Long Overdue

For years, there has been a void in the sports world in Winnipeg when it came to the Bisons being a viable source of entertainment while being a premiere destination for athletes to study and compete. Anyone who denies that the Bisons are an afterthought in the city or across the province clearly hasn't been to an event at the university where, in most cases, great seats are always available. That may begin to change in the near future, though, thanks to an email sent in late October that announced that the university was beginning a "major initiative to re-evaluate its sports and recreation brands, including the Bisons". If we're being honest, this was long overdue.

According to a report in The Manitoban by Taycie Adeoti, "the review process will assess the relevance of the sports and recreation brands to today's students and the university's community, while ensuring alignment with the institutional brand introduced in 2019". You may be wondering what this will entail, but Dr. Douglas Brown, dean of the faculty of kinesiology and recreation management, made it very clear that the Bisons logo and brand would not be going away.

"We are not changing the brand," Dr. Brown told Adeoti. "You can't simply change a brand, overnight, so we're really viewing this as a sort of an exploration of how impactful our current branding is. I don't want people to be confused that the Bison logo is the brand — the brand is about the people, the values and about what we do."

I fully agree and support this idea as I don't think the University of Manitoba needs a dramatic overhaul of its logo nor it branding, but there should be a review of how far the Bisons logo reaches within the community. This is vital for the health of the varsity athletic programs when it comes to attracting fans, donors, and sponsors as well as making connections within the community and with alumni.

Brown expressed thoughts on this, though, stating, "[I]f there are adaptations or changes to the current logo or other symbols associated with it — I'd like it to make sense within the context of what the university is doing as a whole."

Again, the image of the Bisons logo isn't the problem here. It's the efforts, or lack thereof, to be part of the community and the failure to honour alumni for their commitments to the school where this program has fallen short so many times. When was the last time an alumna was honoured prior to a game for length of service? When was the last time the Bisons honoured a distinctive alumna by honouring or retiring the number he or she wore? When's the last time the Bisons have gone out to practices in the city and spent time with some of the younger athletes?

I'm not saying the Bisons don't do good charitable work already, but there's always a question of doing more, especially when it comes to attracting more people to come to their games. The problem, though, is there is almost zero connection for most people when it comes to knowing athletes or team staff, so selling tickets is hard. There's also zero sponsors for the team when you look around Wayne Fleming Arena, and we know that sponsors often get tickets they can distribute. This is where a strong media strategy would be necessary, but it seems Dr. Brown is looking in a different direction when it comes to this "re-evaluation".

"I'd like students to go, 'I love the way the University of Manitoba is being represented,'" he stated. "'I love this, or I love that, or I feel connected to this.'"

Considering that students have free admission to games and not many of them use that benefit, I'm not certain any of them "feel connected" to the logo. Some will certainly take pride in being a student at the school, but that's not reflected in any of the athletic programs or recreation programs. There needs to be a reason to come down to the stadium or arena, and it's been very clear for a number of years that the university isn't giving its students a reason to spend a few evenings watching the Bisons.

When asked by Adeoti how this re-evaluation will measure success, Dr. Brown responded, "[I]t will be a measure that we get from the community, people who are either thumbs up, 'we like that,' or 'we don't get it,' or ambivalence. I think the worst thing would be ambivalence, that people [have] no reaction. It's hard to work with ambivalence."

The ambivalence is the entire problem with this re-evaluation because that feeling of apathy towards the Bisons has existed for years. We can talk about the 2018 National Women's Hockey Championship captured by the Bisons, but crowds only increased when the Bisons were winning in the playoffs and media outlets were talking about them. The following season saw them back to the regular crowd sizes of 250 people per game as the media completely forgot about them. Talking about the team and having them on TV and radio made a huge difference when it came to reducing the ambivalence about which Dr. Brown is speaking.

I respect this re-evaluation for trying to ensure that the Bisons brand and logo evolves alongside the university's logo and brand, but the depth to which the brand permeates the market is surface deep. That won't change until more people are talking about the Bisons, and that comes with media coverage, volunteerism, and student engagement. None of that happens currently, so the ambivalence will certainly be in the results that Dr. Brown receives.

Until the university wants to address its lack of presence in the city, I feel like this re-evaluation will reveal that people don't feel connected to the Bisons in any meaningful way. That's a shame considering all the talent that Bisons Athletics boasts, but it's never been a priority in the past, and it seems even less of a priority today.

This re-evaluation was long overdue, but it ultimately misses the larger problems when it comes to the brand and logo: people know the Bisons, but do they care about the Bisons?

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!