Ticats Announce Burlington Initiatives

Ticats Announce Burlington Initiatives September 28th, 2011 11:10am

TIGER-CATS ANNOUNCE BURLINGTON INITIATIVES

Hamilton, Ontario – The Hamilton Tiger-Cats unveiled a series of initiatives focused in the City of Burlington today.

Among the announcements were:

“The Tiger-Cats are Burlington’s Team?
Burlington Mayor Rick Goldring proclaimed that the Tiger-Cats are ‘Burlington’s team’

“Burlington has a long tradition of supporting the Hamilton Tiger-Cats. I’m proud to proclaim that the Ticats are Burlington’s official CFL team. Oskee Wee Wee,? said Goldring.

High School Mentorship Program
The Ticats have established a high school mentorship program, in which Ticats players will serve as mentors and guest football coaches at Burlington high schools.

Burlington TigerTown Council
Continuing on the success of the TigerTown council in Hamilton, the Ticats will create an advisory group comprised of members of the Burlington community leaders to help build the Ticats brand in the Burlington area.

Black and Gold Day in Burlington
The Tiger-Cats annual Black and Gold Day – a fan festival held each year during training camp – will continue to be held in Burlington on an ongoing basis.

Shuttle Service Coming in 2012
Beginning in 2012, season seat holders in Burlington will be provided with free shuttles to and from Ivor Wynne Stadium.

Burlington Night on October 22
The Tiger-Cats have designated their October 22 game vs. BC as ‘Burlington Night.’ Details about the game, including ticket packages available at several Burlington establishments, will be announced soon.

“The Ticats have always had a strong following in Burlington and we are excited to increase our presence within the Burlington community. We look forward to continuing to grow the Ticats brand in Burlington for years to come,? said President Scott Mitchell.

About the Hamilton Tiger-Cats
The Hamilton Tiger-Cats are a member of the Canadian Football League (CFL) with a rich 142-year history, which includes 15 Grey Cup Championships. For more information log onto www.ticats.ca

How much easier would it have been to become a regional team with an easily accessible stadium location?

Hopefully this initiative pays dividends as we haven't had a non-LDC sell-out in quite some time.

"High School Mentorship Program
The Ticats have established a high school mentorship program, in which Ticats players will serve as mentors and guest football coaches at Burlington high schools
"

I wonder what the City of Hamilton high schools' thoughts are on that

I’m guessing apathy tinged with low-grade hostility. :roll:

I've been saying this over and over again for the last few years. The Ticats have to be a regional team - there is a huge rich area out there beyond the city and they have to tap into it. There are 6 to 8 MILLION PEOPLE that live within a 45 drive of Hamiton!! The largest population base in Canada - we have to take advantage.

[url=http://www.thespec.com/sports/ticats/article/601624--ticats-pitch-rich-neighbour-to-the-east]http://www.thespec.com/sports/ticats/ar ... o-the-east[/url]

Its great to see Burlington solidly on board with the Ticats. The mayor and city council there

have responded in a very positive way in showing support for a team which basically represents

the city of Hamilton but also represents the entire region.

It's finally nice to get a Shuttle Bus

so glad to see The Ticats finally looking after us here in Burlington

There was an opportunity to bring other communities into Tiger Town like Brantford, Guelph, St. Catharines, etc. Sadly, it will be a much more difficult task to get those potential season ticket holders to IWS2.

Tiger-Cats Taking Practice to St. Catharines

[url=http://www.ticats.ca/article/tiger-cats-taking-practice-to-st-catharines]http://www.ticats.ca/article/tiger-cats ... catharines[/url]

I suspect it won’t be long before they have initiatives for all of the surrounding regions.

I didn’t say the TiCats won’t try to bring in new fans, but that it would have been much easier with a new stadium off a major highway. Non-Hamiltonians don’t go to events in Hamilton for reasons such as driving through perceived rough neighbourhoods.

I disagree with the statement that it will more difficult to get people to IW2.

Within these initiatives, the team is providing free shuttles from their hometown to the stadium. That’s a win-win. With high gas-prices ticket holders get free shuttle, without getting lost and worrying about parking and the team uses a another tool to market the team to a broad area.

I think this will be successful.

Time will tell.

I wonder if there are any other new stadiums with shuttle services from neighbouring communities.

The question is: if these initiatives are successful - would they have been more successful with a better location?

Personally, I’m not happy that the new stadium is going to end up in precisely the same location as the old one, but asking questions like this makes about as much sense right now as asking whether or not my life would be better if I had an extra pair of arms. The stadium is not going in a better location, so we just have to live with it and make the best of it.

Besides, the thread was about initiatives in the GTA (Greater Tiger-town Area). Let’s not turn this into another stadium debate. There’s already a thread for that.

An extra pair of arms? I've never thought about such a possiblity. Just think...during an away game I could post in the game thread, chug a beer, and scratch the cat at the exact same time.

I try to stay out of the stadium thread as I lost too many brain cells in there already - and I can't spare many more.

It's prudent to keep government decisions in memory for re-election purposes. When the dust settles on IWS2 I hope the voters of Hamilton keep those who created this lesser location accountable. The same could be said for tomorrow's provincial vote: remember who lied to you on more than one occassion.