The Gimmicks of Hockey Canada

Whether it be the fanciness of green jerseys or having PepsiCo create a contest to select a new team cheer, it's becoming interesting to see what Hockey Canada will do next in terms of gimmicks. While it's great for fan interaction (at least for the cheer), it seems a little bit much for a hockey federation to go all out like this.

The green jersey is what's getting the most buzz, as Hockey Canada is doing because green is the big color in Saskatchewan. Plus, it gives a nice Christmas-y feel to the whole thing, as the tourney is held during that time of the year. However, at the same time-- for an iconic hockey nation like Canada, why would you want to localize the national team like this?? They didn't do this for Vancouver or Ottawa when they hosted the WJC and they probably won't do it for Calgary/Edmonton in 2012, so why is Saskatchewan different for these games?? Sure, it's a two-off jersey (once in pre-tournament, once in the tournament), but still-- it's not something they have done prior, so I don't get why this instance is different than others. Yet, I wouldn't be surprised to see sales for this one go off the charts.

As far as the Team Canada/PepsiCo cheer contest....oof. Now, the premise for this is because of other countries having chantable names and then doing research about how fans interaction affect players and games (don't know how scientific that is), adding in the the brand exposure they'll get-- Pepsi was all over it. The let fans create their cheers, record and upload them, which then got moved to judges who picked the top-3 (which is attached on the link at the top), then moved to the fans to vote on which is the best. While the idea is solid, the fact this will actually catch on, I don't know. To orchestrate this in a big scale is a task which may or may not work. How would other voters feel if their cheer got scorned, will this create a civil war in the stands of dueling cheers?? No, probably not-- but think of the possibility of it happening-- creates for outstanding fodder.

In any case, the fact Hockey Canada is going to this make me love capitalism. They know they could make money hand over fist as it is, but they still are thinking of way to make some more. And the thing is that it'll work everytime regardless of the gimmick they pick. The Hockey Canada brand is something people love to buy and you slap a logo onto something, odds are it'll be a success. They know this and they almost abuse it to an extent, but what can you say-- you'd probably do the same thing if you had the chance as well.