Bisons look north of border for new fans

The Triple-A International League earned its moniker because, in its original incarnation, it included teams in both the United States and Canada. Nowadays, however, all 14 clubs in the circuit operate in the United States. The last IL team to represent Canada was the Ottawa Lynx, which relocated to Lehigh Valley in Pennsylvania following the 2007 campaign.

Nonetheless, the International League's connection to Canada lives on in the form of the Buffalo Bisons. At the Bisons' home of Coca-Cola Park, Canadian money is accepted as currency, the north-of-the-border fast-food delicacy known as poutine is served at the concession stands and "O Canada" is performed before every ballgame. These overt nods to baseball fans in the neighbo(u)ring Canadian province of Ontario were instituted in advance of the 2013 campaign, after the Bisons signed a Player Development Contract (PDC) with the Toronto Blue Jays.

Oh, Canada, indeed.

The Bisons' affiliation with the Blue Jays has benefited both entities. Buffalo is just 100 miles from Toronto, meaning that players who have been promoted or demoted can reach their new destination with ease (this was not the case previously, as from 2009 through 2012 the Blue Jays were affiliated with the far-flung Las Vegas 51s). And as for the Bisons, they can now market to an Ontario fan base that has a vested interest in the team's players and performance.

"We get a lot of people from south Ontario at the ballpark, and that's directly related to our affiliation with the Blue Jays," said Bisons director of entertainment and marketing resources Matt La Sota. "In April and May of [2013] we saw that the number of Canadians coming here had just skyrocketed. We noticed it right away. We'll take Canadian money at the box office at par, because the exchange rate is so close. But the dollar got a little weaker this year, so we had to watch [the exchange rate] to make sure that we weren't losing money. We don't take anything over a $20 [Canadian] bill now. The dollar had dropped so much in Canada that people were paying with a $100, getting $80 back in American and making some money off it."

Even without an economic incentive, Blue Jays fans in Canada have ample motivation to visit the Bisons. Namely, they now have the chance to see the team's top prospects in a comparatively intimate and low-cost environment. My conversation with La Sota took place on Aug. 25, during the final home game of the Bisons' season, and as we chatted he was able to make this point directly.

"Take this guy up to bat right now, Dalton Pompey," said La Sota. "He's from Mississauga, about 30 minutes outside of Toronto, and that's about as close to a local kid as you're going to get. We're going to try to get a lot of play off that."

"Canadian fans know the players more," he continued. "They're more baseball-oriented, so we can market baseball to them more so than the promotion. They're very passionate about the Blue Jays because it's not just the local team, it's the nation's team. There's a decent amount of Blue Jays fans here in Buffalo because it's the closest Major League city, though I would say it's still a Yankees town on the marketing end. People in Buffalo still care more about the Yankees, and that goes all the way back to the '50s."

The "nation's team" angle explains why the Blue Jays have also entered into an affiliation agreement with Canada's sole Minor League team, the Class A Short Season Vancouver Canadians, despite the fact that Vancouver is some 2,700 miles from Toronto. But whereas distance precludes a direct marketing relationship between those two entities, in Buffalo it's a different story.

"The first thing we did, about a week after we signed [the Player Development Contract], was that all of our staff went up [to Toronto] to meet all of the Blue Jays staff," said La Sota. "We took in a game, chatted, and shared ideas about what we can do. We do a 'Blue Jay Weekend' here, where they'll send us a couple of alumni -- having guys like Fred McGriff and Kelly Gruber come here to sign autographs. ... But we don't step on their feet, meaning that if the Blue Jays are home we're not going to promote certain things at the same time that they're promoting something. We talk to them a lot. We all know what's going on, and we're getting out there. Early in the season, one of our guys goes to games at [the Blue Jays' home of] Rogers Centre and sells our four-packs."

Marketing to Canadian fans is still a work in progress for the Bisons, since prior to their affiliation with Toronto, it was not a main area of focus.

"As we headed into the 2014 season, we had more of a plan because we were learning what works," said La Sota. "We don't think that newspaper ads work very well there. Here in Buffalo we have one major paper, the Buffalo News. But from here to Hamilton, the next major town before Toronto, there are so many little towns and so many little newspapers. There's not just one big paper where you can advertise. So we do a lot with radio, especially with Toronto's sports station, 590 The Fan. We do a lot on their broadcasts, and the Blue Jays are great partners with that."

Going forward, the Bisons will also place a strong emphasis on group sales.

"We've got to make sure that we're active in the Little Leagues in Canada as, quite honestly, that was something we weren't really involved with before," said La Sota. "And even the youth hockey groups -- we started getting into that market this year. Have a summer outing here, you know? And there's still a lot more people that we haven't reached yet."

They will have plenty more opportunity to do so. In September the Blue Jays and Bisons renewed their affiliation through the 2016 season, and the relationship has the potential to extend far beyond that short-term scenario.

"It's a great partnership," said La Sota. "They want us to be happy and we want them to be happy with us."