For the second time in as many seasons, the Hamilton Tiger-Cats are altering the nature — and name — of the team that stimulates fan engagement.

This year appears to be more of a tweak or modification than last spring's fundamental changes, which triggered widespread discussion and controversy on social media.

The name is now the dance and cheer team, a title favoured by five other CFL clubs in 2018. The Ticat squad was renamed last year from cheer team — often referred to as cheerleaders on the club's website — to performance team and later nicknamed the Uproar.

On-field, they'll return from the end zones where they were located in 2018 to more prominent positions on the playing field and sidelines. And dancing will be a larger component, as it had been prior to last year.

According to Tiger-Cats president Matt Afinec and new cheer and dance team coach Meagan Reid, the team will retain most of last year's changes in emphasis: to evoke cheering, but with plenty of time spent interacting with fans in the gathering areas in the stands of Tim Hortons Field; a heavy focus on the brand ambassador role; and a "sporty, athletic" look to its uniforms.

The goal was, and remains, to become more coed. But there are no males in the "core group" of 14 dancers and brand ambassadors because, Reid says, so few males came to auditions last month. Some of the extra "hype group" complementing the 14-woman core group on the sidelines and in the stands will be males.

Last year's major changes stemmed from fan surveys which ranked "traditional cheerleading functions" low in importance for a good game experience, and from the Tiger-Cats' desire to utilize the stadium's social spaces.

"I think the difference from last year is that we want to be more visible," says Reid, a Simcoe native who was a Ticat cheerleader from 1999 to 2004 and later spent nine years with the Calgary Stampeders dance and cheer team, the last seven as dance coach.

"The Ticats' feedback said the fans wanted to see us more. I think you'll find we'll be dancing more on the sidelines and on the field. We won't be dancing in the end zones."

Afinec says the name change is "a reflection of the role we want them to play going into 2019. The fan experience, at all times, is a fluid thing and it's something we revisit every off-season. They will continue to be multiple-function on game day and to be important community events ambassadors for the Ticat brand.

"A big factor in this is the coach. Meagan was a huge 'get' for us. This is not in any way a criticism of the past: with a new coach there will always be change and I suspect it will be mostly in the dance aspect."

When a Spectator column in this space last June described the shift away from "traditional cheerleading" functions, the reaction was swift and loud.

Favourable comments cited perceptions of cheerleading being noninclusive or objectifying. But a far larger portion wanted to keep the cheerleading team as it was, and was bitterly critical of the story and its language, particularly its reference to "flailing pom poms."

Former CFL cheerleaders in Hamilton and across the country were unified in their anger. That eventually resulted in the creation of the Canadian Football Cheerleaders Alumni Organization with chapters in four CFL cities and imminent in several others. The CFCAO raises funds for local and national charities and for alumni in need.

"The article affected me because I'm so passionate about the dance community in and around Hamilton," says CFCAO co-founder Tiffany Beveridge, a Ticat cheerleader from 2002-07 who owns a dance studio in Caledonia.

"When they took the team away I was very upset because I know the impact it had in Hamilton. It was the only professional dance team in the area for dancers here to take that next step.

"We felt the article disregarded all the work people put in. But it sparked this huge discussion and that started the cheer alumni, so that worked for the better."

Beveridge says the former cheerleaders now have a good relationship with the Tiger-Cats.

This year's team comprises five returnees from last year, five rookies and four from previous Ticat cheerleading teams. Reid, an audiologist with a masters clinical science degree, says members were chosen not just for their dancing but for their community ambassador skills.

She says her team's various uniforms will be appropriate to the season and to the physical activity.

"Dance is a part of the game-day entertainment and in the dance world you wear something fit and athletic that shows your lines," she says. "Some people could call it revealing. I wouldn't. It's no different from any sport requiring movement and showing the lines."

And there's one more thing.

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"Pom poms will be back," Reid promises. "They are visually impactful from all parts of the field."

smilton@thespec.com

905-526-3268 | @miltonatthespec