A match made in heaven: How local breweries and sports clubs are teaming up

Partnering with a sports team or prominent player can pose risks, some local brewers say, but it also holds many rewards.  When the Ottawa Titans Baseball Club swung into the local sports scene five years ago, Stray Dog Brewing Company was one of the team’s first sponsors.  Marc Plante, owner of the Lacolle Way brewery […]

Partnering with a sports team or prominent player can pose risks, some local brewers say, but it also holds many rewards.  When the Ottawa Titans Baseball Club swung into the local sports scene five years ago, Stray Dog Brewing Company was one of the team’s first sponsors.  Marc Plante, owner of the Lacolle Way brewery in Orleans, said his business had been recommended to the new team by Beau’s Brewing Co. “I’m a big baseball fan,” Plante told OBJ. “So I just said, ‘Let’s try it. Let’s see how the team does.’” The team signed a three-year contract with the Titans as a craft beer sponsor. Plante said that, at the time, his brewery only had two beers on tap that would fit the profile of a baseball game, but he felt like he had more to offer.  “One was our California Common, which you can get at the LCBO, and the other one was the Shaggin’ Wagon, which is a New England IPA and it’s 6.4 per cent (ABV). I was thinking, ‘If I go to a baseball game, I would like something on offer that’s lower in alcohol, easy to drink,’” he explained.  And so Plante approached the Titans’s front office with a pitch to make a brew tailored to the ballpark. “They loved the idea, so we got permission to put together what is now Smash Hits. It’s a nice four per cent ABV (beer). It’s one of those beers where you can have one every inning or two innings. You can still enjoy the ball game without getting smashed.”

Other than being a baseball fan, Plante said he was interested in partnering with the Titans because of the team’s focus on small businesses at the concession booths and its community-oriented mindset.  “We’ve seen a lot of baseball teams come and go in Ottawa and, when the Titans first came, their (tagline) was ‘here to stay.’ It really spoke to us, meaning that they were dedicated to the city, to the community, and that’s something we’re supportive of,” Plante said.  “When they first started, the Titans were determined, from a beer and concessions point of view, to be as local and small business-minded as possible.” Plante said the beer saw slow but steady growth with sales going up year-over-year, leading Stray Dog to sign on for another four years as a craft beer sponsor in 2024. Whenever he’d go to a game, Plante said he’d see dozens of people drinking Stray Dog beers, with a particular focus on Smash Hits.  The partnership is good exposure for both parties, he added. With Smash Hits starting out as a seasonal beer only available during the baseball season from May to August, Plante said it got so popular that it has transitioned into a year-round offering.  “There’s definitely been a lot of demand for that beer,” he said. “If you look at all the different beer trends around people leaning towards lower alcohol beer, it’s not surprising that people were coming in and saying, ‘When is Smash Hits coming back?,’ so we decided to keep it year-round. That also keeps the baseball team top of mind during the off-season too.” While partnerships of this nature can seem rosy at first blush, Plante said his team had to consider the risks as well.  “The biggest risk is if the team underperforms to the point where they cease operations. Obviously, that will put a dent in how much we produce and sell because we make good money off of (the beer), even though we pay a sponsorship (fee). But if you have that in the back of your mind, thinking (the partnership) is bound to fail, why bother doing it in the first place?” He said he hasn’t had to face that reality yet, with the Titans posting strong results in the past few seasons. The team recently clinched a spot in the Frontier League playoffs after a win over the Quebec Capitales last Saturday.  Win or lose, Plante said Stray Dog is well-equipped to adjust its brew schedule in accordance with demand for Smash Hits.  And, as long as the Titans keep winning, so does Stray Dog. “If you look at (the Titans’s) growth, I think attendance has been up 25 per cent this year, which is unheard of … We’ve seen it in terms of how much beer we’ve had to provide for them this year. Some of that, I think, is due to the (Toronto) Blue Jays effect, after they made the World Series last year. “There is a baseball fandom in this city. We saw that with the (Ottawa) Lynx when they were here. But, at the same time, Ottawa loves a winning team.”

The Clarky

Just up the street in the Taylor Creek Business Park in Orleans, Broadhead Brewing Company has been contemplating the future of its own partnership beer.  In March 2025, Broadhead announced it was partnering with then-Ottawa Charge forward Emily Clark to make the Ottawa Wheat 26, a raspberry wheat ale, with some proceeds going to The Ottawa Hospital’s Rose Ages Breast Health Centre.  “It’s an honour to collaborate with Emily Clark on a beer that celebrates her incredible career and supports a cause that touches so many lives,” Jamie White, co-founder and CEO of Broadhead, said in a news release at the time. “Through this partnership, we’re not only raising a pint to a great cause but also helping to elevate the visibility of women’s hockey in our community.” Despite having signed a contract extension with the Ottawa Charge in August 2025, Clark signed with the Professional Women’s Hockey League’s newest expansion team in Hamilton in early June.  Speaking with OBJ last week, Chris De Carlo, director of sales and events at Broadhead, said the brewery recently met with Clark to discuss next steps for the partnership beer.  “We knew that when we started the project, she was in Ottawa and planning to stay here. A few months into us releasing that beer, she signed that extended contract with the team. We thought, ‘Sweet, she’s here. We have her for at least another three years.’ But sports happens and she’s been traded to Hamilton. We know that’s the way it goes sometimes,” he said. De Carlo said the beer has always been a project they shared with Clark, not the Ottawa Charge, so the brewery wanted to continue to work with her, no matter where she played.  He told OBJ that the brewery will continue to make the partnership beer, but under a new name, “The Clarky,” and with branding that is more focused on Canadian hockey.  Clark’s trade to Hamilton provided the brewery with a bit of a hiccup at first, De Carlo said, but the business came to appreciate the opportunity to expand into new markets.  “It’s exciting now that we can expand the reach of this beer throughout the province and support Emily even more,” he said. “We were a little bit geographically locked in Ottawa with the name of the beer before. While we’re going to definitely miss her here in Ottawa, it’s a silver lining that we now have a reason to introduce it to new people, new and old fans of women’s hockey.” Despite some of the logistical hurdles of the rebranding process, De Carlo said Broadhead is happy to partner with an iconic Canadian athlete. With sights set on growth, De Carlo said Broadhead is always looking for ways to up production.  “If (Clark) goes on a tear and everyone across the province wants to drink the beer, I will have a conversation with the brewmaster about it. We brew a lot of beer year-round, so it wouldn’t be too hard for us to throw an extra batch in. We’re set up for growth at Broadhead all the time. We’re constantly thinking, ‘Do we need a new tank? Do we need a bigger brew house? Do we need more space?’ We have an ability to achieve that growth,” he said. 

Community-building

Near the corner of Bank and Flora streets in Centretown, Dave Longbottom is already reaping the benefits of Flora Hall Brewing’s new partnership with Atlético Ottawa.  Last month, the downtown brewery announced it was teaming up with the city’s professional men’s soccer team to create Campeones Spanish Lager, a beer that celebrates the club’s Spanish roots.  It was a love of soccer and the desire to build a stronger network and community that led Longbottom to partner with Atlético, he told OBJ.  “Sports and beer go together. They’ve always gone together in Canada and that’s certainly true the world over. Beyond that, it’s about community-building. There’s a big component of our partnership that has to do with charity … which is a commitment from me to match dollar-for-dollar any kind of donation that (the team) raises for CHEO,” he explained. 

In addition to the fact that the brewery is a 20-minute walk from where Atlético play at TD Place Stadium, Longbottom said he decided to support Atlético as he saw the team’s potential to make an impact in the local sports scene.  “They’ve been around for five years and they’ve been very successful, but they’re still very much a startup, if you want to look at it that way,” he said.   While it’s still early days, Longbottom said his connections with Atlético have already yielded some good results on the B2B front.  “We’ve signed up a couple of additional taps and there’s lots more in the pipeline. It’s not the entire motivation (for the partnership), but it’s nice that, when you’re walking into a new licensee or bar and trying to get them to sell your beer … this gives yet another dimension to the conversation. If you’re walking into a place that loves football or soccer, it really helps,” he said, adding that the first business to sign up to sell Campeones on tap was the Glebe Central Pub, a well-known hub for Ottawa soccer fans. Longbottom came to hospitality from a career in business, heading companies such as Chrysalis and T-Base Communications, experience that has given him insight into what customers want out of partnerships, he said.  “Partnerships were fundamentally important to providing more for the customer and that’s kind of what we’re trying to do here is provide something more for the customers: their customers, my customers, our mutual customers,” Longbottom explained.  While there will always be risk in investing in something and hoping for a good return, he said these kinds of partnership agreements are set up so that neither team will truly lose.  “Partnership agreements, properly structured, give you the ability to terminate … if something went haywire in my organization or theirs. Those are not risks that I even contemplate. (Atlético Ottawa) is a well-functioning organization. They’re going to win. They’re going to lose, but at the end of the day, they’re still providing a great entertaining product for people and I’m proud to be associated with it.  “The network effect of signing partnerships like this is pretty strong,” he continued. “We will be fine. Rod (Hughes, head brewer at Flora Hall) is an extremely meticulous planner, so we’ll keep a close eye on things. If demand were to triple, we would just have to accept that that’s a lovely problem to have.”