2015 All Things Lions Marketing & Promotions

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B.C.FAN
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Speaking of playoffs, I was looking at Ticketmaster and noticed that the cheapest tickets for this week's home game seem to go for the regular price of $44, all in. The cheapest tickets for the WSF in Calgary are $38.50, all in, for adults or $33.50 for seniors, students and children.
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David
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Now THIS is how you entertain the crowd at a football game! Kudos to the Argos' Cheerleaders team for a very well choreographed Thriller routine with a unique twist (spoiler alert - the guy dancing is not an Argo player).

http://www.argonauts.ca/video/index/id/119001


DH :cool:
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TheLionKing
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Too bad there weren't more fans there to see it.
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jcalhoun
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The cheapest priced ticket for the Eastern Final is $27.oo. There is a $3.oo "capitol replacement fund" and a $6.oo "per ticket fee", but you can still get into the first Eastern Final Ottawa has hosted since....(1978?) for $36.oo. That's eight bucks less than tonight's exhibition against Calgary.

Those setting the prices for the Lions should take note. The two most successful teams in the league are not using the team's success as an opportunity to gouge the fans.

Cheers,

James
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sj-roc
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jcalhoun wrote:The cheapest priced ticket for the Eastern Final is $27.oo. There is a $3.oo "capitol replacement fund" and a $6.oo "per ticket fee", but you can still get into the first Eastern Final Ottawa has hosted since....(1978?) for $36.oo. That's eight bucks less than tonight's exhibition against Calgary.

Those setting the prices for the Lions should take note. The two most successful teams in the league are not using the team's success as an opportunity to gouge the fans.

Cheers,

James
Interesting point, but I don't think the Lions are using success as an opportunity to gouge the fans.
Sports can be a peculiar thing. When partaking in fiction, like a book or movie, we adopt a "Willing Suspension of Disbelief" for enjoyment's sake. There's a similar force at work in sports: "Willing Suspension of Rationality". If you doubt this, listen to any conversation between rival team fans. You even see it among fans of the same team. Fans argue over who's the better QB or goalie, and selectively cite stats that support their views while ignoring those that don't.
TheLionKing
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What a lineup of season ticket holders at the game to pick up their free jerseys.
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DanoT
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sj-roc wrote:
jcalhoun wrote:The cheapest priced ticket for the Eastern Final is $27.oo. There is a $3.oo "capitol replacement fund" and a $6.oo "per ticket fee", but you can still get into the first Eastern Final Ottawa has hosted since....(1978?) for $36.oo. That's eight bucks less than tonight's exhibition against Calgary.

Those setting the prices for the Lions should take note. The two most successful teams in the league are not using the team's success as an opportunity to gouge the fans.

Cheers,

James
Interesting point, but I don't think the Lions are using success as an opportunity to gouge the fans.
I was thinking pretty much the same thing: Lucky for the fans that the Lions haven't had enough success to be gougers. Unlucky for the fans that the Lions over charge them anyway.
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B.C.FAN
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It's not directly Lions-related but Andrew Bucholtz of Yahoo Sports has a fascinating interview with Hamilton Tiger-Cats chief commercial officer Matt Afinec on how his club managed to pack the new Tim Hortons Field and turn a profit in an era of declining attendance and TV viewership across the country. It's all about giving spectators an exciting live experience that draws them away from their HDTV screens. Some excerpts:
It hasn't been the greatest season for the CFL in general on the business front, with TV ratings down by 15 per cent to 590,000 viewers on average and average attendance down by 549 fans per game. At least one club had an outstanding year on the business side, though, and that would be the Hamilton Tiger-Cats; in their first full season at Tim Hortons Field, they sold out all nine of their regular-season home games (the only CFL club to do so this year, and the first time they've sold out their home games since 1973), sold out their playoff game, averaged 24,183 fans (102.9 per cent of their official stadium capacity), brought in all-time highs in sponsorship and ticket revenue, and made a profit for the first time in recent memory. Ticats' chief commercial officer Matt Afinec spoke to 55-Yard Line last week about Hamilton's 2015 successes, and said they particularly come from the team's focus on delivering a top live experience to entice fans to come out to games.

"What really, I think, drives the philosophy of our business is that we are passionately obsessed with delivering the best live viewing experience in Canadian sports," Afinec said. "That obsession, that work we do day-in and day-out to accomplish that, is really what has led to our success from a business and sponsorship standpoint. That, combined with an amazing football product on the field, is really the recipe."
"We focused on creating as many social viewing areas as we possibly could. If you've seen a game at Tim Hortons Field, you know there are no seats in the end zone. That was very much a conscious decision, because our research and our view to the business is there's a lot of people who like attending live events who don't want to be confined to a seat. They're passionate about the event, but they might not be living and dying on what coach Kent Austin is calling on second-and-six. Part of their experience is football, but they like going with their friends, they like being outside. That's a trend across the world, but in our view, we have to create spaces for them to be able to do that."
"We actually produce our game in-venue differently than anyone else, and we actually follow the blueprint of ESPN College Gameday," he said. "We treat our in-game production like a television show. We have a live panel that's being produced out of the south end zone, it's right in the middle of the fan experience, you can see fans behind them. We have a set beside it with a football field where we do demos, coaching experience. The easiest frame of reference is ESPN College Gameday, and that's what we've inspired our in-game experience to be like."
I don't think it's a unique situation here that we built our new stadium smaller than our old one, because like all sports franchises, we're competing with high-definition televisions."
Tiger-Cats' chief commercial officer Matt Afinec talks team's business success

It's hard to tell how much of The Ticats' success is due to shrewd marketing and how much is due to having a new stadium and highly competitive team. We've seen with the B.C. Place renovations and Investors Group Field in Winnipeg that the novelty effect of a new stadium wears off quickly if the on-field product slides. It will take a few years to evaluate the success of Hamilton's marketing efforts but they seem to have a solid plan.
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sj-roc
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Listening to Tom Mayenknecht right now on 1040, a few minutes ago he criticised the Blue Jays for raising ticket prices by an average of 10% across the board for 2016, basically calling it a cash grab after their 2015 success on the field. He said they shouldn't be raising ticket prices until they are selling out their games, or at the very least should defer any increase until 2017.

That sound you just heard was a riotous roar of laughter from the Lions' braintrust.
Sports can be a peculiar thing. When partaking in fiction, like a book or movie, we adopt a "Willing Suspension of Disbelief" for enjoyment's sake. There's a similar force at work in sports: "Willing Suspension of Rationality". If you doubt this, listen to any conversation between rival team fans. You even see it among fans of the same team. Fans argue over who's the better QB or goalie, and selectively cite stats that support their views while ignoring those that don't.
TheLionKing
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If they raise prices after a good season, they should lower prices if they had a bad year. Of course, that's wishful thinking.
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sj-roc
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TheLionKing wrote:If they raise prices after a good season, they should lower prices if they had a bad year. Of course, that's wishful thinking.
There are teams who have done that but it's admittedly rare, and they usually make a big deal about it when they do.
Sports can be a peculiar thing. When partaking in fiction, like a book or movie, we adopt a "Willing Suspension of Disbelief" for enjoyment's sake. There's a similar force at work in sports: "Willing Suspension of Rationality". If you doubt this, listen to any conversation between rival team fans. You even see it among fans of the same team. Fans argue over who's the better QB or goalie, and selectively cite stats that support their views while ignoring those that don't.
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sj-roc
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This might be old news for many readers here but a new find for me: the other day I was at Save On Foods, a Lions sponsor for at least the last several years, and noticed they had CFL car fresheners, the cardboard type that hangs from your rearview mirror. Only two teams were available on my visit: Edm & BC, with the former having by far the more abundant stock. Presumably the BC product has sold much better with little remaining stock.

Image

After the record of recent seasons, you can make your own jokes about the irony of the Lions having anything to do with providing a fresh scent.
Sports can be a peculiar thing. When partaking in fiction, like a book or movie, we adopt a "Willing Suspension of Disbelief" for enjoyment's sake. There's a similar force at work in sports: "Willing Suspension of Rationality". If you doubt this, listen to any conversation between rival team fans. You even see it among fans of the same team. Fans argue over who's the better QB or goalie, and selectively cite stats that support their views while ignoring those that don't.
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Honour Dewalt
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Not only was it near impossible finding a Lions jersey over Christmas, look at their online store. Nothing. Merchandise and clothing styles are weak and stale as well. All falls on the Pres if you ask me. Skulsky is eroding this team. What has he done at all to warrant keeping him?
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SammyGreene
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Honour Dewalt wrote:Not only was it near impossible finding a Lions jersey over Christmas, look at their online store. Nothing. Merchandise and clothing styles are weak and stale as well. All falls on the Pres if you ask me. Skulsky is eroding this team. What has he done at all to warrant keeping him?
The lack of jersey inventory very likely has to do with the phase out of Reebok for the 2016 season. Not sure many fans would be happy to spend $200 on a customized jersey and find out the league has switched to Adidas a few months later. This played a large part in why the Lions did the jersey giveaway as part of their 2016 season ticket campaign. It will be interesting to see what changes Adidas will make but you know there will be a big enough difference to prompt the paying customer to update his wardrobe.

That said, what is going on at the league level is concerning and baffling. Go to the official CFL website and the shop link only has merchandise featuring the league's new marketing campaign as well as some team toques that were just released for $40. http://shopwwmo.cfl.ca

Yet the old store is still up and running featuring tons of fan gear for all teams including Reebok jerseys at 1/2 price http://www.cflshop.ca/ :dizzy:
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Honour Dewalt
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Yeah, I was going to add that I figured it was due to a possible new uniform. But checking other teams, they still have some available. Perhaps the Lions keep stock so tight they have nothing available. There could at least be something letting us know. I also noticed the league store only had the new logo stuff as well. Maybe this all came up in short notice and now they are trying to catch up with new merchandising with the new branding.
I'm also quite interested to see what the Lions do with a new uniform. If there are any significant changes.
However, I still think some info on their ship saying "Coming soon" or anything to indicate why the jersey section is empty would look a little more professional.
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