The Canadian Football League is coming to Vancouver for the 102nd Grey Cup without some of the big sponsors that it had for 2011’s game, but the planned activations are decidedly more creative.
Vancouver is hosting the big game for the 16th time (and ninth at BC Place stadium) on November 30. While the league is searching for a long-term beer sponsor and it hasn’t replaced Scotiabank, vice-president of marketing Sara Moore is upbeat about its planes, trains and automobiles partnerships. Appropriate for a league that once counted comedian John Candy as a Toronto Argonauts co-owner.
Canadian North is the official carrier of the East and West division finalists. The airline normally flies to 19 Northwest Territories and Nunavut destinations plus Edmonton and Ottawa. It inked a three-year deal with the CFL last July and has decorated a Boeing 737-300 with logos of the nine franchises. The winning team will fly home with the trophy on this bird December 1. Parent NorTerra Inc. is held by 100%-aboriginal-owned Inuvialuit Development Corp.
The CFL wouldn’t disclose the financial details of its sponsorships or the 2014 Grey Cup activation budgets.
Outgoing commissioner Mark Cohon kicked off a new tradition at the centennial Grey Cup in Toronto in 2012 by leading a parade of fans to the stadium. The CP Has Heart Grey Cup Fan March leaves Jack Poole Plaza on game day, heads south on Thurlow Street, then east on Robson Street until Terry Fox Plaza at BC Place. Lucky fans will get to carry the Grey Cup, but hoisting overhead is reserved only for those who earned it on the gridiron.
Moore calls it “one of those wonderful game-day goosebump things” and believes no other league in the world allows its fans to carry the trophy into the stadium on championship day. It reinforces the CFL’s accessible, fan-friendly ethos and promotes the railway’s support of the Heart and Stroke Foundation with a healthy walk to the stadium for thousands of fans.
“It is Canada’s cup, it belongs to the fans,” Moore said. “It is the perfect game-day activation in our league.”
Those are the planes and the trains. Now for the automobiles.
As this went to print, the Grey Cup finalists had yet to be determined, but two teams had booked their tickets. Edmonton’s Eastglen High and Hamilton’s Sir John A. Macdonald Secondary were prominently featured in Nissan’s Back in the Game advertising campaign. They were among the 21 high school football teams in 18 cities chosen by the carmaker and its dealers to receive funding, equipment, training materials and player appearances. Vancouver’s Eric Hamber, Burnaby Central and South Surrey’s Earl Marriott were the B.C. schools that benefited from the campaign aimed at boosting needy football programs.
“We created something much more impactful, much more meaningful, but it still meets all the business objectives that a partner brings to us when they want to be a partner with the league,” Moore said.
Leos’ lost season
The BC Lions’ dull 2014 campaign ended in Montreal November 16 like a plate of cold, stale poutine. It was a lost season for quarterback Travis Lulay and others in the sick bay.
In 2011, when BC Place was renovated, the Grey Cup was sold out in July. This year, the lacklustre Leos also faced competition from the Seattle Seahawks, whose Super Bowl win made their tickets and jerseys attractive buys for B.C.’s cross-border football shoppers.
Tickets are a steep $150 to $350 a pop for the big game. By comparison, it cost $35 for the 1983 Grey Cup, when the Lions hosted Toronto in the CFL’s first indoor championship. With inflation, those tickets would cost only $75.01 today.
BC Pavilion Corp. hoped for a repeat of 2011, when the Lions beat the Winnipeg Blue Bombers at home, and spent $2.7 million to buy the 2014 rights. Even if the November 30 game doesn’t sell out, TSN should get higher ratings. The Bombers-Lions matchup in 2011 averaged 4.6 million viewers, a drop from 6.04 million in 2010 when the Montreal Alouettes edged the Saskatchewan Roughriders at Edmonton. •
