BRINGING BACK THE ROAR
New B.C. Lions president Rick LeLacheur knows he has a big task ahead of him
Rick LeLacheur has just finished his first three days as president of the B.C. Lions — and this much he’s learned:
Real estate prices in Greater Vancouver are a tad higher than those in Edmonton.
His former buddy with the Eskimos, Ed Hervey, is now the Lions’ GM. He’s met the Lions’ head coach and vice-president of football ops, Wally Buono, a few times over the years. As for the rest of the Lions’ staff, they met once earlier this week but that seemed to go pretty well.
The Lions head to training camp in Kamloops in 4½ months. That gives LeLacheur 4½ months to mount a marketing campaign, to sell tickets, to begin to repair damage to the Lions’ brand caused by a period of neglect and to reach a new generation of CFL fans.
He also hopes to have his business cards ready by next week. And maybe find a place to live.
“Everyone is aware of the challenges,” LeLacheur says at the Lions’ practice facility in Surrey. “No one ever said this was going to be easy. We just have to roll up our sleeves and get to work.”
Which sounds simple enough. Unfortunately, the problems facing the Lions are anything but simple.
LeLacheur, the 69-year-old former president and CEO of the Edmonton Eskimos, moved into the Lions’ big office this week and let’s just say the inbox on his desk is at full capacity.
He has a tight window to prepare the Lions’ business operations for the upcoming season. He has a myriad of questions to answer about the team’s future and his long-term role. He has to begin rebuilding consumer confidence in the Lions’ brand.
The good news is LeLacheur is a veteran hand; a no-BS Albertan who has few illusions about the challenge before him. His mere presence also fills a leadership void for a Lions’ organization that appeared directionless last year.
And he’s worn about 24 different hats during his career, running Grey Cups in Edmonton, the 2001 World Athletic Championships in his hometown, serving on the Esks’ board and playing a role in hiring Hugh Campbell as the Esks’ GM in the mid-’80s and Hervey as the team’s GM in 2013.
Throw in a couple of Grey Cup championships with the Esks and it seems there isn’t much the former Edmonton Oil Kings’ captain hasn’t seen or done in Canadian sports.
But the Lions, especially in their current condition, are a different animal than Edmonton and the Eskimos. He’s about to find out how different.
“I don’t think the brand is as broken as it was (when David Braley bought the team in the mid-’90s),” LeLacheur says. “I think the brand is better and the CFL is better. A lot of that has to do with TSN.
“But you’re only as strong as your team. In that sense, the business side is no different than the football side. You can’t run a business based on silos where marking is here, the ticketing is there, the sponsorship is over here. It’s all part of one team. I think, more than anything, I’ll bring that.”
It’s instructive to note that, during his first CFL board of governors’ meetings, LeLacheur and his wife Joan were hosted by then-Lions’ president Bob Ackles and his wife Kay. That meeting left a deep impression on LeLacheur, who’ll now attempt to restore some of the planks Ackles had built before his death in 2008.
These include a rededication to customer service, the rebuilding of bridges between the Lions and the city’s and province’s football communities, and heightening the Lions’ presence at any number of breakfasts, lunches and fundraisers.
But LeLacheur now faces challenges Ackles didn’t confront in his return to the Lions, at least challenges that weren’t fully formed. Maybe the biggest issue confronting the Leos, and all CFL teams for that matter, is making their product relevant to millennials.
That’s a tough sell at the best of times. It’s especially tough for a 69-year-old who made his bones in a different media landscape.
“I’ve got a friend who says you have to know enough about technology to deal with your grandkids,” LeLacheur says. “The whole thing is about social media now and the digital side. That’s the future.”
Before he was hired by the Lions, LeLacheur ran Horse Racing Alberta, where he learned something about reaching a younger crowd.
“They weren’t interested in having 30 minutes between each race,” he says. “They want something to do. It’s the same thing with us. Our marketing has to be geared to social media.”
The new president, in fact, registers as a progressive on a couple of fronts. In Edmonton, he locked horns with Hervey over his treatment of the team’s “stakeholders” — read media. Under Hervey’s watch, the Eskimos closed the team’s locker-room after practice. The Esks and head coach Jason Maas were also fined for refusing to wear live microphones for TSN in 2016.
“I think he’s learned,” LeLacheur said of Hervey. “We’ve had great debates on it. I’ve told him he’s wrong on some of the things he did with the media.”
“Leacher” is asked to give a quick snapshot of the Lions’ new GM.
“He’s focused, he’s a hard worker and he wants to win. That’s what you get and he’ll go at it night and day.”
Which might fix the Lions’ on-field problems. The new sheriff in town hopes it works off the field, as well.