On Tuesday 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 CFL’s annual Season Preview Teleconference Series.
Mitchell, O’Billovich and Bellefeuille spoke before answering questions from the media. A full transcript of the call is below…
President Scott Mitchell’s opening remarks…
I know Bob Young and I are very much looking forward to an exciting season this year and we’ve had an outstanding off-season both on and off the field. I think we’re very well positioned to be a legitimate contender in the CFL this season. 2009 was a season of great growth and great progress for the team. We had a record revenue season overall for the Tiger-Cats in their history, which you all know has a long and proud history.
That story continues in 2010 as we’ve already eclipsed both our season ticket numbers and our corporate revenue totals from last year, of which both were parts of that record revenue we had overall, and we have two months to go until the season begins.
We’re currently at an all-time record, certainly in the last decade, as far as season seat renewals at 94%, which is outstanding. We’re very happy with that and we’re on pace for nearly 1,700 new season seats, which we’ve already eclipsed last year’s season seat numbers, so we’ve had great growth there. We lead the league in groups as well this year I think, according to all the numbers, which is a great opportunity for us in this very populous region and in the corporate side; we’re trending on budget, which means we’ll probably have about 11% growth this year and have already, again, have passed last year’s numbers.
That growth has also seen us create some great revenue for the team as far as merchandise. Since we took our merchandise in-house three years ago we’ve more than quadrupled our merchandise numbers and we had 83% growth in our merchandise last year, which we’re very proud of including 100% growth in our online sales.
We also have, with the encouragement of our owner, a very specific focus on our online business, on our digital business. MRX, which produces the CFL digital network, has a Q rating or an evaluation rating of which we rank consistently at number 2. Overall, we had 600,000 unique visitors last year which placed us second in the league. We’re very proud of the work we do on our site and we think it’s the best site in Canadian sports. We produced 424 pieces of video content which was far and away the leader in the league. We produced 484 unique articles online on our own site, which was by far the league leader and we also had the longest length of stay in the league at 3 minutes, so we’re very proud of the progress we’ve made digitally.
We’re doing well in terms of our digital and social media strategy as well in terms of Facebook and Twitter and obviously we’ve used our digital platforms extremely effectively this year, including having an interesting and fun campaign with our Year of the Tiger campaign and our ‘beware of the tiger’ campaign, particularly among our younger demographic and we saw some great growth in all of our social media categories with that strategy. We’ve had fun with the year of the tiger campaign, according to the Chinese calendar 2010 is the year of the tiger and our staff is having fun with the fact that there seems to be some correlation with the year of the tiger and the Tiger-Cats making to the Grey Cup, so certainly we hope the team has that same kind of success this season.
We have a very concerted regional approach moving forward, we’ve made great growth on that approach. We stole the great idea from David Braley and Bob Ackles with their waterboys group… we established the TigerTown council here in Hamilton which has been fantastic. We had a great meeting just the other day that Obie and Marcel were at. We established councils in London as well as Niagara and we’ve got a very concerted, specific approach with Oakville to the east, Guelph to the north, London to the west with Kitchener-Waterloo and Cambridge in there, as well as Niagara to the south. In fact we have an event tonight in Brantford which has been a great area of growth for us as well.
We’re working very hard with the CFL in terms of working in Southern Ontario, we think that’s a great area of opportunity for not just the Tiger-Cats but for the whole league and we’re excited about working with the league in partnership with the Argos to that front.
President Mitchell says the Ticats have renewed 94% of their season seats and have sold approximately 1,700 new season seats this year.
Lastly, and obviously most importantly, on the football side it was a real pleasure to extend the contracts of both Marcel Bellefeuille, our Head Coach, and Bob O’Billovich, our GM, our architect on the football side. It’s great to have both of them back again for this year and many seasons beyond. I think obviously this franchise needed some continuity and I can’t think of two better guys that have established some stability and some continuity on the football side. I’ll let those two speak to the football side of things, but I think a lot of people talk about Canadians, kickers and quarterbacks being the backbone of a team, I think we’re in great shape in all three of those categories.
Overall, as I said, it’s been an outstanding off-season for us, we’re seeing a lot of interest being generated in Hamilton and our TigerTown region that we’ve identified.
There’s also plenty of opportunity, and we have our challenges, no question. To be truly healthy, we’re going to need to see another 30 to 40 percent growth in our season ticket sales over the next two to three years, which is definitely achievable with progress we’re showing. We also need to get our average ticket (revenue) up or doubled in the next two to three years which is important to us as well. So as I said, it was a great off-season, we’re seeing great progress across the board.
I think Bob Young and I are extremely optimistic about the future of the team on and off the field and I certainly think we’re tremendously confident having Obie and Marcel here on the field, and with that I’ll turn it over to Bob O’Billovich.
Bob O’Billovich’s opening remarks…
Thanks Scott, I appreciate the vote of
confidence, I know he’s with us win or tie. (Laughs)
Tiger-Cats GM Bob O’Billovich
One of the things that Scott and everybody are excited about the coming season within the walls here at 1 Jarvis as well as within the community itself is I think people can see that there’s more stability with the Ticats and probably the most for us as far as being on the field with player personnel.
We’re probably going to have less changes this year than we did in either of the previous two seasons because we’ve upgraded our player content as far as the ability of our players, we continue to work hard to find other players within the league or make trades or what have you to try and improve in areas where we feel like we have to get better.
We feel like in order to be the best you have to beat the best, and the team that is the best right now is in our division, so we’ve got our work cut out for us but we’re really looking forward to the challenge this year.
I think when you look at some of the stability that Scott mentioned earlier, Coach Bellefeuille has done a great job of putting his staff together, in fact he added a couple of more veteran-type guys from the CFL with experience. They’re fitting in real well here, they’re working hard, getting prepared for the coming season and there’s such a great harmony there in our football operations section. We’re continuing to evaluate our personnel situation because we’re not going to be satisfied until we are the best.
There’s going to be a lot of challenges and a lot of great competition at training camp this year. On Saturday we’re going to be in California for our last free agent camp of the year and both Marcel and I will be down there along with our two area scouts, Richard Wade and Danny McManus. Once we get back from California we should be in a situation to finalize the roster. So, having said all that I’ll turn it over to Marcel and he can probably talk a little more about the x’s and o’s.
Marcel Bellefeuille’s opening remarks…
Thanks Bob, just briefly I’d like to say that it’s been an exciting season for the coaching staff, the leadership from Scott and Bob has been outstanding and we all know it starts with leadership, so the stability through there has been great.
Tiger-Cats Head Coach Marcel Bellefeuille
Bob has done a great job with the roster through the off-season in continuing to challenge us to improve our on the field product as far as personnel. We had an opportunity this off-season to return seven of the eight members of our coaching staff which has been incredibly important for us from a stability perspective… keeping our system and our processes intact from last year, so our players will have a better recognition of what’s expected when they get here… those relationships are continuing to build and grow right now.
Any time you have coaches, and I believe we have quality coaches right now, and you have the ability to return them, it increases your opportunity to win. We had one change; we brought in Tim Kearse to replace Dennis Goldman (as Receivers Coach). Tim is a long-time CFL player and coach with stints in Saskatchewan and Montreal and we were fortunate enough to add Steve Buratto to come in and coach our offensive line, which was a very good addition for us with the years of experience he had, not only as a position coach but as a coordinator and also as a former head coach in this league as well. He has been a great asset for us.
So we’re excited as coaches, we’re going into our second full season together, we’re excited about the changes within our organization but most of all we’re blessed with the opportunity to have some continuity and once again I thank the organization for that.
Question and Answer period begins…
Q: For Scott Mitchell, more of a clarification for the season seat renewals at 94% that’s for this year? As well as do you have a ballpark that you can give us for season seat buyers headed into this season?
Scott Mitchell: On the first count 94% renewal, that’s right. This season from last season, that’s obviously tremendous, usually 88% is the professional sport standard, somewhere around there. So that’s terrific for us, the highest number in any number of years. We don’t give out season seat numbers because of a big discrepancy in the way we’ve done things now versus the past, but overall we expect a 15% increase in our season seats moving forward for this year.
Q: Just a quick follow-up to Marcel Bellefeuille, is there one position or area of your football team that kind of causes you to think long and hard at night to see how we’re going to fill this spot, what would it be on this football team?
Marcel Bellefeuille: I like the direction of our team in general. Last year we focused on the defensive line and I think we found the answers there. Bob’s done a great job of looking at our personnel in the off-season. I think the secondary is an area that we wanted to improve in and I better let Bob speak to that, but I feel real good about the changes that we’ve made there and bringing in the free agents that we have, both from Toronto and our trade with B.C.
Q: My question is for Coach Bellefeuille. I was wondering how much input you had in bringing Dave Stala to Hamilton since you coached him in Montreal and tell us a little bit about what he brings to your receiving corps.
Marcel Bellefeuille: Well in terms of input, Bob O’Billovich and myself work closely together and I coached Dave in Montreal so certainly he was someone that I was very familiar with and I knew that he was someone that had a lot of ability. More importantly, my General Manager knew that, and Bob and I were on the same page and with his blessing we were able to get Dave in here and bring him into the fold. First of all, he’s a good football player. What he brings on the field and off the field are two different things, but first and foremost he’s still a productive player so that’s important to us but he’s also a leader, he’s done a great job of bringing our young players along and been a great resource for us, so we’re ecstatic to have him and we felt his impact last season.
Q: I also have a question for Scott Mitchell, what are the things your team has to do in the coming weeks to get a favourable site for the coming season?
Scott Mitchell: Well it’s an exciting time around here, but to be honest with you, I know this conference call is to do with this season and I’m happy to focus on this season. The stadium project is obviously a great opportunity for us long term, we’re talking a
bout the year 2014 or 2015, there’s a lot of things that need to happen between now and then in order for us to work with the city on capitalizing on that opportunity. I’m happy to talk about that offline in another forum today we’re looking forward to talking about this season.
Q: My question is for Coach Bellefeuille. In speaking with Bob O’Billovich earlier, it’s apparent that he has a desire to start potentially more Canadians than the required minimum this year and I want to know how much of a priority that is for you and if you see that as a potential for this season?
Marcel Bellefeuille: It is a priority and first of all it speaks to our Canadian depth. We’re in a position this year where we feel like we have great depth at Canadian positions across the board and what that does, if we have the opportunity to do that it would give us more depth and give us the opportunity to do more with our roster in terms of our (designated import) spots and in terms of putting other Americans on the roster to rotate through. It will make us more dynamic, we certainly feel like we have the players to do that, it’s just a matter of finding the right fit in terms of players.
Q: This is for President Mitchell. Scott, you talked about improvements on the business side, I’m just wondering how that changes the financial landscape of the team in general. In other words, how close are you to actually breaking even or potentially turning a profit with the franchise?
Scott Mitchell: Well, we’re extremely optimistic and I know it’s been a great source of enthusiasm for Bob Young because of the growth that we’ve seen in the last couple years and as I’ve said this year, we’re looking to eclipse last year’s record numbers. So, that provides a great amount of optimism. At the same time, there’s certain realities we have in our present situation with the stadium that are always going to be challenges. I think it’s going to be a battle for us to get to a profitable situation anytime soon but, again, with the growth we’re seeing we have reason for optimism and I know that Bob is more committed than ever to not only getting us to a point of profitability, but getting us to a point of sustainability and long term stability so that this franchise can be a contender every year.
Q: Bob I have a question for you on your trip to California to look at some free agents. Are you planning to have a visit to stop by and see JaMarcus Russell? It’s been reported he’s on your neg. list, maybe you don’t talk about guys who are on your negotiation list but I was just curious on your thoughts on if he might, if his opportunities are exhausted in the NFL would you guys be willing to take a look and see what could be done.
Bob O’Billovich: Well, we don’t even comment on the negotiation list. That is a confidential area of the league’s operations. The reason we don’t is that changes on a day-to-day basis and you don’t want to be making comments and then the next day the guy’s not on your list. There’s nothing there right now for us to be concerned about, he’s not one of the quarterbacks that will be at our camp. We’re looking forward to seeing some of the guys we’ve signed contingent on their workout on Saturday and like I said earlier, once we get this camp over with we’ll probably finalize our roster for the coming season the following week.
Q: My question is for Bob O’Billovich. How did it feel this winter, knowing that for the first time in years you were able to focus more on re-signing players you already had instead of looking for all sorts of free agents?
Bob O’Billovich: That’s a good question. It was easier… except it cost me more money (Laughs). Coach Bellefeuille was happy, so, this process with the salary cap that we all have to do deal with these days is a reality of the business side of pro football in the CFL.
At some point in time, you’re going to have to let guys go that have been good players that might be at the upper end of the scale because you have to develop some younger people. At some point in time those guys in the middle are going to want to become the top guys so you just have to make good decisions, and we’re happy with the number of veteran football players that we have coming into camp compared to the past few years.
I think that we’re happy with what we’ve started here and I think the camaraderie, the attitude, I think was a big part of changing the culture with this franchise. When I got here, it was just developing a more positive attitude throughout the football team. We feel like it’s important to develop a team attitude right from the front office to the coaches to the players on the field. I think our players are buying into that, they’re excited about being here and we’ve got a lot of comments coming from across the country where other players are saying good things about the Tiger-Cats, so we hope that keeps going on like that.
Q: Ok, and as a follow-up, where was Marwan Hage of priorities for the winter?
Bob O’Billovich: Marwan was on my list but… we had a little mess up before Christmas, we thought we were going to get this thing done before the end of the year, which would have been a little better for us from a cap standpoint, but for one reason or another it got extended and we were able to get it done this spring. The important thing is he’s still an integral part of our football team and it’s my job to get those things done.
Q: My question is for Mr. O’Billovich, what is it you like about the guy you drafted from Laval, Samuel Fournier?
Bob O’Billovich: We like Fournier a lot. When you looked at the prospects that were in this year’s draft, there weren’t really that many guys, (Samuel) was really the most legitimate guy that was a fullback type guy, a guy that weighs 240 that can be a good lead blocker and when he really impressed myself and the coaching staff is when we broke down his special teams play, he was really outstanding there. It will be interesting to see if moving up to this level, (Samuel) can be the kind of an impact special teams player that he was for the University of Laval, because he was exciting on film watching that.
Q: This is a question for President Mitchell again. Scott, there’s been a lot of talk about continuity and that from the football side, I’m wondering if that continuity and the success you’ve seen on the field, I’m wondering if that’s coming over onto the business side as well. Do you think that’s played a role in your increased numbers?
Scott Mitchell: Absolutely. I think that when we brought Obie in, that was the critical first step and actually Obie made a decision that really wasn’t necessarily a football decision but he wanted to bring the football staff into one building here at 1 Jarvis. Obviously, we were afforded that great opportunity because Bob purchased us a building to work out of, so I think that was a great step in terms of the business side seeing the football side on a daily basis, having some interaction between the two sides, which we really hadn’t had in close to a decade. So that was very fortunate for us and I think in general, Obie, Marcel and I all agree we have a very close relationship, we work closely together and I think that corresponds throughout the rest of the organization.
I’d be remiss if I didn’t state that as much as we’ve had some continuity on the football side, as you’ve said, this is probably one of the first off seasons that we’ve had since I’ve been here where we really feel comfortable with who we have on the business side, we’ve made some changes over there, probably as many changes as on the football side when I first arrived here. We’ve got a terrific gro
up there now, Vice-Presidents and a leadership group that have worked together for a couple of years and I think that just like the football side, that corresponds to our growth on the business side, no question.
(Teleconference ends)
