Team president Patrick Boivin on righting the ship
But Boivin knows ownership won’t be patient forever as club’s value regresses
Ten months into his first year as Alouettes president, Patrick Boivin could be excused if he believed the football world was imploding around him.
The CFL team has a 3-12 record, is on an eight-game losing streak, will miss the playoffs for a third straight season, has fired its head coach, who doubled as the offensive co-ordinator, fired the defensive co-ordinator, and is averaging 19,439 spectators, or nearly 4,000 below capacity.
Other than that, things are great. “The initial challenge we all saw ... certainly hasn’t changed. Some would argue it has grown. I’d argue we just took a little longer to get started. Semantics? Maybe,” Boivin said Monday, devoting nearly an hour to the Montreal Gazette during an interview at the team’s downtown administration office.
If there was one point Boivin attempted to drive home, he insisted there was never going to be any quick fix to what ails the Als. The “landslide” might have started five years ago; even a winning record this year would have only masked some deep-rooted problems.
But make no mistake, this team is as challenged — both on and off the field — as it has been in its existence. The Als already folded once, in 1987, and while Boivin doesn’t see any immediate reason to be alarmed, he admitted the patience and commitment of owner Robert Wetenhall and his son, Andrew, runs only so deep.
“We’re in a tough spot. We have been for some time now. Our metrics are not increasing. A lot of that is in direct relationship to the team’s performance,” Boivin said. “They want to see this team come back. They’re willing to be as patient as needed — not overly patient, but certainly more than a year.
“They understand this business isn’t going to be turned around in a year, especially when it’s correlated to the football performance. The business has not been tracking forward. It’s been regressing slowly, year after year. Tickets and sponsorship have been tracking similarly.”
While there will constantly be speculation about potential new ownership or the need to get local interested parties involved, the Wetenhall family has never expressed a desire to sell. And realistically, it wouldn’t make economic sense to unload the franchise at this juncture, when the return would be minimal.
“My belief is they’ll fight to keep the franchise, but there needs to be signs,” Boivin said. “Part of that — a big part — is on me ... on righting the ship. I don’t know that we necessarily get four years to do this without seeing some real progression.”
Boivin confirmed on Monday, as he did last Friday in a Frenchlanguage radio interview, what the Montreal Gazette reported on Oct. 11 — general manager Kavis Reed, now the Als’ interim head coach, will return next season in the former capacity. Boivin believes Reed remains the best choice to lead the team, just as he understands the GM will continue being assailed on social media. And Boivin knows it might be difficult persuading fans to renew their season tickets with Reed remaining in place.
“The only way it’ll work is with results,” Boivin said, intimating Reed’s window of opportunity might not last beyond 2018. “To get those results, Kavis needs to be given a legitimate chance to build the team. It’s no more complicated than that.
“He needs to be given the benefit of doubt. He needs to be given a proper chance. He still has a high capacity to be able to deliver on a plan that he initially had in the interview process. Some of those things haven’t worked out.”
The additions of quarterback Darian Durant and receiver Ernest Jackson didn’t get the expected results, but is that on the player or the way they were utilized under former head coach Jacques Chapdelaine? It’s no secret Reed and Chapdelaine weren’t “aligned,” according to Boivin; that this might have been an “arranged marriage” after Chapdelaine, justifiably, was rehired after directing Montreal to a 4-2 record last season.
Firing Chapdelaine and Noel Thorpe last month was less about salvaging the season, Boivin said. It was more about starting to plan for the future. And now that will begin again with the hiring of a new head coach this winter and what should be some new assistants along with, it’s imagined, an overhaul of the roster. This team needs to get younger while changing the culture. It requires a coach who will both teach and lead.
As for Boivin, he has some new initiatives in place involving ticket and pricing strategy.
The price of season tickets will remain frozen. Those deciding to renew their subscriptions will take advantage of rebates between 45 and 25 per cent, depending on how early they commit. The price of almost 1,000 seats in Molson Stadium will be reduced, and a $20 ticket for students will now be offered.
Rather than concentrating on the approximately 10,000 who have full season-ticket packages, Boivin said equal emphasis must be placed on those who have more specific interests and want to see a more limited number of games. Boivin said the organization must continue to sell the overall experience as opposed to just the threehour game.
“It’s less about selling a ticket. It’s more about selling an overall experience,” he said. “We’re trying to get them in, not (exclusively) for the football but to live a social experience with their friends.
“We’re going to be redefining this team’s identity so it can progress and develop properly.”