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Argos’ vice-president David Bedford on the plan to bring kids to a preseason game

The CFL preseason is like most sports' preseasons: the games tend to be most important for teams to evaluate their own players in preparation for roster cuts rather than for the result on the scoreboard, and that can make attracting fans difficult. The Toronto Argonauts have come up with a brilliantly creative way to improve the size of the house for their final preseason game June 19 against Montreal, though, and one that should synthesize nicely with their existing community outreach and help to attract a new generation of fans. That plan? Move the kickoff time to noon Eastern and work with local school boards to provide a free year-ending field trip for local kids. I spoke to Argonauts' senior vice-president (business operations) David Bedford about the plan Thursday, and he had some interesting things to say on why the team decided to go this direction.

Bedford said what brought the idea to mind was the poor atmosphere the team had seen for their final preseason game in preceding seasons. Given that they're hosting the Grey Cup this fall and have made several offseason moves likely to kick up the ante for this season, the team wanted to find a way to start off with a bigger bang. He said a stadium full of excited kids should be a nice change from some of the energy-lacking atmospheres the team's seen in prior pre-season contests.

"Typically, the final preseason game is a pretty dead atmosphere," Bedford said. "The last few years, we've had under 10,000 fans, and when you have a 50,000-plus seat stadium, that's a pretty lousy atmosphere. Rather than a mausoleum, we wanted to have a loud, vibrant atmosphere."

Bedford said they considered other options to make the final preseason game unique, including playing at the University of Toronto's Varsity Stadium to get back to their history (the Argonauts played in the old Varsity Stadium, on the same site, until 1959). That wasn't possible because of some turf-replacement procedures going on, so he said that led to the idea of bringing school kids in to the Rogers Centre for free. Bedford said the plan came together very quickly.

"It's really been the last few weeks," he said.

He said the Toronto District School Board was particularly receptive to the idea.

"Incredibly so," Bedford said. "It's been designated by the TDSB as a priority item. We're really excited about that."

The team also received strong support from both the Alouettes and the CFL.

"Both were great," Bedford said.

For both the Alouettes and the Argonauts, the earlier game actually works better from a football operations standpoint. It's early enough in the day that Montreal players won't have to stay overnight after the game, saving the team money, and the next day is a day when significant roster cuts have to be made, so an earlier game gives both teams' football departments more time to make decisions.

"It buys the football operations staff extra hours to evaluate the tape," Bedford said.

Bedford said the plan also fits nicely with all the other community work the Argonauts do in schools, including the Huddle Up bullying prevention program (sponsored by Tim Hortons, and in its 11th year), the Level The Playing Field program, which has returned football to 10 Toronto District schools that couldn't afford it (also sponsored by Tim Hortons, in its fourth year), and the Argo-cise Recess program, which focuses on improving kids' physical activity (presented by Goodlife Fitness). He sees this initiative as a way to showcase some of the work the club does year-round in schools, and has been doing for some time.

"We haven't done a very good job of telling our community the things we do in the community," Bedford said. "This isn't Johnny-come-lately for this organization. We hope this will help tell people and disseminate information on what we're up to."

He said many of the team's other events are focused on sending players to engage kids in schools; now, the kids will get to see what their visitors get up to at work.

"We've gone in where they live, in the schools," Bedford said. "Now we want them to come see where we live."

The opportunities for kids will go beyond just watching a game for free, too. They'll also get to come meet players and cheerleaders on the field after the game, and Bedford said the whole team will be available to talk to kids.

"It's going to end up being a zoo," he said. "It will be a lot of fun."

Bedford said reaching out to children is crucial for the Argonauts' future.

"Every professional franchise wants to engage the next generation of fans," he said. "You want them tugging on dad or mom and saying, 'I want to go to the game.' You want them to grow up fans of the sport."

Between free tickets for kids on school trips and the five free vouchers that will be given to each season-ticket holder so they can bring fans, the Rogers Centre should be rocking on June 19. Bedford said that should help the Argonauts kick-start a year they're hoping will be very special indeed.

"We want to build on that and create a different, vibrant paradigm."