My background is in sales and marketing. That’s what I studied at university, and that’s been my career for the last 25+ years. Coincidently, I discovered my interest in marketing around the same time I started following CFL football. That was back in Grade 10. As a marketer who likes history and nostalgia, I like looking back at vintage and retro advertising. So, I thought let’s do a blog post on some old advertisements for the CFL.
To set the tone. The year is 1983, and the new BC Place Stadium has just been built in Vancouver. The 59,000-seat stadium is the first domed stadium in Canada. New beginnings for the B.C. Lions.
Here are some advertisements for the B.C. Lions and CFL football that appeared in Vancouver newspapers throughout the year.
The first game at BC Place Stadium was a pre-season match between the Lions and the Calgary Stampeders. The game featured a kick-off concert by The Guess Who.
The Lions hosted the Saskatchewan Roughriders in their regular season home opener at BC Place. The game was sponsored by Rothman’s and you could win a “magnificent Eskimo carving.” A different era when tobacco advertising was quite common.
A&B Sound, a former electronics retailer, was a corporate sponsor of the B.C. Lions. They ran the promotion below.
The two best teams in the CFL in 1983 squared off on September 10th. A Grey Cup preview.
A purchase of a Sony radio or Walkman also got you into the big game between the Lions and Argos.
The SuperValu grocery chain ran a ticket promotion, as well. Customers could get a coupon for a free Lions ticket when purchasing a $9 ticket.
The B.C.Lions hosted the Western Final on November 20th versus Winnipeg. Season ticket holders, as expected, had first dibs. The tickets cost between $10 and $19.
Player’s was another tobacco sponsor at the time. Here’s an ad promoting Grey Cup Week and the first Grey Cup to be played indoors at BC Place Stadium. Remember to heed the health advice given and avoid inhaling when smoking your cigarette.
There weren’t any official Grey Cup tickets ads in Vancouver papers leading up to the big game because the game was virtually sold out well in advance. This article talks about the scarcity of Grey Cup tickets and how they were allocated across the CFL.
So, if you didn’t have tickets, yet, your only option was the scalpers and resellers. The classifieds were full of ads like these. You could try John on Monday morning.
The Grey Cup wasn’t the final game played in 1983. On December 3, the CFL and CFLPA staged an all-star game at BC Place Stadium.
Sources:
The Province, 12 June 1983
The Province, 9 September 1983
The Province, 30 October 1983
The Province, 24 November 1983
Vancouver Sun, 16 June 1983
Vancouver Sun, 23 July 1983
Vancouver Sun, 8 September 1983
Vancouver Sun, 29 October 1983
Vancouver Sun, 2 November 1983
Vancouver Sun, 12 November 1983
Vancouver Sun, 23 November 1983
Vancouver Sun, 2 December 1983
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