B Cubed – Regina LBC’s fantastic new rec league

This article was written by Regina Lawn Bowling Club’s Brandon Watson. Brandon is on BCB’s marketing committee as well as BCB’s development squad.

When the Regina Lawn Bowling Club (RLBC) was faced with a new financial relationship with the City of Regina due to budget constraints, the members knew that we were going to have to start thinking of inventive ways to raise funds in order to keep our club viable.  For years there had been talk at the club of starting a rec league, but it never really got underway.  This year a group of us formed a Committee who decided that now was the time to get something going.  The Nutana Lawn Bowling Club in Saskatoon runs a very successful Rec League and they provided us with a template which gave us a great place to start. One of the first things our Committee did was choose a unique name for the league.  Using a 3 bowl triples format, the league includes Bowls, Beverages, and BBQ and the name that stuck was B Cubed or B³.  I am in the Creative Technologies Program at the University of Regina, so the new league gave me the perfect opportunity to work on my branding and marketing skills.  We developed a logo, designed posters and t-shirts, created Facebook and Instagram Pages and began promoting B Cubed on social media.

Our goal for 2019 was to have 12 teams register.  Registrations started off a little slower than we anticipated.  Although everyone in the Bowls Community knows what a great sport it is, it was the Committee’s task to educate others who aren’t familiar with Bowls.  We wanted to spread the word about what a great sport it is and entice future bowlers to sign up for the league.  Some clever and fun wording, modern designs and a focus on promoting a social and fun vibe through our social media blitzes really helped get the attention of the “younger” crowd which we were targeting. The Committee felt like throwing a party when we received our first online team registration.  That was a great day!!

We currently have 14 teams registered (goal surpassed) and we are still accepting registrations.  The Committee continues to get super excited each time a new team rolls in.  All of the teams are really getting into the spirit by registering very creative team names.  One team name was so popular that 3 different teams picked the same name.  Two of the teams had to come up with an alternate name, which was equally as good – maybe better.  You are probably wondering which Team Name was so popular.  Well, that’s B Cubed’s secret!

B Cubed runs every Thursday from May 30 to July 25.  We start with a BBQ at 6:00 pm followed by a game of Bowls at 7:00.  Beverages are served throughout the evening.  The BBQ crew have come up with some amazing menu items which will be communicated to the league each week through our “Media Blast”.  Our Media Blast allows us to keep our B Cubed players informed about what’s happening in the league.  We were pretty excited when we received a sponsorship offer from Tommy’s Speakeatery.  Tommy’s Speakeatery wants to be the “go to” pub after the league games and has offered some great deals to our players and sponsored some fantastic prizes.

Our dedicated Committee has worked very hard to over the past 7 months.  So much thought, time and effort has gone into ensuring the league will be a success.  We have definitely experienced a learning curve during the process and we will continue to learn as we go.  We should have a good idea of what worked well and what needs to be improved for next season, but we have a great foundation to start from.  We will also have a base group of players/teams who hopefully have a great time this year and want to do it all over again next year!

We are very fortunate that the RLBC Board and membership have been supportive of B Cubed.  The Club paid for a much needed sound system which will allow us to play some great tunes during league times.  A BBQ, specific to our league needs, was also purchased with Club funds.  Our bylaws were even re-written to allow for a new membership called “League Associate Members”.  Our members seem to be very excited about all the interest and publicity B Cubed is receiving and we think they will be delighted to see all the new people on the greens enjoying the great sport of Bowls.