Trevor Turnbull
Special to CFL.ca

Sport Fan Connect had the pleasure of working with the 2009 Grey Cup Festival in overseeing the social media strategy, online contesting (http://greycupfanconnect.com) and video production in the weeks leading up to and during the festival weekend.  As a side, our project also included collecting video at many of the events throughout the weekend with an objective to capture the atmosphere surrounding the Grey Cup Festival and the CFL fan experience.

Throughout all of our travels and experience over the past few months attending professional games in the NFL, MLB and NHL, one thing has stood out about the CFL is that the relationship that exists between the CFL, it’s players and fans is truly special.  Nothing captures this connection better that the Grey Cup Festival weekend and Grey Cup Championship game.

The Canadian Football League has a long history in Canada and has seen a rise in popularity over the past few years.  Mostly in part to the tremendous job that the CFL does in promoting the game, it’s players, coaches and executives. What makes the CFL unique compared to other professional leagues is that these players, coaches and executives are accessible to the fans and this is never more apparent than during the Grey Cup Festival weekend.

The following videos are a collection of experiences we captured during the 2009 Grey Cup Festival weekend.  Each of these showcase the unique connection between the CFL, players, executives and their fans.

CFL FANS GREET WALLY BUONO

While walking back from the CFL Experience at the Telus Convention centre, we bumped into Wally Buono outside of the BC Lions official Grey Cup party at The Palomino in downtown Calgary. Wally took the time to chat with these fans that showered him with praise.  Following this experience, one of these fans expressed his opinion on “What the CFL is all about!”.



CFL TWEETUP

Led by the amazing team at CFL.ca, the first official CFL Tweetup was organized during the 2009 Grey Cup Festival weekend at The Unicorn bar in downtown Calgary.  For those that don’t know, a Tweetup is an event where people who Twitter come together to meet in person. In this case, the invitation was open to all passionate CFL fans on Twitter that wanted to socialize with other “Tweeps” and talk about the game they love.

There have been many other examples of Tweetup’s in other leagues including those organized by @dani3boyz (http://nhltweetup.com) and the Phoenix Suns being the most well known.  What made the CFL Tweetup a special event is that the CFL.ca staff (with the assistance of Jeff Armstead – InTheTunnel.com) brought along some special guest including Nik Lewis, Tad Kornegay and the CFL commissioner – Mark Cohon.  All of the CFL Twitter fans in attendance had a chance to meet and greet these individuals. And, the players and Commish got to express their gratitude to the fans that make the CFL so special.



ANWAR STEWART GIVES HIS GREY CUP HAT TO A YOUNG FAN

Following the Montreal Alouettes 2009 Grey Cup victory over the Saskatchewan Roughriders, Anwar Stewart (Defensive End for the Montreal Alouettes) celebrated with fans by running around with an Alouettes flag.  He took a moment during his celebration to approach the stands and hand his 2009 Grey Cup Champions cap to a young Calgary Stampeders fan.  This moment of kindness truly showed Anwar’s character and provided a young CFL fan an experience that he will never forget.  The look on this young guys face is priceless!

It is moments like these that make me proud to be Canadian and to have a league that we can call our own. Although just under half of the players on each team are made up of “import” players, it is apparent that each and every one of these guys appreciate the level of support their receive from north of the border and value their responsibility as role models to many CFL fans. And, for many CFL players, the connection they have with the fans is one that is appreciate as much as it is by the fans.



Trevor Turnbull is the founder of http://sportfanconnect.com.