A sports marketing expert said she is surprised at the Prince Albert Raiders' new mascot, introduced this past Friday night.

"Boston Raider" is a bearded, moustached, cartoon Arab man, wearing traditional Arabian headgear. He is modelled after the Raiders' logo from the '80s and '90s.

"In light of current events around the world these days I was probably a bit surprised to see that they went back to a historic mascot that would probably have a different connotation today," said Ann Pegoraro, director of the Institute for Sport Marketing at Laurentian University.

Pegoraro said this one in particular "might be seen as a racial stereotype, and could be seen as problematic".

While the new mascot drew several positive comments on social media, others expressed shock and dismay.

Could boost ticket sales

Still, any initial backlash can be overcome, depending on the team's approach, Pegoraro added.

"Do they give it a personality, and do we see it evolve a little bit over time that it appears to be a part of the Raider culture in a positive way?" she explained, suggesting the team should give Boston Raider a "bio".

On the flip side, resurrecting old logos can boost ticket and merchandise sales, Pegoraro also noted.

"Heritage for teams that have been around in communities for a long period of time has a lot of sort of equity in the brand that hasn't been activated in a while," she explained.

But, the strategy can backfire.

Pegoraro points to the Moose Jaw Warriors, which also brought back an old logo, a bare-chested Aboriginal man wearing a single feather on his head, brandishing a hockey stick and a hatchet: "It might have been a better time to sort of recognize the heritage wasn't one hundred per cent positive, perhaps work with a First Nations group to retire that logo and launch a new third jersey that really celebrates the 30 years they've been there, plus where they're going in the future, and build that positive reaction with the community, and build a relationship that probably isn't there at this time."



