from Pierre LeBrun of ESPN,

Club 1909 (www.club1909.com) was launched last week, a multi-faceted fan membership program that intends to align Montreal’s brand around the world along the likes of the other big franchise hitters in the world of sports.

Sitting in his Bell Centre office last week during an interview with ESPN.com, Kevin Gilmore, the team’s executive vice-president and chief operating officer, explained the genesis for Club 1909 and why a team with automatic sellouts and sky-high TV ratings felt the need to branch out even more.

"Sometimes, you have to look at your business and kind of turn it sideways to see what it is now," Gilmore said. "The challenge from a marketing standpoint was to say, 'Guys, let’s look at what we do, who we are and what we represent.' We spent a while on it, we talked to some outside people and to people inside here.

"Basically the conclusion was that for the lack of a better word, we’re a legacy team, we’re synonymous with the sport. Same way the Yankees and Red Sox are with baseball, the Cowboys and Packers with football. I’m sure the Leafs would argue the Leafs and Canadiens with hockey and that’s a fair comment. We said, 'If that’s what we are, we need to start acting a little more like that.'"

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