The Durham Chronicle 17-18 Issue 05

The Chronicle January 16 - 22, 2018 chronicle.durhamcollege.ca17
Sports
Fans can meet Stroman, Martin
Jays' players,
alumni
to attend
Winter Fest
Conner McTague
The Chronicle
After a disappointing 2017 season,
but one in which they drew 3.2
million fans, Toronto Blue Jays’
management might be asking
themselves one question.
How do you keep your fan base
engaged and interested in buying
tickets – perhaps as Christmas presents
– during the off-season?
It appears one initiative is the introduction
of their inaugural Winter
Fest.
A fan appreciation event,
Winter Fest takes place Jan. 20, 10
a.m-6p.m. at the Rogers Centre.
In a city where the winter
sports news cycle is dominated
by the Maple Leafs and Raptors,
it’s no coincidence the Jays chose
a date that falls between this
month’s Winter Meetings and the
beginning of Spring Training in
February. It serves as a reminder
to fans that baseball is a yearround
sport.
While the Jays are just launching
their Winter Fest this year,
fan appreciation events outside
of scheduled games have become
more common in professional
sports over the last decade.
“Teams realize that their relationship
with their fans has to be a
two-way street now, and they have
to provide value back to their fans,
for sure,” says Ian Ellis, a professor
who teaches in the Sport Business
Management program at
Durham College.
Ellis also says that as the world
changes, fans want the opportunity
to be more connected to
their favourite teams and players.
Events like Winter Fest are also
becoming more common because
“there’s more of a need and more
of an appetite from fans to do so.”
Despite not having a direct
fan appreciation event until now,
the Jays have done annual winter
tours.
Their current Winter Tour initiative
has seen them visit more
than 20 Canadian cities, including
Ottawa, Calgary, St. John’s
and Regina. During these excursions,
select players have visited
charities and hospitals and hosted
clinics and meet and greet sessions
for fans who may not have
the opportunity to see the team as
often.
Top Jays players and prospects,
along with coaches and alumni
will be on hand to take pictures
and meet with fans.
These names include current
Jays Marcus Stroman, Devon
Travis and Russell Martin, top
prospects Bo Bichette and Sean
Reid-Foley and back-to-back
World Series champion Roberto
Alomar.
Other events and attractions
will be at Winter Fest, too, including
guided tours, a Baseball
Canada exhibit, a kids zone and a
gaming room.
Tickets for Winter Fest cost $5
for youth and seniors, $10 for season
ticket holders, $15 for game
pack members and $20 for adults.
While there’s a cost for this
event, Ellis says teams host these
events with the goal of creating
long-term sustainability and connections
with the community
rather than turning a short-term
profit.
Photograph by Conner McTague
The Blue Jays mascot, Ace, waves a Jays flag after Edwin Encarnacion's walk off homer in the AL Wildcard game on Oct. 4, 2016.
Community connections won’t
be forgotten as $5 from each purchase
goes towards the Jays Care
Foundation, which provides children
and youth across Canada
with safe and accessible athletic
opportunities.
Fans who purchased their
tickets on Nov. 27 had the opportunity
to purchase tickets for select
autograph sessions with players
and alumni.
Ellis also believes that incorporating
players into fan appreciation
events is important because
“it allows fans to see the players
as human beings and individuals,
rather than a player with a number
on their jersey.”
Stick to sports, a battle cry laced in hypocrisy
Rob Paul
The Chronicle
Stick to sports has become a battle
cry against pro athletes and
journalists who put their political
thoughts out there. With today’s
increasingly hot political climate,
more people in the sports world
are coming out against problematic
issues such as the shooting of Trayvon
Martin, the Charlottesville
Unite the Right rally in Virginia,
and protests against the removal
of Confederate statutes and flags.
It all began with former NFL
quarterback Colin Kaepernick
taking a knee during the anthem
to raise awareness about social
injustice and the treatment of
minorities in America. Since then
Kaepernick has been blackballed
by the NFL and criticized by
many, including Trump.
The President of the United
States is feeding into the stick to
sports movement. This is a problem.
On one hand, people use sports
Opinion
to get away from their real lives
and as a result don’t want to have
their escape marred by constant
political talk. On the other hand,
everyone has a right to voice their
political thoughts.
The stick to sports crowd tend
to use the same argument over
and over: Your job isn’t to talk
politics and push an agenda, it’s
to talk sports and nothing else.
But if John the plumber from Caledonia
wants to voice his political
thoughts, he can. He won’t be
criticized or told to stick to plumbing.
Yet, when Jemele Hill or
Colin Kaepernick or anyone involved
in sports mention politics,
they are crushed. Saying stick to
sports is as hypocritical as it gets.
Stick to sports hit a boiling
point on September 11, 2017 when
ESPN’s SportsCenter anchor
Jemele Hill sent out a handful of
critical tweets about U.S. President
Donald Trump. In those
tweets, Hill called Trump a “white
supremacist.” White House press
secretary Sarah Huckabee called
this, “a fireable offense by ESPN.”
Trump himself demanded an
apology from ESPN.
The president of the most
powerful country in the world is
holding rallies in Alabama to berate
pro athletes kneeling during
the anthem. Why is Trump still
holding rallies? He is no longer
on the campaign trail. He is an
elected president, shouldn’t he be
doing his job?
Trump uses these rallies as
propaganda. On September 22,
2017 Trump said, “Wouldn’t
you love to see one of these NFL
owners, when somebody disrespects
our flag to say, ‘Get that son
of a bitch off the field right now.
Out! He’s fired. He’s fired!’” He
went as far as to say fans should
boycott the sport. These actions
are dictatorial.
What these athletes are doing
isn’t disrespecting the American
flag. These athletes are using the
platform they have to try and
make a difference in the world and
raise awareness. It’s not meant to
be disrespectful to the flag, the anthem,
or the military. It shouldn’t
be presumed that’s what they’re
doing.
There’s a real problem in
America when the president is
more upset with pro athletes
standing up, or in this case kneeling,
against injustice than he is
with a blatant KKK and neo-Nazi
attacks. Trump said, “I think
there is blame on both sides,”
when talking about the violence in
Charlottesville, Virginia caused
by those protesting the removal of
a Robert E. Lee statue.
Lee was a confederate general
in the Civil War and fought
against the United States for the
South.
People still fly the racist confederate
flag. The stick to sports
crowd doesn’t have an issue with
that flag. They just have an issue
with athletes and journalists voicing
their political opinions or trying
to make a positive difference
in a country that is torn apart by
racial injustice.
It’s funny how the stick to
sports crowd seems to only come
out when Liberal political views
are voiced, but never Conservative
thoughts. Well, if sports are to
be stuck to by those who make a
living off of them, then why can
Donald Trump spend valuable
time bad mouthing sports people
who stand up against political and
social injustice? Donald Trump
is the leader of America, but he’s
also the leader of the stick to sports
movement.
A real leader unites people in a
time of need. Trump accidentally
united the NFL with his heinous
comments. Players, owners, and
coaches have never been more
unified using their platform to
raise awareness for injustices.
If Trump had just stuck to politics,
maybe this wouldn’t have
gone so sour for him. In the end,
the stick to sports movement stuck
it to Trump.