50 Cent brings new eyes to B.C. Lions — can the team create return business with it?

Team owner Amar Doman has pulled out all stops to give the team a stage, with Saturday’s game expected to draw over 51,000 fans

What excited Kelly Bates about the B.C. Lions bringing in 50 Cent for a pre-game concert for Saturday’s home opener against the Calgary Stampeders is he knew it wasn’t meant for people like him.

Bates, 48, is from Humboldt, Sask., was a CFL fan long before he was a player in the league, and now the offensive-line coach with the Lions.

He would undoubtedly be a season ticket holder and have a prime spot in the stands Saturday if he wasn’t working the B.C. sidelines, and would have signed on long before any added pre-game festivities were ever announced.

“The first thing I thought when I heard about the concert was, ‘I hope my kids like it because I don’t have a clue,’” Bates said, referring  to daughters Nyah, 14, and Annie, 11. “It’s about those younger generations. And my kids certainly know much more about him than I do.

“I love when I look up in the stands now and I’m seeing a younger fanbase. I was a three-year-old, four-year-old when I was going to my first Saskatchewan Roughrider games and I fell in love with the CFL. I’m starting to see young kids up in the stands falling in love with the CFL. I absolutely love that. It starts at the grassroots level, and that’s what he is doing and I’m very thankful for that.”

Bates is speaking there about Lions owner Amar Doman. The Victoria product, who owns the Futura Corp. asset management and investment firm, bought the Lions in 2021. It was Doman who landed OneRepublic for a pre-game concert ahead of the 2022 home opener and the crowd that night was announced at 34,082. Doman booked LL Cool J to play before last year’s home opener and the team listed the attendance at 33,103.

 B.C. Lions owner Amar Doman has quickly become a fan favourite. PHOTO BY FRANCIS GEORGIAN /PNG
 

The Lions have said this week that they expect a crowd in excess of 51,000 for Saturday, buoyed of course by the 50 Cent set. 

The team hasn’t broken the 50,000 plateau for a regular season game since a crowd of 50,213 was announced for a Sept. 30, 2011 game against the Edmonton Eskimos. That game marked the re-opening of B.C. Place after its refurbishing.

The Lions announced attendance average for the regular season last year was 23,208, which according to 3DownNation, was up 13.8 per cent from the season previous and a whopping 30.4 per cent better than 2019.

According to CFL stats guru Steve Daniel, the Lions had regular season crowds of over 50,000 seven times in the 1980s and twice in the 1990s.

There’s no official word on what Doman has shelled out to land 50 Cent, whose hits include In Da Club and Candy Shop. The Queens, N.Y. rapper was quoted in Billboard in February 2023 as saying that he was getting “$900,000, $1 million,” per show these days.

Doman is doing everything he can to get more eyeballs on the Lions. It’s up to the team now to keep them. There’s bound to be a large percentage of Saturday’s crowd who have never been to a CFL game previously. A strong showing by the Lions is bound to create return business and add to brand loyalty.

Mainstream sports fans only have so much disposable income. Saturday’s an opportunity for the Lions to garner momentum with them, particularly with the Vancouver Canucks, who swallow up so much of the attention in this market, sitting idle. The Lions are aiming to host playoff action in late October, putting them to head-to-head with the start of the Canucks’ season.

This an early pressure point on the Lions. You won’t get players to bite on that, though, as you’d expect.

“We just come out there and play our game and execute at a high level. Come out better in the second half and I think the scoreboard will take care of itself,” quarterback Vernon Adams, Jr., said when asked about added stress, pointing specifically in the process to the team coughing up a 20-6 lead in a 37-25 loss to the host Toronto Argonauts in the season opener last week.

Coach Rick Campbell said that the team hasn’t allowed the players to watch the pre-game concerts in the past and the stance will remain the same Saturday. Adams explained that 50 Cent “is going to be doing his thing and we’re going to stay locked in and focussed and do what we need to do to stayed prepared.”

The idea of playing before a crowd of that size does bring back Adams to his college days. He was the starting quarterback on the 2015 Oregon Ducks team that played 11 of its 13 games that year before crowds of 50,000, including one of 76,526 for a road game against Michigan State.

“It’s going to be fun,” Adams beamed.

Bates’ final games of his 10-year run as a player in the CFL came during that aforementioned 2011 Lions season. He signed on initially as an offensive assistant coach for the campaign, but wound up dressing for four games due to injuries. B.C. had that massive crowd for the midseason re-opening of B.C. Place, and also won the Grey Cup at home before a 54,313 one with a 34-23 triumph over the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.

The Lions, of course, host this year’s Grey  Cup Nov. 17 at B.C. Place.

“It’s electric,” Bates said of playing in front of crowds like the team expects Saturday. “It’s mind blowing when you’re playing well. At the same time, it creates distractions you have to deal with. It’s a whole different world and for these guys to get a chance to experience it makes me very happy.”

 BC Lions offensive line coach Kelly Bates on September 2, 2019. PHOTO BY NICK PROCAYLO /PNG