On Monday afternoon, Tiger-Cats President Scott Mitchell, General Manager Bob O’Billovich and Head Coach Marcel Bellefeuille took part in a teleconference call with the national media as a part of the Canadian Football League’s annual Season Preview Teleconference Series.
Below is a transcription of the call…
[OPENING REMARKS]
Scott Mitchell, President
Thanks everybody for coming on the call today. I think, as Obie likes to say, we are ‘poised to make some noise’ this year and things are going very well. I’ll let Obie speak specifically to football obviously and Marcel. As far as the business of the Ticats goes things are very strong… we had a very good year in some respects last year off the field we set some benchmarks in total revenue and we anticpate breaking through that this year.
For our season tickets renewal rate, our goal is 88% and I think as of today we’re at 87% which is very good and traditionally that’s probably 3 or 4 points higher than what is traditionally in sports. Our corporate numbers are up probably at the end of the day between 12% and 15% this year which is very good obviously and we’ll have more season seats this year than we had last year as a total number.
The one area that is of some concern obviously is with the economy… I think everyone knows that Hamilton particularly has been hit hard by the automotive industry in the Niagara Region and the steel industry… so we haven’t sold as many high end tickets as we typically have as far as new tickets go but total numbers will be up and total revenue we are budgeting to be up as well. So it has been a strong off season for us, I think the fans of Hamilton have some genuine enthusiasm and optimism moving forward.
We have a tremendous team with Bob O’Billovich and his group as well as Marcel. They’ve got a great relationship and I think the three of us get along extremely well and we’re looking forward to some productive years, not only this year but moving forward. So with that I will throw it over to Obie to talk a little football.
Bob O’Billovich, General Manager
Well thanks Scott… it’s a pleasure to be here with everyone today because as many of you know I had to go in and get some reconstructive surgery on my right hip so I just got home last night from the hospital and this is my first official business after the surgery so I’m glad to be back in the flow with everybody.
As Scott mentioned… we feel like to have a very outstanding season, and just being objective about it, I think we have addressed problems of concern with our player signings. I feel like our quarterback situation probably as stable as any in the league now we still have to see who is going to be the guy to lead us to the winning land but there are lot of positives things going on with our player personnel department.
We did some restructuring there and Danny McManus and Richard Wade have done a great job and Travis Moore did some camps for us in Texas and Arizona that helped us with finding some new players and so everything is going extremely well up to this point in time and I’m always very optimistic because I know every year is a new year and I feel very confident that the areas of concern to us are going to be areas that our fans are going see and be exciting to watch in the coming season.
I would like to take this opportunity to give Marcel a pat on the back… he has done a heck of a job with his coaching staff. He’s brought in some quality guys who have tremendous wealth and background in CFL experience which is going to go well for us with a young team that’s on the move to get better and so I think they’ve been working hard, they got a little break last week to get rejuvenated a little bit before the long haul starts but I’m confident that they are going to do a great job for us and I think our fans are going to see a team that is going to get them excited about wanting to come to the football games again.
[QUESTION AND ANSWER PERIOD BEGINS]
Question from Chris Schultz, TSN: Good afternoon gentlemen. A question for Marcel… winning is a funny dynamic and a funny chemistry and I’m curious if you have concerns about your team believing in itself. It’s hard for me to express my point but certain teams after they have had a certain amount of success they just believe they are going to win and I wonder if this is one of the hurdles that your cognoscente about to change the mentality within the club that no matter the circumstances, injuries or previous wins or losses… that you can develop a belief in this team that their always going to be in a position to win.
Marcel Bellefeuille
Chris, that’s an excellent question and as being an ex-player you understand that dynamic.
You know, at my season-end interviews with the players that were here they believed that the last seven weeks of the season last year that we could win every one of those games and they went into those games feeling that way, so that was a positive sign for me.
Also, when Bob and I sat down in the off-season, the other thing they wanted to do to help this process along was get four or five free agent guys that have been places that have won and that have been through the process and we were able to do that with guys like Dan Goodspeed, Alexandre Gauthier, obviously Kevin Glenn… you know, somebody like a linebacker from BC, obviously Otis Floyd who has won Grey Cups… so getting those guys is going to be critical to that area of our football team as well.
The third part of that whole equation, Chris, is again just instilling that in them everyday at practice and when they play and being positive and letting them know that they are definitely capable. You know it’s a fine line winning at the pro level… Chris, you understand that and we were very competitive last year and I feel like you go from being potentially a bad team to a competitive team and then you become a good team.
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Question from Ted Michaels, AM 900 CHML: Scott, I just missed the preamble to your statement so if I am going over old waters I apologize for this. Can you touch on your season tickets numbers this year compared to last year and what you expect the number to be at when the season starts July 1st?
Scott Mitchell
Well Ted, I’m not going to get into specific numbers only because the way we’ve restructured our operations that’s kind of like comparing apples and oranges from years past… so as far as total season ticket accounts we will be up about 4% over last year and, as I mentioned, up about 12% on the corporate partnership.
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Question from Ted Michaels, AM 900 CHML: If I could ask a quick follow-up for coach Marcel… Coach how important is it, and I know you don’t like to use the term ‘must-win’, but how critical is a victory that first game against the Argos on July 1st?
Marcel Bellefeuille
I think it’s incredibly important, A) to win your home game and B) any time you play a division opponent is very important. So those things will obviously be critical to us. And yes, we would like to get off to a good start, you have to be careful to temper that so that when you have your ups and downs in your season at the end of the day you know it’s the final outcome that’s important but certainly it would be nice to get off to a good start.
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Question from Jam
ie Nye, Newstalk Radio Regina: Two questions for Marcel. About you coaching staff, specifically your offensive coordinator Mike Gibson getting him from Saskatchewan, the importance of that move?
Marcel Bellefeuille
Well that was critical. With Mike, I felt that it was important to get someone that has been successful and I make this comment about all the coaching staff, you know five of the 8 coaches including myself have coached in one of the last three Grey Cups so we wanted guys with experience and also guys who had success and you guys in Saskatchewan have obviously had great success the last couple seasons so Mike was a part of that.
Going back to Chris (Schultz)’s situation, I wanted to have coaches who have won and understand what that takes. The second part of that is that Mike has also coached in a very good system in Saskatchewan and coached in a system that was similar to the one we had last year… so we could keep some continuity.
Then also we want our play from the offensive line to improve and Mike certainly brings that to the table and those guys will play very well for him, as they did in Saskatchewan as well as Winnipeg when he was there.
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Question from Jamie Nye, Newstalk Radio Regina: And Jesse Lumsden going to Edmonton… the move to likely Kenton Keith at running back and the dynamic he brings that may differ from years past in Hamilton’s offence?
Marcel Bellefeuille
I have experience watching Kenton, I coached him in Saskatchewan his first four years in the league. You know, if Kenton comes out and wins the job, he’s a very dynamic running back. He’s a guy that does some different things and you can put him in space, he catches the ball well, he’s a good receiver out of the back field and we can use him in that perspective as well. He came in last year and he’s done a good job in the off-season of taking off that NFL weight he had on last year. We expect him to come back and get out in his old form.
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Question from Mark Stephen, CHQR Radio Calgary: The Quarterback picture, do you not have sort of a designated number one, a sort of pecking order plans for training camp and as far as the season goes?
Marcel Bellefeuille
Technically it would be Quinton Porter’s job to lose… now he’s got to come out and earn that position. In an ideal world you’d have the veteran coming out and training him, getting him ready, helping him along the way. If Kevin (Glenn) comes out and performs better and he gives us a better option to win then we’re going to do what’s best for our organization. Both players are aware of this. You can go in with one in mind, one plan… but at the end of the day it’s what happens on the field.
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Question from Chris Schultz, TSN: Question for Bob… middle linebacker Agustin Barrenechea… you had him and then he became an Eskimo and then became a Ticat again. Usually, once an organization makes a decision on a football player… you don’t really see them back with that organization. I’m curious why you brought him back? Is it that you saw an improvement during his time in Edmonton?
Bob O’Billovich
I think that the main thing was that we had an opportunity last year to do a very good job of evaluating our present roster and figure out just where we thought we could improve and get better.
We knew we had a strong Canadian contingent and being able to acquire guys like Agustin… resigning Ray Mariuz and getting (Yannick) Carter… we had a very good off-season and further upgrading the Canadian content especially when you look on the offensive side of football.
It was just matter of evaluating circumstances and Agustin has always been an excellent team player. He’s got experience, he’s been on winning teams in Edmonton, he gives you a quality linebacker. Both he and Ray are going to compete with our linebackers, whoever they may be, for the starting jobs. This will give us the flexibility to decide what we have to do as far as we might us the ratio. We’ve got a lot of those little scenarios already to go and the way these guys play will determine just exactly how this all shapes out when it comes down to the finally rivalry.
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Question from Chris Zelkovich, Toronto Star: How important is it to have meaningful rivalry between Toronto and Hamilton and secondly what do you think the chances are this will happen this season?
Bob O’Billovich
I’m probably the best guy to answer that question. (laughs) I think that this rivalry in the Canadian Football League is second to none. I think over the years the fans have always supported that rivalry with a lot of relish.
I can remember when I used to be the Head Coach in Toronto and when I first got there, we’d always have seven to ten thousand people driving down to Hamilton for that Labour Day game or vice versa when they came to Toronto to play us. I think it’s really healthy.
Now that I have been in Hamilton this past year and I’ve gotten to know the lay of the land, I’ve gotten to know people in close-up relationships as far as really getting an insight to the passion and the love and the support that they have for their Ticats…. I know from that standpoint it’s really important for us to develop those kinds of rivalries just to have some fun when they come to the football games.
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Question from Chris Zelkovich, Toronto Star: And do you see this turning around this year? In other words, teams not fighting for the last place, but for the playoffs
Bob O’Billovich
I think Toronto has done some good things in the off-season just like ourselves… the quarterback situation is going to be a critical position. If you look at what happened last year in the league, the East in particular, the only team in the East that had a consistent quarterback was Montreal. All of the other teams had problems because of the inconsistency. That’s how important and critical that position is to pro-football.
Toronto is trying to address their areas of concern… they’ve picked up some good young players… they’ve picked up some good free agents to sign, just like we did. I think this is just going to add fuel to the fire and make our situation that more exciting and more of a “can’t wait to see” situation.
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Question from David Naylor, Globe and Mail: Marcel, a lot of people look at going into the season with an untested full season quarterback. What is it about Quinton that makes you confident that he can do that?
Marcel Bellefeuille
The first thing is his ability. He has good size, good arm strength and he can move. The second thing about it, for me, was that just watching him work last year. First guy in, last guy out, always back at the coaches offices after. It really reminds me of Anthony Calvillo.
I got to spend the last couple of years coaching Anthony and taking that type of workman experience to it, and I know that has to do the things he’s got to do outside of his skill set to get himself prepared and get himself ready to play.
And then getting Kevin Glenn really sealed that situation for us just in a perspective that we know we have a proven veteran that can get the job done. He’s won a lot of games, he’s been an MVP two years ago, so I like his physical skills, plus how he approaches the football game and he’s got a great toughness so he can lead by example for our football team. I really feel strongly about those areas about him.
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Question from G. Francois, Radio Canada: This off-season you have made a big splash, you’ve got some pretty big names I think more than previous years. How do you explain that… is there another explanation than just having more money because you released Casey Printers?
Bob O’Billovich
It’s simply a case of management, managing the salary cap, the system itself. You have to realize that to improve your overall roster there’s a lot of tough decisions that have to be made.
First, you have to evaluate the people you have and then how you’re going to improve your football team – where we have to get better to be better.
I thought that the positions we got in the off-season, the good thing about managing the salary cap the way we did was that we were able to sign guys like Goodspeed, and Gauthier and Otis Floyd and guys like that.
We may have a little more elbow room to bring in some of those players whereas some other teams couldn’t do that type of thing. We think that we did the right thing, spent the money wisely that we did have available and times going to tell if it’s going to be as good as we want it to.
[CONFERENCE CALL ENDS]
