Mark Messier partners with Budweiser to revive Edmonton’s ‘City of Champions’ slogan

Hockey HOFer Mark Messier has joined with Budweiser to “bring back Edmonton’s old ‘City of Champions’ slogan,” according to Karyn Mulcahy of CTVNEWS.ca. The brewery has released a new, limited-edition Edmonton can that is only available in Canada and features beer “brewed at the Labatt brewery in south Edmonton by Edmontonians.” A new commercial for the product “shows Messier dusting off the old City of Champions sign retired by the city a decade ago” (CTVNEWS.ca, 4/14). In Edmonton, Jim Matheson noted ten years ago, Edmonton City Council voted 7-5 “to officially divest us” of the slogan from the wooden welcome signs to the city because, in the words of councilor Michael Oshry, “We don’t need a big splash entering the city, but we just need something that’s not 30 years old.” Messier said, “I was surprised by that (slogan taken down).” Matheson wrote maybe if the Oilers win the Stanley Cup again this year, the council “will take another look at it” (EDMONTON JOURNAL, 4/14).