We all witnessed a sudden return last night to Tiger-Cat tradition........great uniforms, fierce defense, loud crowds!
This is the way it used to be and this is how you capture the imagination of the new generation!
So, I implore the club to stop trying to score big with the young kids by changing things such as uniforms, announcers etc.............set the professional standard and make the young kids grow into the traditions........it means way more to them!........ask Yankees fans!
Please, go back to the traditional uniforms, get back to professional stadium announcers and help the players and fans feel like they are part of a serious tradition that they can be proud of.......last night is a prime example of what we have been missing!.....great uniforms, fan involvement and hard hitting football!
Please throw away the WKRP Herb Tarlek "neck-tie down the side type" pajama bottom pants and bring back the respectable gold football pants with the proper jerseys (home and away)
Believe it or not, uniforms can inspire players huge if they are traditional uniforms and not stupid "fads"!
That game was great! The D were hitting hard and the front 4 were amazing. Henley, Mosca, Bethea, Danychuck, etc were in the building. It felt good. We are on a bit of a high due to the retro night thing and the way we outcoached and outplayed the Bombers. Even with that said, I agree with your post.
The stadium announcer did do a better job. We didn’t get any of that bombastic “first down Tiger-Cats!!!” He kept us informed and let the fans do the cheering. With regard to our history of change in uniforms and the point you made about pajama bottom pants, it brings to mind something Stan Smyl said about the Canuck’s team uniforms once…They dressed us like clowns, and we played like clowns. I’m also a fan of real music…60s 70s, 80s. Why? And i’m not a geezer who lives in the past, but todays “top 40” when compared, is mostly just really bad and i’m sure the multidude will agree.
Exactly........and you know why I was a serious hockey fan when I was 12 years old?.......because of the continuity and tradition of the old geezers like Danny Gallivan, Foster Hewitt and the timeless uniforms of the Bruins, Canadiens, Maple Leafs, Rangers, Black Hawks, Red Wings etc..........not gimmicks directed at adolescents like me.......the Real traditions!!
I'd have abandoned the whole thing if they caved in and tried to please a pimple faced geek like me........I loved it that I was allowed to grow into the adults traditions!....It meant way more!
Now?.......the traditions are disappearing and they have been replaced with five year money making schemes just as the boy bands like N' Sync. Back Street Boys etc were designed to do.......quick cash from young kids and then move on......
Bring us our Tiger-Cats back !!...........last night was a great start!!
The uniforms, and new logo are the best the uniforms in the CFL and a great marketing tool.
You have to always rebrand nowadays because you have to continually draqw younger new fans to keep your fan base there.
Using teams like the Yankees as examples are awful because the Yankees are a global brand. The TiCats are not. This team was bankrupt, so obviously people weren't buying into the tradition on the team. Wether the are new jerseys to increase revenues or a new logo to freshen up the look, a team must use all tools to try to make money to be able to bring in and keep the talent that will build a championship team. Cos in the long run winning is what matters.
No matter what you say todays player is extra hyped cos he would have put on a vintage ticat jersey and pants to go play. He's motivated to play because he's a professional athlete.
The one thing with our "new" uniform and logo is that it respects the old one. It's basically just a streamlined version of what already was. Had we gone to a completely new logo, I wouldn't be happy with breaking from tradition. But the new uniforms and logos actually respect and incorporate it, so that's fine in my books. I hope that they keep selling uniforms and merchandise with the old logo though long into the future.
Look around at the league websites or CFL.ca, they still use the original/traditional Cat’s logo. Even this website uses it in the team links at the top of the Ticats.ca page. Why? Because you can’t ALWAYS improve on quality and tradition. Sure, you can try, and you can give in to quick fix $$$ contracts presented by companies like Reebock and TSN who want to eliminate the competition. What you get is one company/corporation dictating to a certain degree how the league and teams are presented. Joe Shmo hired out of Berkley, working in the graphics for Reebok, would probably be involved in the gig of designing the new Tiger-Cat uni’s. And who okayed the new Team logo? Certainly not the fans. Lucky for us? NOT necessarily, and certainly not in this case.
The teams have 100% input into the uniforms. Reebok would present them with numerous options and the team would then critique, change and then approve of a design that they felt best suited the interests of the fans.
I personally think the uniforms are amazing and i believe the majority of fans agree with that. The jerseys really are a nice compliment to uniforms past with a modern twist for newer fans.
I have no problem with people not liking the uniforms or the new logo. We're all entitled to our opinion. But for some to imply that the uniforms have anything to do with the teams success or lack there of on the field is ridiculous. If you bring back the old uniforms the players wouldn't play better just because they have traditional uniforms. I personally think the previous version of the uniforms were "OK" at best.
Have you read the CFL contract with Reebok? Who at Reebok is designing these “options”? Who on the “team” is making decisions to accept a certain “option”?
The original logo has a tiger in full motion before a pounce. The new logo has a tiger standing as if it’s on view at the African Lion Safari. Take a look! No comparison.
The leaping tiger logo is still the prominent logo. It’s cleaned up and newer but it is still the leaping tiger. The other logo you see, from my understanding, is for the business side of the team mostly. The logo on our helmet and jersey is the leaping tiger. So you should really take a look at the logo and perhaps not just pick the one logo that isn’t prominent on 95% of the merchandise nor on the uniforms.
As for the contract with Reebok, I dont who makes the decision but I’m pretty sure it wont be one person, and may even have involved a group of people including fans. I know that’s how a lot of teams go about those kinds of decisions.
To compare the ticats to the yankees and habs and leafs and that is a pretty big stretch… the ticats just arent that huge comparably. The franchise was EXTREMELY close to going right under at one point and whether people like it or not, the ‘rebranding’ if you will has worked pretty good.
Besides I wonder if 40/50 years ago people were complaining… ‘hey this is a tradition! why are you changing the ‘TC’ logo and putting this dumb tigercat on their helmets!’
Although I have no proof of this, for me it seemed to be Yankee caps that first took the trendy colour change thing mainstream when they sold four billion Yankee caps in Carolina Blue 15 years ago. Their stuff was available in every colour combination imaginable well ahead of the curve.
With their great tradition, they have more than their share of "living on past glory" fans too, but they just create "traditional" gear for them too. Ruth-inspired "called shot" foam fingers, DiMaggio-inspired "wifebeaters" - Yankee fans can get it all.
If I was looking for a lesson in staying away from fads and trends in sports marketing, the Yankees are the last place I'd look. They lead the pro sports world in providing something for just about everyone on the planet to wear.
When I was twelve, I enjoyed getting sucked into fad and trend going. Three decades later, I like to see a good fad take off, even if I'm too fat/white/straight to pull off a St.Paddys day green Raptors cum Celtics jersey or a Pride Day pink Ticats cap myself.
I think anyone who watched the game last night agree all the Bombers really need to do is change their pant colours and go back to the plain "W" on the helmets . Do that and the wins will come. Talent level is meaningless when you got good colour coordination and "tradition".