BC Lions Football :: BCLionsDen.ca

  • Home
  • Pawdcasts
  • About
  • Contact Us
  • CFPN
    • BCLionsDen (Apple Music)
    • Horsemen Radio
    • Eskimo Empire Podcast
    • Piffles Podcast
    • Blue Bomber Talk
    • Podskee Wee Wee
    • Alouettes Flightdeck
    • 2 and Out CFL Podcast
    • Rouge Radio
    • Rouge White and Blue
    • Tokyo Unofficial CFL Podcast
  • BC Lions Official
    • 20218 Schedule
    • Current Roster
    • Transactions
You are here: Home / Archives for Dennis Prouse

The Elephant in the Room

July 6, 2009 By Brian Wawryshyn

Will the Economic Downturn Pinch The CFL at the Turnstiles in 2009?

As the CFL get’s under way this month, it is remarkable to think back on what a different economic world we now see as compared to when the 2008 Grey Cup was awarded.

Since November 2008, we have been bombarded by economic changes, none of them positive. The economy has continued to shed jobs, leaving industries like BC’s forest industry and Ontario’s auto sector in ruins. Consumer confidence, so robust just a year ago, has taken a beating. Recovery is coming, say economists, but it will be a slow climb back.

This is an ominous development for the CFL, especially for a League that is still heavily gate driven. To date, though, neither team executives or sports media have really taken on the question of how this might affect League attendance in 2009.

Like restaurant meals and vacations (two other sectors that have taken a beating recently as well) sports tickets are the ultimate discretionary spending item. Just ask Major League Baseball, who has seen their attendance dip 10% in 2009, and Major League Soccer, who have also seen attendance drop sharply. In the minor leagues of baseball, many teams didn’t even make it to the field for 2009, as a number of clubs folded up shop early in the year.

Even in a downturn, consumers will still buy tickets that represent good value to them. 2010 Winter Olympic tickets were scooped up quickly, obscure events and all. With its loyal fan base, the NHL survived the 2008-09 season remarkably unscathed. How will the CFL fare this year?

Can Hamilton ride out a rebuilding team and a poor economy?
Can Hamilton ride out a rebuilding team and a poor economy?

As a whole, the CFL is better positioned to survive this downtown than the last one in the early 1990s. Ownership across the league is more stable, marketing has improved, and revenue streams have been diversified. Still, there are potential trouble spots, most notably Hamilton. A lengthy streak of losing seasons, combined with a badly faltering local economy, could spell trouble for Steeltown attendance. Around the lake in Toronto, the Argos are facing their usual fight for fan interest in the most competitive sports market in Canada. A tough Southern Ontario economy hurts the Argos in 2009 as well.

Finally, what about the Lions? Again, the Lions are light years ahead of where they were in the early 90s, in the depths of Murray Pezim’s reign of error as owner. David Braley, the late Bob Ackles and Wally Buono have made the Lions a model organization, but even at that season ticket sales are slightly behind those of 2008. How will single game sales go, especially if the club struggles on the field somewhat?

After years of growth and positive stories, the CFL may have to retrench slightly in 2009, and perhaps into 2010 as well. It just wouldn’t be the CFL we love if we didn’t have a challenge to tackle.

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: CFL, David Braley, Dennis Prouse, Ecomony, Hamilton, Toronto

BCLionsDen.ca 2.0

June 5, 2009 By Brian Wawryshyn

Welcome to the new BCLionsDen.ca, or as we’ve been shamelessly flogging it in recent months, “Version 2.0”.

As you can see, I have given the site a face lift, and changed our format by entering the realm of the blog/content management system. Over the past few years the blog has become a popular and effective tool in the world of social media, a field that I am growing more interested in. For that reason, I wanted to create a fan site that was more of a magazine style and see where it will go. The new site has been a large learning curve, with headaches and challenges, but a lot of fun one as well.

We want you to feel like you’re sitting around in a room with friends, talking about the BC Lions and the CFL. This country has some great football writers, like Lowell Ullrich but they can’t express the raw views of you the fan. They can interview the players, the coaches, write reviews on games, but they have to remain somewhat neutral in their analysis and reporting, while fans have a strong attachment to their teams and have no such limitations. While we want your true opinions, we also want you to respect that players and coaches are human beings, and personal attacks of any kind won’t be tolerated on this site. The ultimate goal would be to have players see what we’re trying to create here and feel comfortable to participate on the site, interacting with you the fans.

Another goal of the site is to celebrate the players and personalities that have been involved with the BC Lions over their 50+ year history, by compiling as many alumni profiles as we can to make sure these people that have provided us with memories as fans are not forgotten. This area of the site is still in the works, and now that the main design and content is done we’ll be concentrating on adding these alumni profiles as we can find information on former players. If you’re a former player and could help us with pictures or information about your career, we would love to hear from you.

I am very pleased to have my friend Dennis Prouse writing for the site. Dennis is a transplanted BC Lions fan living in Ottawa, and has been coaching amateur/minor football for many years. Dennis has great insight on the technical aspects of the game and you can look forward to his contributions soon and throughout the season.

Our forums are still here and we’ll also have desktop wallpapers, schedules, fan profiles, tailgate information and a great resource of links. You can also follow updates to the site on Twitter.

I do apologize however. I simply ran out of time in my efforts to get all the sections filled in, so there are a few areas of the site that will come online when I finish them and add more content.

All told, I’m happy with the end product, and I hope you are too! Tell your friends and fellow Lions/CFL fans about us. Your participation is vital to our success and growth!

So welcome to BCLionsDen.ca 2.0, and ROAR YOU LIONS ROAR!

Brian (Orangeshoes99)

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: Alumni, Dennis Prouse, Lowell Ullrich, Twitter

Follow

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Sponsor: RenfrowFootball.com

https://bclionsden.ca/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/RPReplay_Final1575410753.mp4

Sponsor: Metal Rocks

Metal Rocks

Advertisement

Great CFL Resources

  • CFL Database
  • CanadaFootballChat.com

CFL West Fan Sites

  • BCLionsDen.ca
  • Horsemen Radio
  • Eskimo Empire Podcast.com
  • Piffles Podcast

CFL East Fan Sites

  • Friends of the Argonauts
  • Alouettes Flightdeck
  • Redblacks Fan Facebook Page
  • Podskee Wee Wee
Creative Commons Licence
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 Canada License.

Privacy Policy

Copyright © 2023 BCLionsDen.ca · BCLionsDen.ca is an independent fan site and is not affiliated with the BC Lions Football club, the Canadian Football League or its partners.