The CFL's marketing plan for the '99 season is called
"Join The Party," but "how many people show up is another
matter," according to Mark Harding of the TORONTO STAR. The
campaign -- which includes its own party anthem and T-shirts
with the message, "Score more at our party," radio and TV
ads -- "is aimed at the casual football fan and those who
once went to games but who've been turned off by the CFL."
The CFL "will purchase" 5,000 seats for the Argos' and
Lions' first two home games in what will be known as "The
Party Zone." Tickets will be distributed to local
charities, youth groups and amateur football associations in
both cities (TORONTO STAR, 6/11). In Toronto, Perry Lefko:
"The league's hierarchy feels it is time to party-hearty to
reach a new generation of fans and recoup a lost one." CFL
President Jeff Giles: "It's a call to action. It's an open
invitation to win [fans] back" (TORONTO SUN, 6/11). Also in
Toronto, Shawna Richer writes the marketing plan "was
unveiled with the campy showmanship of the World Wrestling
Federation and giddy excitement of a high-school pep rally."
Richer adds that the CFL is coming off "one of its best
seasons in many years," with a 6% increase in attendance.
Five of the eight teams "broke even or turned a small
profit." The marketing plan is the work of newly-named
VP/Marketing Reid Bailey, who did promotional work for the
Harlem Globetrotters and the WWF (GLOBE & MAIL, 6/11).
