The Westlock Thunderbirds football club is setting an ambitious goal for this season: 1,000 fans at the home opener.
The goal is by no means out of reach, especially considering a unique contest opportunity the club will be promoting for the next month and a half — a chance to win a new car at the club’s home opener on Sept. 14.
There’s just one catch: the winner of the grand prize will have to kick a field goal during halftime.
“We were brainstorming on how to get a thousand fans out to the home opener,” said Perry Rebagliati, one of the club’s directors. “How do you get a thousand people out to a high school football game in Westlock? And that was one of the ideas.”
Club president Curtis Snell said once they started looking into the possibility of raffling off a chance to win a new car, they realized they were doing something that was fairly unique for a high-school football team in Alberta.
“You see some people in the CFL do this, but I think it’s pretty rare for a high-school football team,” he said.
Vice-president Jerry Buchko said he believes a team in British Columbia might have done something similar to this, but is not aware of any teams in Alberta running a similar contest, which could help increase the size of the crowd.
Furthermore, Westlock already has a very strong fan base, especially when compared with the rest of the teams in the Wheatland Football League.
“If we go to Vegreville, they have 20 or 30 fans there. If we go to Athabasca, I think they’re the biggest crowd next to us, they have about 100 fans per game. We have 300 fans per game,” Buchko said.
“If we get 500 or 1,000 fans to the game, that would be astronomical.”
Snell said the money raised, which could be as much as $10,000 if the club sells all 2,000 tickets, would all go right back into the club.
“It costs a lot of money to operate this program, from the equipment to the field to the tower as well,” Snell said. “We’re trying to upgrade what we’re doing to keep all the kids safe and have a good program.”
Each $5 ticket will give the bearer a chance for the two grand prizes — a new car valued at $30,000 or $5,000 in gift certificates to local restaurants — as well as several subsidiary prizes. Ticket-bearers must be present at the home opener for a chance to kick for the grand prizes.
The raffle tickets will be sold between now and the Sept. 14 home opener. To find out where to get a ticket, contact Buchko at 780-307-7340.
