U Sports is the national governing body of university sport in Canada, comprised of 56 member universities.
In an effort to keep and grow interest in the sport of football, U Sports wanted to examine the implications of expanding the playoffs, with the belief that fans will remain interested if they feel their team has a shot at winning it all.
Cosmos engaged all member institutions to gather feedback, and developed a 11 point criteria to objectively evaluate each proposed format, including likelihood of rematches, additional costs, and perceived fan interest.
The University of Toronto is one of Canada’s oldest (founded in 1827) and largest universities (student population is more than 60,000). According to 2020 edition of the Maclean’s university rankings, the University of Toronto was ranked first in its reputation rankings, the fifth consecutive time the university placed there.
In 2016 the University of Toronto, Faculty of Kinesiology & Physical Education was trying to address a problem of how to be more self-sufficient.
The Cosmos team completed a comprehensive analysis of the department and synthesized it’s findings to provide a Strategic Action plan on how to drive more revenue from intercollegiate athletics.
Founded in 1884 under the name The Hamilton Orchestral Society, The Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra (HPO) as it’s known today has grown to become one of Canada’s major professional orchestras.
Each season, which runs from September through May, is made up of shows which can be broadly categorized as “Classical” or “Pops”. This allows the HPO to appeal to fans of the classical art form, while simultaneously attracting new fans with a modern/contemporary twist.
Facing similar challenges as many ticket selling entertainment properties, HPO sought the services of Cosmos to place further emphasis on Customer service, retention and fan reacquisition.
Since 1942, Ultimate Disc has been a sport played in parks, University campuses, and High school gym classes across North America. But everything changed when Josh Moore founded the American Ultimate Disc League (AUDL) in 2010, with it’s inaugural season taking place in 2012. This new league would become the world’s first ever professional Ultimate Disc league, putting the sport on the path to mainstream relevance in North American sports scene.
After a relatively successful first season, a group north of the 49th parallel was eager to bring the exciting new form of the sport to Canada.
The Wilfrid Laurier Golden Hawks are the Varsity Athletic teams representing Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ontario. The Golden Hawks compete as members of Ontario University Athletics (OUA) on a provincial level, and U Sports on a National level.
Focused on their Football program, the Golden Hawks were seeking to increase revenue specifically from Ticket Sales. Faced with many of the same challenges that other University athletics departments face these days, the Golden Hawks needed to find new ways of attracting paying fans from the Waterloo community.
Drawing on our expertise in the ticket sales world, Cosmos was able to evaluate the current Golden Hawks ticket sales operation, and develop a Strategic Action Plan to increase paid attendance at football games.
As proud members of Canada’s “City of Champions”, the Edmonton Eskimos hold themselves to a Champions standard both on and off the field. With the team being perennial contenders on the field, attending an Eskimos game is a must see experience when in Edmonton between June – November.
However, despite posting consistently strong results on the field, and averaging the largest home crowds in the Canadian Football League (CFL), the Eskimos still had another level to achieve. This was in large part due to the capacity of their home venue, The Brick Field at Commonwealth Stadium.
Coming off a year in which they hosted the Grey Cup, the Eskimos were looking for ways to combat the “Grey Cup Hangover”. Team executives wanted to continue to grow their ticket base, while doubling down on providing quality service to all their fans. This is where they turned to Cosmos.
Regional Tourism Organization 4 (RTO4) is one of Ontario’s 13 tourism organizations. Representing the municipalities of Kitchener, Waterloo, Guelph, and Cambridge, RTO4 represents one of Ontario’s fastest growing regions.
Wanting to increase the region’s profile and promote local tourism, RTO4 was seeking to win more bids to host sporting events of all sizes. Understanding that corporate sponsorship represents a key revenue driver for most sporting events, RTO4 wanted to showcase its strong corporate community, and its interest in supporting incoming events.
Having begun play as a member of the Manitoba Junior Hockey League in 1967, the Dauphin Kings have been a mainstay cultural component to the Dauphin community. With tremendous on-ice success and several notable alumni in their history, they continue to bring grassroots hockey development to those both young and old in rural Manitoba.
Facing similar challenges to many teams in Junior A hockey leagues, the Dauphin Kings sought the consulting services of Cosmos Sports to assist in developing actionable strategies for increased revenue generation – particularly in regards to ticket sales and sponsorship channels.
