Rick Alsop of Coquitlam and his winning logo design (PNG-Jason Payne)

A graphic designer puts out his work and hopes it will gain acceptance depending on his client. Work in the same profession and submit a logo for a pro sports team and you have an instant resume item and get to appear on the podium at a news conference.

So it was for Rick Alsop of Port Moody, whose design of the Lions’ 60th anniversary logo was deemed to be best among a group of some 300 submissions, and was on stage for the unveiling Thursday at B.C. Place Stadium.

“As a graphic designer with a passion for sports and especially football in Canada, this was right up my alley. I had to submit my logo,” said Alsop, who is a partner at Port Moody Signs. “We’ll see if the phone rings off the hook now.”

The idea, of course, is for the Lions to tap into the natural nostalgia which surrounds the franchise and have their phones ring. As they did for their 50th year, when the late Bob Ackles made sure the club honoured its past, current president Dennis Skulsky will do the same thing.

The rollout will come in a variety of stages. The club last week unveiled reduced upper bowl ticket prices in designated areas that will no longer make the Lions vulnerable to the charge they are overpriced, like a certain NHL team in town.

They’ll create buzz with their radio rightsholders by creating a bracket-style competition to name the top six players in franchise history. “Think March Madness where people will go head-to-head. You’ll have Joe Kapp vs. Lui Passaglia and fans will vote to see who advances,” said marketing director Stefan Kalenchuk.

Just as important as a new family and party section is the fact the club is also addressing a long-standing concern that it is too easy to play TV blackout roulette and stay home because the experience is simply better.

Soon to be announced is the fact this year fans will have updated statistical information displayed at home games, a sore point here for some time, on ribbon boards, not just numbers which appear on the big screen at the end of each quarter.

Before long the club will also announce two of the better available candidates to be this year’s inductees for their Wall of Fame, Damon Allen and Don Matthews.

Balancing nostalgia in the Facebook generation is probably one of the tougher marketing challenges for a team in its 60s. Like they did 10 years ago, they’ll spend the next six months trying for perfection.

Remember this catch by Emmanuel Arceneaux in the waning moments of the Lions’ 2010 playoff loss to Saskatchewan, which to this point was the last game for the receiver of note since his two seasons of NFL exile? Looks as if he’s serious about settling in the CFL.

It’s May. The Lions have yet to pay anyone more than the occasional veteran roster bonus. How difficult can it be to add a player, especially someone who understands their offence and is a familiar face like Manny Arceneaux?

Tougher than you would think, and not that easy a decision either.

The chase to land the former Lions wideout began in earnest at the start of the week when Arceneaux told CKWX he has seen the light and will put his NFL pursuits on hold. At least three CFL clubs reportedly have shown interest. B.C. is in the mix.

But despite the fact they reduced their payroll with the trade of Geroy Simon this winter, it doesn’t mean the Lions are flush, and determining the market value for a receiver who hasn’t caught more than one pass since leaving the CFL after the 2010 season isn’t easy either.

Training camp was supposed to be the place where the Lions could decide which of the import receivers whose paths to become a starter were cleared this winter would be worthy of an extension.

But it could turn out that to sign Arceneaux, one among the trio of Nick Moore, Ernest Jackson and Courtney Taylor might have to be sacrificed even before the Lions even get to Kamloops. Regardless of whether it was planned, not giving any or all of the three an extension before actually earning a new deal is starting to look like a good idea.

Jackson and Justin Harper, who was far from the best receiver at the club’s mini-camp and may have even slipped behind newly-signed Elvis Akpla, are currently ticketed to contest one import receiving slot. But Arceneaux might be a better fit and could anchor a reworked B.C. receiving corps for years.

He might not fit, however, in the Lions salary structure, in which case he’ll play in Montreal or Toronto, though you’d have to think Wally Buono could make it happen if the receiver is truly coveted.

There’s still also the chance the Lions will actually sign OL Kirby Fabien, who wasn’t offered a contract after a weekend tryout with the New York Giants, or make a long-sought trade to improve its long-term prospects on the offensive line.

But every move must work within a salary framework of a team who has already handed out 14 contract extensions since Jan. 1, plus sign four other free agents. If there’s an import receiver signing that should get discussed, perhaps it is the former member of the UBC Thunderbirds who this week signed with the Seattle Seahawks, as colleague Howard Tsumura points out here. 

With the amount of Arceneaux hype, not to mention the Fabien press conference announcement that proved to be more about show than dough, we’ll wait for the news release indicating the Lions have room for either before wasting more keystrokes.

Even before he was waived by the New York Jets Tuesday, former Lions WR Emmanuel Arceneaux was on the phone with GM Wally Buono.

An erosion of their fan base did not go unnoticed by the B.C. Lions, who rolled out the first snippets of a couple of new ticket plans for the 2013 season when they kicked off the CFL’s state of the team media teleconference calls Wednesday.

Actually, its not the first snippets, as anyone pouring through the off-season blog postings here would realize, but nonetheless club president Dennis Skulsky announced the Lions will designate family and tailgating sections in the upper bowl at the place which was to be known as Telus Park that still goes as B.C. Place Stadium.

Roughly 1,000-1,200 seats will be targeted and appropriately themed, said Skulsky. It’s a clear nod to the fact the club heard it from paying customers who feel the club’s price points are too high. Despite having almost a month to sell the West Division final last year, the game only drew 43,216 fans, which is partly behind the response to create family and tailgating tickets of $25 and $30 respectively, including all additional fees, Skulsky said. It previously had been reported the club plans to close off a majority of the upper bowl.

Skulsky, Wally Buono, Mike Benevides and Travis Lulay spoke in excess of an hour Wednesday touching of a variety of familiar topics. It was reported during the call on the NFL’s website that the New York Jets had waived Emmanuel Arceneaux, but Buono noted the move was procedural in nature and that his former wideout will be re-signed Thursday to satisfy rules which limit the amount of time a practice roster player can spend with a club.

More interesting, and worth remembering, is that Buono said he exchanged texts with Arceneaux immediately upon being waived Tuesday and continues to keep in touch. Should he be waived again, Arceneaux would be a CFL free agent.

Whitman Tomusiak of Mill Bay (left) and Spencer Lang received main camp audition notices from the Lions Tuesday, making it five BC Football Conference juniors who’ll be in Kamloops (Lions)

The food bill at training camp for the Lions might soon approach record levels at the rate in which they are making the offensive line a point of emphasis this year.

Langley Rams junior Spencer Lang of Coquitlam was one of two B.C. Football Conference products to be invited to camp Tuesday. Whitman Tomusiak, a wide receiver with the Vancouver Island Raiders, will also join the three Okanagan Sun juniors whose development last year continue to warrant attention by the Lions.

Lang, who clearly is of CFL size even as a 21-year-old at 6’7” and 320 pounds, earned a further look as a result of the two-day mini-camp held last month which was enough to convince the club to take safety Matt Walter, and is further proof of the Lions’ commitment to try and find a developing gem. The hope is he does not draw comparisons to Lorne Plante, another mammoth junior who didn’t apply himself when he had his chance with the Lions.

But if everyone shows up, the offensive line is going to be one of the more interesting position battles in camp, and that’s coming off a winter in which the Lions shored up their tackle spots by giving new contracts to incumbents Jovan Olafioye and Ben Archibald.

Four other imports will contest one backup spot, while it could be even more interesting for the three Canadian spots.

Though the club still hasn’t declared what it is doing with Jon Hameister-Ries, there’s reason to think the Lions might have enough Canadian depth without him, though it would be much easier to suggest if Kirby Fabien is ever signed. Mike Benevides said the other day the Lions could have 16 or 17 offensive linemen for camp. Eleven are committed at present, and it could be 13 if the club’s two draft pick projects obtained Monday are signed.

No wonder the Lions are quite happy to have Hunter Steward, whose nomadic career path to this point includes some time growing up in Victoria, spend another year in the Big South Conference working on his religion major at Liberty University,

Another logjam of sorts, meanwhile, was averted when practice roster non-import Keith Godding was cut Tuesday, an obvious move with the impending arrival of Canadian receiver S.J. Haidara. Import receiver D.J. Woods was also released, and as he was also technically cut last year, it’s safe to assume there’ll be no third chance from the Lions.

The Lions’ draft board after the day was over at the Canadian college draft. 

You never have to guess what Wally Buono would be like if he was sitting across from you playing poker in Las Vegas. The man’s a natural gambler.

He won’t see it that way of course. He didn’t when he picked O.J. Atogwe or Danny Watkins as first-round CFL draft picks, and he didn’t see it when he took Hunter Steward Monday as the Lions’ first selection in the annual CFL Canadian college lottery and poker tournament either.

Steward, as Buono admitted, might not ever get to a Lions training camp, just as Watkins, though if you’ll read an earlier post there’s an outside chance that might change.

If Steward does sign next year, and the Lions get Kirby Fabien before camp this year to work in at guard, with Matt Norman eventually taking over from Angus Reid at centre, it will look like the Lions had a pretty good plan all along.

But the draft is about measuring acceptable risk, and the Lions figured their roll of the nice, weighed against what was available in the first round with several players trying the NFL, was a proper one. Buono and Benevides are both convinced OL Matt Sewell will last two years in the NFL, which is why they overlooked him in favour of Steward. Same for DL Stefan Charles and LB Ben D’Aguilar, two other players the Lions could have still taken with their first pick.  No way Bo Lokombo was going to last until the seventh round; the CFL draft doesn’t work that way. Buono had to roll the dice again, even if Lokombo isn’t available for two years as well.

B.C.’s other picks were much less risky. Receiver S.J. Haidara has a year left of CIS eligibility remaining at Laval but will come to camp, he said. Matt McGarva, who played high school at Lord Tweedsmuir, will get a lift to work from his brother, Sean, who works in community relations with the Lions and as such got to make his team’s selection, providing the nicest moment of the day. (Saddest moment? Only two UBC players were taken and none from SFU, a far cry from three University of Calgary picks taken in the top five, the first time that’s happened since 1973).

McGarva and Matt Walker, who was profiled in this piece at the Lions mini-camp last month, will battle it out to become the backup to J.R. LaRose at safety and Buono won’t have to sign veteran free agents Ian Logan or Brady Browne, for now.

B.C.’s other two picks, Matt Albright (St. Mary’s) and Cameron Thorne (Guelph) will also be asked to regenerate the offensive line. But as Mike Benevides said afterwards, the true measure of the draft won’t be known for another three years, even if it is already evident that his boss once again demonstrated there’s no harm in taking a chance.

It was a case of taking a player who might be available next year or one of a handful who might not be available until even later, so the B.C. Lions went off the pre-draft consensus and took redshirt junior Hunter Steward with their first pick of the CFL Canadian college draft.

With a chance to take any number of players who are taking a shot this spring in the NFL, the Lions opted instead for Steward, an NCAA junior, who the club hopes is the first step toward making tackle on the offensive line a non-import spot.

A native of Kingston, Ont. who has converted from the defensive line, Steward has one more year left playing at Liberty University of Lynchurg, Va., and aren’t the least bit concerned they will have to wait. The Lions had three players targeted in the first round that were taken before they picked in the sixth position overall.

“He’s tough, he’s long, he’s got great movement skills That was the guy that when you look at everyone who was left, that was attracted to us,” Lions coach Mike Benevides said.

The University of Calgary dominated the first round of selections, with offensive lineman Linden Gaydosh going first overall to Hamilton. Calgary had three of the top five picks.

Talk from Philadelphia is that the Eagles may soon part ways with Kelowna OL Danny Watkins

The upcoming CFL Canadian college draft is the same roll of the dice as ever for the Lions and their opponents, but with any luck the league will operate under a new set of rules the next time around.

Though the process is extremely important to teams in order to ensure a non-import nucleus, it is more than just a little confusing to outsiders trying to follow a bizarre set of rules involving Canadian players who have remaining NCAA eligibility.

The expansion Ottawa franchise will get to pick four underclassmen today from a whopping list of 18 choices. But when that is done, and the league’s collective bargaining agreement expires at the end of the season, the hope is that teams can do away with the guessing game.

It’s hard to get excited about a draft when the top-rated player by the league, which is Abbotsford’s Bo Lokombo of Oregon this year, doesn’t have the slightest bit of interest in the proceedings because he is looking at the NFL next year.

That wouldn’t change under new rules, but it would make it a lot easier for teams to roll the dice.

For now though, it means teams have to guess whether three or four other top players who also are looking at the NFL will be around in a couple of months, and for the Lions, which players will fall to them if they stay put at the sixth spot overall .

The top-rated prospect not looking south at the moment is DL Linden Gaydosh of Calgary, who’ll likely go first to Hamilton. As mentioned, there’s at least three others looking at the NFL, and teams have to decide whether to roll the dice before it’s Wally Buono’s turn.

Buono, of course, knows all about taking a gamble, and it’s worth noting that one he made a couple of years ago could still pay off, and may well effect the Lions’ thought process this morning.

Speculation on the weekend out of Philadelphia is that the Eagles will cut guard Danny Watkins, the West Kelowna firefighter who went south in the first round a couple of years ago, before the start of the season if not sooner, having taken an offensive lineman high in the NFL draft last month.

The Lions still own his rights, and it will be interesting to see if that effects their plans. Watkins could be picked up by one of 31 other teams of course, and with a 2013 salary of $735,000 US won’t be on the first flight home even if he has no options with the Eagles in the future.

Something else to think about this morning. Check out our Twitter feed for anything relevant to the Lions in the draft, providing it isn’t first hand-delivered to the TSN folks this morning. In the interim, here’s the draft primer which appeared in the paper a couple of days ago to get you set.

Next up for rookie free agent signings are Terrail Lambert (left) and Cord Parks (Lions)

The thought that it takes time to assess the value of any trade might be altered a little as a result of one of the two signings announced by the Lions Thursday.

The latest to be added to rookie camp are Terrail Lambert (5’10”, 188, Notre Dame) and Cordelius (Cord) Parks (5’11”, 180, Northeastern). It Parks who should be noted, as the other player coming to the Lions, in addition to DE Adrian Awasom, in the deal for Khalif Mitchell.

The Lions didn’t announce Parks at the time of the trade to Toronto for Mitchell as he hadn’t signed and was attending an NFL workout shortly after the deal.

But they have the 26-year-old, who has spent time with four NFL clubs, now to push the veteran group which will have at least two openings, with the loss of Byron Parker and likely shift of Korey Banks, which is another reason training camp is going to be more interesting than you think this year. Wide-side cornerback is still considered to be a wide-open position depending on the day and mood around the Lions.

Next up is the CFL draft Monday (9 a.m., TSN) and if you missed the story in The Province from Canadian Press which was a draft primer, it’s here. We’ll have more on the Lions’ plans in the paper Friday.

Rudy Carpenter lasted three mini-camp practice sessions with the Lions.

If there was a notion that the first mini-camp session ever held by the Lions held no value because it did not include defensive or special teams players, it was disproven Tuesday when the club released fourth quarterback candidate Rudy Carpenter.

Not impressing enough when you’re competing against air is quite the accomplishment. Coach Mike Benevides said they wouldn’t waste any time making choices off the recent three-day session and backed up his words.

The Lions never oversold Carpenter and the quarterback, who told coaches he thought he’d have no problem picking up the offence when he was signed, demonstrated something quite the opposite. It’s been a tough run for Carpenter’s alma mater, Arizona State, which didn’t have a single player taken in the NFL draft last weekend for the first time since 1963, only to have a former starter become an early CFL cut.

Replacing Carpenter in the rotation to become Travis Lulay’s backup is 24-year-old Chris Hart, who has had college playing time at five different schools in four years, finishing at Webber International University, located in Babson Park, Fla. Hart got a mini-camp look last year with the Seattle Seahawks, starting his first practice alongside Russell Wilson and quickly falling behind their eventual new starter. He joins Thomas DeMarco and Jarrett Brown on the roster, unless the Lions find another quarterback from one of their final three free agent camps over the next three weeks instead.

Kirby Fabien wasn’t a priority signing after the NFL draft on the weekend and as a result the Lions have again reached out to one of their 2012 draft picks in an effort to sign him for training camp

No room in the paper for this piece but plenty of room today online at theprovince,com:

There may not be a press conference this time until there’s a signed contract, but chances are much better that Kirby Fabien will wear the uniform set aside by the B.C. Lions just under a year ago.

Funny how things change when the reality of the NFL draft plays out.

A coveted part of the reconstruction program on the offensive line of the CFL team, the University of Calgary Dinos grad was not taken in seven rounds of the NFL draft on the weekend, nor was he one of the 522 players who signed subsequent free-agent contracts or were invited to a tryout camp.

That’s a pretty good sign that Fabien’s future is with the Lions, who took him seventh overall last year and were confident enough to bring him and fellow 2012 first-rounder Jabar Westerman out for a photo opportunity.

Just back from two weekend U.S. free-agent tryout camps that were so successful the Lions training camp roster is already almost full, general manager Wally Buono sounded far more positive Monday about signing Fabien than when he was near the point of exasperation with agent Jonathan Hardaway a year ago.

“We’re kind of walking on thin ice,” cautioned Buono, who called for Hardaway to be sanctioned by the league a year ago. “But I want to be respectful. We’re going to send him [an offer]. I’m anticipating we’ll get Kirby done.”

If they do, it’ll mean the only downside was the extra year Fabien spent further developing with the well-established CIS program at Calgary, where he wasn’t exactly a polished product as a 21-year-old, anyway.

“He completed his degree; that’s going to be a positive for him mentally. He’s bigger and stronger,” said Calgary coach Blake Nill of Fabien, who with the Lions would move from tackle back to guard for the first time since high school.

“It created some anxious moments last year for B.C., and understandably so from their point of view. But if they can get him signed they’re going to feel it was well worth the wait.”

A deal in the next week could work out perfectly for the Lions, who may well focus on the offensive line in Monday’s CFL draft, but could take a defensive lineman to push Westerman instead if they have a deal for Fabien.

Not that every bit of uncertainty would go away. Right guard Dean Valli, five months into his recovery from ACL surgery, could start training camp June 2 on the medically deferred list, Buono said.

Left guard Jon Hameister-Ries also hasn’t been cleared from off-season back surgery, meaning Valli could have company.

“I’m optimistic,” said Buono of Hameister-Ries. “But I’m also realistic.”

However, apparently so is Fabien, who got minimal playing time at this year’s East-West Shrine Game in St. Petersburg, Fla., which showcases draft-eligible talent, and wasn’t one of 37 undrafted linemen to sign NFL free-agent contracts last weekend.

B.C. could still have work ahead if the Lions choose to drop any of the 11 players on their 35-man negotiation list who were either signed or drafted by NFL teams on the weekend.

B.C. also has only two open training camp roster spots, though they could drop unannounced signed players, with three free-agent camps to go. Fabien, however, could represent one less headache than the Lions had a year ago.

lullrich@theprovince.com