UFA parting ways with Bisons

Justin Seward
Times Reporter

 

The UFA Bisons are looking for a new title sponsor starting in the 2015-2016 season.
UFA notified the club that after 18 loyal seasons of sponsorship that they are moving in a different direction.
“We recognized them for 18 years of support. UFA has been the only title sponsor that the Bisons have ever had,” said Bisons GM Wayne Hansen. “We’re going to start our search, starting in the New Year, for a replacement title sponsor.”
Hansen could not emphasize more how much of an impact a sponsor has on a hockey team.
“A sponsor for us is really important with regards to the visibility of our team. We’re a host team at the Mac’s, it’s little things like that,” said Hansen. “We know that there is some great companies out there that will have some interest.”
Since the notice from UFA, there has been some expressed interest from sponsors, but it has just been mainly discussion.
“We’ve had preliminary conversations with a couple people. One of the things that we really wanted to do was to make sure we put a package together that explained to everybody what it really means to be the title sponsor of the Bisons,” said Hansen. “We now have that package that’s ready to go and we’ll be ready to move forward with that in the New Year.”
UFA provided a lot of support to the Bisons, and the next sponsor, will hopefully do the same.
“UFA, for 18 years was a partner with us, they worked with us fantastically. We did minor hockey clinics and various things with them throughout the year,” said Hansen. “It’s important whoever comes in also has that desire to want to be visible in the community.”
He added that they are not closing their options with any sponsors, but said it would be beneficial to have a Strathmore sponsor.
“UFA and the Bisons have had a terrific relationship for 18 years and we were looking at the start of the 2014-2015 season. We sat down and had a conversation with the Bisons about what the future looked like and we agreed it was UFA’s last year of support,” said Richard Peter, spokesperson for UFA.
“UFA is looking forward to new partnerships that will help us just to focus on the areas that matter most to the members of an agricultural cooperative.”
UFA was very happy to be associated with the Bisons, but admit it was time to turn their attention to other programs.
“It’s certainly an important part of the Strathmore community and UFA has always been happy to be a part of that but what we’re looking at now for UFA is obviously agriculture and youth in the community where our members live and work,” said Peter. “We have really significant sponsorships with organizations like Alberta 4-H, Ag for Life, which is about rural education and safety.”
Peter did not want to echo the notion that UFA is trying to stray away from sports organization.
“No I don’t think that’s the conclusion. I think that if you look at where UFA focuses it’s community investment, it’s in the areas that matter for members. The winners for the ‘Get and Give’ program, some of the facilities that are getting the $50,000 of capital are associated with sport,” said Peter.
If you are interested in being the primary sponsor of the Bisons beginning next season, you can contact Rich Biccum at 403-978-5756 or e-mail (breorbray71@gmail.com).