Nooooooooo!!!!!

[South Pender]

It's just that patches on home and away jerseys scream 'minor league' to me.

Tell that to Manchester United or any European soccer team. Their players and fans are walking billboards for beer and cellphone companies, banks and anyone else whose logos appear in place of club names or player numbers on the front of jerseys. North American sports are jumping on the sponsorship bandwagon in a big way, too, with advertising on hockey rink boards and ice, baseball outfield walls, scoreboards, some playing fields and on every available space around stadiums and arenas. Money talks. The only difference between major league and minor league is the amount of money involved.

Perhaps it's the contrast effect between the CFL and NFL that makes our game look bad in comparison. I could be wrong about this, but I don't recall seeing anywhere near the amount of advertising in NFL stadiums as we have (with those tacky paper stands strewn along the sidelines, and which can cause player injury and have done so). Also no jersey patches, although there are those cursed Nike swooshes! This would be our natural comparison basis, not CFL vs NHL or European soccer. The ads on hockey boards aren't new; they've been there for a long, long time.

I think we all understand the need for the CFL and its teams to raise money. It's a small league with low attendance (compared with NFL crowds) and small TV revenues (again compared with the NFL TV contract). Every available dollar must be harvested. This is just the way it is, but, for some of us, we don't like being reminded of it.

[David]

Tell that to Manchester United or any European soccer team. Their players and fans are walking billboards for beer and cellphone companies, banks and anyone else whose logos appear in place of club names or player numbers on the front of jerseys. North American sports are jumping on the sponsorship bandwagon in a big way, too, with advertising on hockey rink boards and ice, baseball outfield walls, scoreboards, some playing fields and on every available space around stadiums and arenas. Money talks. The only difference between major league and minor league is the amount of money involved.

I am not comparing the CFL to soccer. I am not even suggesting it's the NBA (which will soon be adopting patches). Like it or not, our league constantly gets held up to the light by Canadian sports fans to the NFL - a league that, as far as I can tell, won't allow any of its teams to put a credit union patch on their game day jersey any time soon.

While I recognize sponsorships are becoming more commonplace in major pro sports leagues, I think a CCS practice jersey is a good compromise.


DH

[sj-roc]

I am thrilled CCS has come on board, and if I find a branch close to me, I will gladly open an account.

I've never banked with CCS so I can't comment on that aspect, but they have created some buzz before with that visual, interactive Julie feature on their website, which is still active. If you idle on that page long enough it'll cycle through a bunch of "easter eggs" where she does all sorts of whimsical stuff. Their twitter account is also from the POV of the Julie persona; this was the initial CCS tweet on their partnership with the Lions:



I think they have a branch near the BWay/City Hall stop for the Canada Line, prob others in Vancouver, too.

[Toppy Vann]

Tell that to Manchester United or any European soccer team. Their players and fans are walking billboards for beer and cellphone companies, banks and anyone else whose logos appear in place of club names or player numbers on the front of jerseys. North American sports are jumping on the sponsorship bandwagon in a big way, too, with advertising on hockey rink boards and ice, baseball outfield walls, scoreboards, some playing fields and on every available space around stadiums and arenas. Money talks. The only difference between major league and minor league is the amount of money involved.

I am not comparing the CFL to soccer. I am not even suggesting it's the NBA (which will soon be adopting patches). Like it or not, our league constantly gets held up to the light by Canadian sports fans to the NFL - a league that, as far as I can tell, won't allow any of its teams to put a credit union patch on their game day jersey any time soon.

While I recognize sponsorships are becoming more commonplace in major pro sports leagues, I think a CCS practice jersey is a good compromise.


DH

On economics alone the CFL is not first rate. 8 teams. SMS of $4 million. Naturally they should look at other pro sports across the world to see how they do it.

NBA is huge in China, MLB is now moving in as is Eng soccer as these are huge revenue markets for their products and game purchases.

CFL doesn't segment its market as does other pro sports. The Eng and Eur soccer teams bring in even just ONE top player from Asia (Man U) and when he moves on (Korea's Park) he is replaced by a Japanese player. Sure the guy can play but even better he can sell kit in Asia.

The CFL is a high risk venture given its size of league. It needs to grow. Sponsors are crucial.

Ziggy did the good thing.

[Coast Mountain Lion]

I am thrilled CCS has come on board, and if I find a branch close to me, I will gladly open an account.

I've never banked with CCS so I can't comment on that aspect, but they have created some buzz before with that visual, interactive Julie feature on their website, which is still active. If you idle on that page long enough it'll cycle through a bunch of "easter eggs" where she does all sorts of whimsical stuff. Their twitter account is also from the POV of the Julie persona; this was the initial CCS tweet on their partnership with the Lions:



I think they have a branch near the BWay/City Hall stop for the Canada Line, prob others in Vancouver, too.

They've also had a number of commercials that were quite enjoyable and humourous, as commercials go. This was one of my favourites
I think done by the same agency that did the "You Belong in the Stands" series of ads.

[Spud387]

I bank with Coast Capital and I think they are a great bank. I am glad they are on board, it is just unfortunate that their colors clash so much with our jerseys :( I just wish they inverted their colours (blue border, white background, blue letters) to make it less of an eye sore but still noticeable (blue on orange will always be noticeable no matter how small.

See this version of their logo, which they do use.

[sj-roc]

I bank with Coast Capital and I think they are a great bank. I am glad they are on board, it is just unfortunate that their colors clash so much with our jerseys :( I just wish they inverted their colours (blue border, white background, blue letters) to make it less of an eye sore but still noticeable (blue on orange will always be noticeable no matter how small.

See this version of their logo, which they do use.

This blue text on white background scheme may be an older discontinued version of the logo; it's from a third party site and I couldn't find any instance of it having just surfed around a bit on the CCS site. They probably inverted the colour scheme at some point, just like the Lions themselves once did with the original version of their current logo. Maybe the next throwback uniform scheme will invert BOTH logos? :/

CCS responded on twitter to someone who pointed out the colour clash. This person wasn't even directing the comment directly at CCS, so they're well aware of the issue and don't seem uncomfortable about jumping into the fray, either.

[Hambone]

I sent Coast Capital an email of support as a long term customer, shareholder and a Lions fan. I also mentioned it was a upgrade in my opinion , of their previous advertising efforts. Personally I'm for encouraging sponsors to get involved locally.

I hope you mentioned my idea that CCS should adopt a Lions Logo Wear Friday (instead of Casual Fridays) at their branches.

Really that could be a grassroots thing any individual or company could try encouraging at their workplace.

[sj-roc]

http://www.popmatters.com/pm/feature/14 ... a-sellout/

This isn't really a football article or even a particularly new one (almost two years old), but I thought I'd share it anyway since having just read it, I noticed some parallels with the discussion in this thread.

The writer once played in a 1980s indie rock band and compares music audiences of that era to those of today. He notes that the former group of fans once took a very dim view to anything undertaken by a musical act that could be construed as "selling out" — pointing out several bands from his heyday who destroyed their street cred by appearing in beer commercials — and contrasts this with the latter group, who seem at best indifferent to such ventures. He even identifies some contemporary examples that have barely made a ripple but would have once been considered cardinal sin (you can't help but notice a tinge of bitterness from the writer since his own 80s band maintained their street cred without making much of an impact, but that's another story).

It might be worth keeping in mind that the group of fans who the Lions most need to attract to ensure their long term viability are from this latter demographic and therefore less likely to take much umbrage to cresting. This line from the article stood out to me.

I asked my 16-year-old daughter if she cares more about bands or songs. Duh, songs, of course.

In a similar vein, we might wonder whether today's game-going youth care more about the Lions team itself, or just taking in a few hours of entertainment. At the end of the day, does it make a difference as long as they're buying tickets? One would conclude that the Lions' business ops seems to think not.

[Toppy Vann]

University of Pennsylvania has a course that hopefully someone from the CFL understands and knows as the CFL problem is to grow the game and expand the league to at least 10 ideally 12 teams that are all successful and not rooted to just current thinking.

MLB, NBA, the German Bundesliga (richer than the English Prem League, Barclays Premier League (yes folks - the Eng Prem. League sold to Barclays and the office name in the Uk is Barclays PL - all these have a huge and growing footprint in Asia and off season you see them around and always the marketing.

The CFL needs to learn - maybe take this course:

The Global Business of Sports
Kenneth L. Shropshire

This course analyzes the business side of sports and discusses the intricacies of global sports leagues as well as various countries' sports strategies. You will be equipped with a framework and tools to understand and evaluate the business side of competitive sports around the world.
Workload: 4-6 hours/week
https://www.coursera.org/course/globalsportsbusiness

[Lions4ever]

I distinctly recall Mark Cohon at the time he was hired saying he wanted to do something about the NASCARization of the CFL, which I took him to mean getting rid of the uniform ad patches and the ads on the fields. I wish he would act on those words and have the power to veto this sort of nonsense. I realize the league and the teams need to generate revenue where they can but I find this approach misguided. I think this patch looks absolutely hideous and doesn't encourage me to spend money or support the Lions or Coast Capital more, it makes me want to spend and support less. It's tacky, ugly and cheapening. These are not qualities I would be rushing to associate myself with. I'm very disappointed in both entities over this. I hated the old patches and this is even worse. It makes me cringe. My wife is the manager of a Coast Capital breach and she doesn't like this either. But why should I care about my stupid perceived "sanctity" of the uniform if the Lions own brass doesn't? It just makes me sad.

[JohnHenry]

I distinctly recall Mark Cohon at the time he was hired saying he wanted to do something about the NASCARization of the CFL, which I took him to mean getting rid of the uniform ad patches and the ads on the fields. I wish he would act on those words and have the power to veto this sort of nonsense. I realize the league and the teams need to generate revenue where they can but I find this approach misguided. I think this patch looks absolutely hideous and doesn't encourage me to spend money or support the Lions or Coast Capital more, it makes me want to spend and support less. It's tacky, ugly and cheapening. These are not qualities I would be rushing to associate myself with. I'm very disappointed in both entities over this. I hated the old patches and this is even worse. It makes me cringe. My wife is the manager of a Coast Capital breach and she doesn't like this either. But why should I care about my stupid perceived "sanctity" of the uniform if the Lions own brass doesn't? It just makes me sad.

When Commissioner Cohon was new to the job, he did express disdain for the patches and on-field ads and said he'd try to clean it up. He probably soon learned these sponsors had long-term contracts which earned the league millions. Just like our governments, the league appreciated and relied upon those new revenue streams. I dislike the on-field ads but they are less garish than the flashing board-ads in the NHL, which are accepted in Canada's No. 1 sport, and which they have no plans to eliminate either.

I also dislike the new flashing ribbon ads at field-level in the CFL, which flash while the play in going-on and make it hard to see the QB on TV when he's winding up to pass.

Coast Capital is apparently paying half a million to the Lions for these patches, income the team can't reasonably reject. They're not that bad. The next step could be forehead billboards, like European hockey players, for perhaps a million?

The league could also earn millions by selling sponsorship for the Grey Cup, i.e: The Grey Cup brought to you by Tim Hortons...or for even more money, i.e: The NAPA Auto Parts Grey Cup Classic. Is that a sellout or just smart business?

[DanoT]

From a marketing point of view, the fact that the CCS patch clashes with the orange jersey is actually a good thing. The patch stands out and we've just spent 5 pages talking about it. CCS is already getting value out of it and the lions haven't even worn the jersey yet.

[TheLionKing]

Next big thing is yard markers sponsored by..... Lions first and ten on the Riders 35 yard line, brought to you by ......

[sj-roc]

Next big thing is yard markers sponsored by..... Lions first and ten on the Riders 35 yard line, brought to you by ......

That's already here — on the radio broadcasts, at least: "Another Budget Brake & Muffler first down."