CUP WIN BOON TO BOMBERS’ BOTTOM LINE
Winnipeg fans on trajectory to surpass Riders in souvenir sales after 2013 victory
Amazing how a shiny silver mug can put the gold back in Blue and Gold.
The Winnipeg Blue Bombers’ drought-busting Grey Cup championship, 28 years in the making, has souvenirs flying off the shelves faster than they can be restocked.
It’s so busy in the Bomber Store that members of the equipment staff are pulling double duty, packing up smelly jock straps one minute, unpacking new Grey Cup T-shirts the next.
The sound of the cash registers ringing may as well be a symphony to the ears of team president/ CEO Wade Miller.
“Absolutely amazing the response from our fans, this community, the city, the province,” Miller said. “Tremendous. I didn’t imagine this at all. The excitement, the energy — just unbelievable how big it is.”
But Miller, a former fullback, is always looking to spring an even bigger play.
So he issued a news release claiming the Bombers were “on pace to sell the most Grey Cup merchandise in the history of the CFL.”
And with that came a challenge any Winnipeg fan can get behind.
“We’re on pace to outdo the 2013 Grey Cup in Saskatchewan,” he said.
Never mind that Miller didn’t have any numbers handy. He wasn’t going to let some details get in the way of a good story (we have that in common).
Word of mouth was good enough for him.
“You have a rough idea of how they were doing,” Miller said of the rival Riders merchandise haul six years ago. “And you can tell because you’ve got suppliers that have provided this stuff before, (saying), ‘You’re what? You’re through how much already?’
“We are air-shipping merchandise in as quickly as we can. The response has been tremendous online from across the country and then throughout Manitoba ... at one point you were just opening boxes in the store.”
Miller did have a couple of numbers handy.
Those Grey Cup champion T-shirts players were wearing in the locker-room after the win over Hamilton? Fans have scooped up more than 3,500. The ball caps? More than 3,000.
“Along with everything else,” Miller said.
All said and done, this will be no small potatoes when it comes to the bottom line of an organization that had its share of cash crunches over the years.
It turns out the Riders sold nearly $2 million in Grey Cup merchandise in 2013. Saskatchewan was hosting the game as well as playing in it.
If the Bombers can match that, never mind beat it, they’ll add a significant line to a financial statement that last year showed a profit of just $2.6 million.
It would also offset what was a pricey post-season, taking basically the entire organization on the road for three straight games.
“We’re going to make up for it, hopefully,” Miller said. “It’s a long ways to go, but we’ll get there.”
Here’s another thing. This team’s season-ticket base has been staler than week-old bread, the famine slowly strangling the hope from even the most diehard fan.
Hosting a Grey Cup always produces a rise, but it’s like bad yeast. It doesn’t last.
Winning one should provide a little more staying power.
“It’s obviously going to improve over this year,” Miller said. “And it may not just be season tickets. It may be five (games), a flex pack, things like that. The interesting thing is people we were talking to, a lot of them haven’t been to the stadium. Hopefully those people will come see us at the stadium in the summer.” Everyone loves a winner. To that end, Miller and his Canadian Mafia colleagues — GM Kyle Walters and head coach Mike O’shea — have to put another Cup contender on the field next season.
Starting another drought isn’t an option.
Job 1 is working out a new deal for O’shea.
“Moving in the right direction,” Miller said.
Job 2 has to be the quarterbacks.
Zach Collaros, Matt Nichols and local folk hero Chris Streveler will be free agents come February.
Streveler has milked every ounce of fun from the last week and said he wants to return to try to do it all again.
The ongoing fandemonium, from the parade to the weekend parties to the souvenir sales, isn’t a bad selling point.
Not all CFL markets have it. “When you turn that corner at Hargrave and Portage and you see over 10,000 fans and you got halfway down Portage and you see Portage and Main — unbelievable,” Miller said, recalling the parade. “It’s a business at the end of the day, but at the same time the players got to see what this team means to this community and this entire province in the last week.
“I don’t think any of those events hurt by any stretch.” It feels good to be cared about. Even one T-shirt at a time.