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 Seattle Seahawks

Fans Love Football: It’s Time To Take Pride In Our Local Teams

January 30, 2015 By Brian Wawryshyn

Call it coincidental timing or a shrewdly calculated media release, but the BC Lions posted the results of a survey that suggest the football club is the team of choice for sports fans in the province of British Columbia.

With Seahawks fever gripping the lower mainland ahead of this weekend’s Super Bowl, the survey says that football is growing in popularity in BC and that the Lions come out on top. 30% of BC residents surveyed said they are hard-core or regular fans of the Lions, while 21% indicated the Seahawks were their team of choice.

5633623Clearly football has a solid following in the province and it continues to grow. 51% of the fans surveyed claimed to be hard-core or regular fans of football, a higher number than the 40% the Canucks garnered, or the Vancouver Whitecaps at 15%. Of course that number includes both CFL and NFL fans, but the fact that football came out on top has to be encouraging for the Lions.

The release of the survey results were well timed. The cities of Vancouver and Victoria raised 12th man flags earlier in the day, an honour that to my knowledge as never been bestowed on the Lions or Whitecaps. The city of Surrey also raised a flag in tribute to our NFL neighbours, but at least did so in tandem with a BC Lions flag. Fitting since Surrey is the city the Lions call home for their practice facility.

It’s disappointing that these cities would make such a show of support for a team that doesn’t play in our country, our province, or our city. The BC Lions have won six Grey Cup championships for this region, yet they can’t even garner a parade when they bring home the hardware. The last big parade this city saw for a sports team was in 1979, when the Whitecaps won the NASL’s Soccer Bowl.

The Lions have hosted two recent Grey Cups, both times bringing massive revenues to the city and its local hotels and businesses, yet they don’t seem to warrant the same support of a team in another country that doesn’t even play here.

It’s time to change that. It’s time for our governments to get behind local teams and encourage the support they deserve. The Lions are constantly in the community, and that doesn’t stop in the offseason. There are very few days that players who are in town are not at a function for sick kids, talking on the subject of violence against women, bullying or various other initiatives. The Lions give back to this community in many ways.

And this doesn’t apply to just the Lions. The Whitecaps, Vancouver Canadians, Vancouver Giants, Vancouver Stealth all deserve the same treatment. It shouldn’t be reserved for the flavour of the day or a method to get votes, tourism dollars and publicity from rabid Seahawks fans.

Of course the Lions have to do their part in terms of marketing to capitalize on this popularity of the sport. Their work in amateur football in this province has been outstanding. The Orange Helmet Awards, the creation of the late Bob Ackles, have raised over $750,000 for amateur football over the 12 year history of the event.

But it’s time to take pride in the teams in our own backyard. For what they provide for our communities and our province, it’s the least we can do.

Filed Under: CFL/League, Den Talk, Featured Tagged With: BC Football, BC Lions, CFL, City of Surrey, City of Vancouver, City of Victoria, NFL, Seattle Seahawks

Off-season Update: Fabien, Buono and the Brand

January 5, 2013 By Brian Wawryshyn

With GM Wally Buono on his annual Hawaiian vacation, there hasn’t been much news of late coming out of the Lions Den. But as we had into 2013, there are a few nuggets worth discussing including an attempt by a certain team to get Buono to move east.

Fabien Looking South

Scott Mitchell of the Calgary Sun reports that 2011 first round draft pick Kirby Fabien will have a chance to impress NFL scouts after being named to the West roster at the East-West Shrine game. The game includes the best that college football has to offer and is a high exposure event for players to get the big league’s attention.

The Lions of course are still hoping to have Fabien in their lineup, as soon as this year, and with uncertainty along the offensive line due to injury issues to Dean Valli and Jon Hameister-Ries, never mind the possible departure of Jovan Olafioye, Fabien heading south would be a blow.

That said it was the reason he returned to the Calgary Dinos instead of signing with the Leos last season. A chance to play in the NFL is every young players dream and you can’t fault Fabien for pursuing his for himself and for his family. If it doesn’t work out for him, Fabien told the Sun he has no issues with playing in the CFL.

“It’s a great option. It’s a great city and a great organization. If I play in the CFL, I’ll be playing for the Lions.”

Buono Approached by Ottawa Group

Wally BuonoTim Baines of the Ottawa Sun reports that Jeff Hunt and the Ottawa Sports & Entertainment Group are leaving no stone unturned in their search for a quality football man to run their operation. Baines writes that Hunt approached the Lions about permission to speak with GM Wally Buono, who quickly informed them he was quite happy in Vancouver.

It’s of course a compliment to Buono and to the Lions organization that he was approached, but Lions fans everywhere have to be pleased it didn’t go any farther than a courtesy phone call. The Lions have a solid and stable football operations team in place, a luxury that many teams would love to replicate.

Growing the Brand

I recently attended a Seattle Seahawks game and couldn’t help coming away total impressed. I’ve been down before but this trip really hammered home how well the Seahawks have marketed the “12th Man” concept to the fans. Everyone there buys in and on game day it is an event all around the stadium.

From the Blue Thunder percussion group, the tailgating, Touchdown City and the raising of the 12th man flag, the Seahawks brand is everywhere. The city takes pride in having the loudest stadium in the NFL, and if you haven’t experienced it live, you haven’t heard loud.

12thman

Of course it’s a different league and a different culture south of the border; Saskatchewan and Winnipeg would be the smaller scale versions of the Seahawks model, with the Riders marketing their fans as the 13th man. With their new stadiums in the works, both teams have a real chance to build on the pride they take in having the loudest stadiums in the league.

When the building is full and the fans are into the game BC Place is a very loud stadium, but those occurrences are all too rare in BC. The crowd is good and becoming more involved, but it could be so much better if they felt part of the whole experience. The Lions were all over the media last off-season following their Grey Cup win, but it didn’t result in the increased attendance they had hoped for. As a fan you can’t help to be somewhat jealous of how passionate fans in these markets are about their teams.

It is up to the team to find something for the fans to get behind so they can help build and instill this type of passion among its fan base. They only need to look 2 hours south to get some really great ideas.

All the best to the Seahawks this weekend! Go Hawks!


 

Filed Under: Den Talk, Featured, Uncategorized Tagged With: Kirby Fabien, Seattle Seahawks, Wally Buono

Ricky Foley Signs With The Seahawks

February 13, 2010 By Brian Wawryshyn

Ricky FoleyThe NFL has poached another from the roster of the BC Lions after it was reported today that defensive lineman Ricky had signed a contract with the Seattle Seahawks.

Foley the CFL’s top Canadian player in 2009, led the team and the league with 12 sacks last season. Taking advantage of the departure of Cameron Wake, Foley grabbed the open starting spot and ran with it in 2009 racking up 51 tackles as well. Foley, who was scheduled to become a CFL free agent on February 15, is a native of Courtice, Ontario led the CFL in sacks last season with 12, also recording 51 defensive tackles for the Lions.

Foley was a standout on York University’s football team and was selected fourth overall by the Lions in the first round of the 2006 CFL Draft.

[tweetmeme]

Filed Under: Den Talk, News Tagged With: BC Lions, Ricky Foley, Seattle Seahawks

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.