Apparently the Renegades' "brain trust" and I use that word as loosely as I would calling Canada's Live 8 concert entry on par with the rest of the world, subscribe to the old adage that there's no such thing as bad press coverage. If coverage and buzz was what they were seeking then mission accomplished as the Renegades' season long promotion of equipping male spectators in the stadium's upper south side with beads and encouraging women to retrieve as many of cede beads as possible with the winning or most shameless women receiving $1,000 was covered by a plethora of news agencies.

Despite the fact that the Renegades' home opener was already being played on Canada Day and despite the fact that the team was holding a pre-game memorial ceremony in honour of Frank Clair (the man who the stadium was named after) Lonie Glieberman obviously wasn't content and felt the day wasn't complete without some potential occurrences of nudity.

You would think that with all pre-game hype and attention paid to the game promotion the Renegades would have done better than attracting 18,899 or about 9,000 below capacity; figures that would hardly quantify all the negative publicity a box-office success. In fact this promotion did more harm than good when you think of all the sponsors and new season ticket holders this promotion turned off.

There's a common misnomer in sports that 18-25 year old males are the target market that all teams need to attract to be successful. 'Gades President Lonie Glieberman subscribes to this theory especially when he provided justification for the team's Marti Gras promotion: "We want to make the stadium an enjoyable place to be and this will help make it a festive, fun environment for a key demographic of our fan base."

	Renegades new president Lonie Glieberman has made a controversial first impression on new fans.  (Source: OttawaRenagades.net)

It's ridiculous thinking because young males have lower incomes and like any woman in that age group will tell you, young males have a tough time with commitment. So needless to say selling season tickets and catering game day promotions to this consumer group makes about as much sense as the Toronto Raptors drafting strategy over the past two years. You have to look no further than the movie industry to see that family-oriented entertainment is a goldmine industry if done properly. Young families are the ones that should be attracted especially in a city like Ottawa where you'll see a ratio of roughly two minivans to each person. Alienating your biggest fan base to attract a few younger fans just doesn't make for good business.

What's also disconcerting is the lack of response by CFL commissioner Tom Wright. During a sports talk radio interview in Ottawa earlier in the week Wright was asked if he was worried about the promotion and the coverage it's getting. Wright responded by explaining the onus is on TSN not to show inappropriate content and he trusted they wouldn't. Kinda missing the point there Commissioner, aren't you? The onus should not be on a CFL network partner to clean up and edit the sleazy promotions you're allowing your teams to conduct.

	Somebody fill this man in on the Marti Gras game promotion and then give him room to rant.  (Source: CNNSI)

The poor taste and lack of common sense to announce a season long Marti Gras game day promotion essentially took all the positive momentum away from something the team did correctly with their strong marketing initiative to offer season tickets at a discounted $99 price point. The team ended up selling over 5,800 season tickets in a one-day sale that more than doubled the season ticket base. Fortunately for the 'Gades' ownership group in the end the product on the field ended up overshadowing the action off the field. The promotion centered on busts ended up being a bigger one that Kwame Brown when all was send and done. Only one woman actively attempted to collect beads the old fashioned and conventional way.

Let's just chalk this all up as another feature my CFL 2006 video game needs to have: idiot ownership and lack of league direction.