fans, and with your own personal business/investment. Going by the old saying: "Offence buys tickets, Defence wins games" then would you be happier with a season like 1991 or would you rather have a season like 1994, 2000, and even 2006?

Invest millions in bringing Marcus Mariota in here?

David wrote:Some thoughts....
* Build the team an indoor practice facility for inclement days in October/November
* Foster deeper ties with amateur football (specifically closer alliances with UBC and SFU)

DH

Lot of fantastic ideas here. I too would build a practice facility then borrow a page from the MLS and launch an all-expenses paid academy program for football players between Grades 8-12.
These players are identified by Football BC and Lions provide them with a professional staff for additional training at the club facility. They are also invited back a 2-3 times month during the off-season to work with the actual Lions coaching staff as well as their support group such as Chris Boyko. Yes they could end up playing for a CFL rival one day but its all about developing and promoting the game of football in BC. Really all CFL teams should be doing this.

And the other thing I would do is pay Scott Ackles whatever it would take to leave his current job and step in as club president. He was even missed chairing the Grey Cup committee this past year. Nothing against Dennis Skulsky as I do believe he has a passion for the Lions but the Ackles name and Scott's previous experience is an absolute must for this franchise moving forward.

Great idea about the residency program, SammyGreene!

Also, if I owned the BC Lions, I would do everything I could to get them on TV! A half-hour show, even if there's recycled content from the website (okay, well maybe not the Jeff Tedford presser, LOL!) and I had to buy airtime myself!

Highlights, analysis, Lions players in the community, locker-room stuff, behind-the-scenes on road trips etc.



DH

David wrote:Great idea about the residency program, SammyGreene!

Also, if I owned the BC Lions, I would do everything I could to get them on TV! A half-hour show, even if there's recycled content from the website (okay, well maybe not the Jeff Tedford presser, LOL!) and I had to buy airtime myself!

Highlights, analysis, Lions players in the community, locker-room stuff, behind-the-scenes on road trips etc.



DH

Yeah, basically they should just get the old 2013 program Off the Gridiron back on air. Generating enough content is never a problem as per your examples. Finding a good timeslot is the tricky part and IIRC this was a factor in Global's decision not to renew it for 2014.

Yea, but if I'm a deep-pocketed owner sj-roc, I am producing that show myself and buying the air time. I seem to recall watching that show very late on Sunday nights.

It's vitally important to get these athletes with big personalities into homes so they can identify with the team and "buy in."


DH

David wrote:Yea, but if I'm a deep-pocketed owner sj-roc, I am producing that show myself and buying the air time. I seem to recall watching that show very late on Sunday nights.

It's vitally important to get these athletes with big personalities into homes so they can identify with the team and "buy in."


DH

The first run was usually around noon hour on Sundays with a late evening rerun the same night. The rerun was a bit too late, after most folks had retired for the night, while the first run was up against NFL broadcasts. Global also uploaded every episode to their website, usually within a few hours of the first run.

We had this thread about OTG at the time where I posted some of these episode links. Not sure about all of them but I just checked one of them, for Oct 13, 2013 and the link actually still works for that episode!

I agree on having a show that showcases the personalities of the players. I recall OTG did some of this, for example, with features on Dean Valli's business and Buck Pierce's Wpg restaurant, and others on the estrangement of Andrew Harris's dad and Chris Wilson's proposal to his fiancée. So they were sort of on the right track by this measure.

If an OTG type of show were to resurface, the Lions should have full creative control of it and yes, I agree they should break out the chequebook to make it happen.

SammyGreene wrote:

David wrote: And the other thing I would do is pay Scott Ackles whatever it would take to leave his current job and step in as club president. He was even missed chairing the Grey Cup committee this past year. Nothing against Dennis Skulsky as I do believe he has a passion for the Lions but the Ackles name and Scott's previous experience is an absolute must for this franchise moving forward.

X2

TheLionKing wrote:

SammyGreene wrote:And the other thing I would do is pay Scott Ackles whatever it would take to leave his current job and step in as club president. He was even missed chairing the Grey Cup committee this past year. Nothing against Dennis Skulsky as I do believe he has a passion for the Lions but the Ackles name and Scott's previous experience is an absolute must for this franchise moving forward.

X2

I wonder whether Scott Ackles simply no longer has any interest in working for the Lions or anywhere in the CFL on account of the fact that it would invite constant comparisons to his late father whereas he might prefer to make his own mark on the world and if that means staying out of football then so be it. He might return to a CFL job someday but maybe for now he feels like he has something to prove and wants to succeed on his own terms. Several years from now he'd be hired based as much on his accomplishments outside of the football over a stretch of what would be about a decade or more, as on his name and what he did with the Stamps and the GC committees in his last go-round.

I thought I read somewhere there was a conflict between Scott Ackles and David Braley