Canadian Pacific Kansas City (CPKC) has been a sponsor for the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) since 2014 with the CPKC Women’s Open, and now CN will lend its name to the Montreal Canadiens’ training facility in Brossard.
As part of Rail Safety Week and to mark the start of the ice hockey team’s training camp, CN is inviting the public and Habs fans (short for the French term Les Habitants, or Settlers) to come meet the CN team on Sept. 23 at the facility—now known as the CN Sports Complex—where Canadiens promotional items will be up for grabs, including a jersey signed by the team’s Center and Captain Nicholas Suzuki.
“We are proud to welcome CN as a partner of the Montreal Canadiens. CN is not only a world leader in transportation, but also an iconic Canadian company which, like the Canadiens, has been based in Montreal for more than a century. We are delighted to begin this multi-year partnership with CN, and we look forward to working together with them,” said Groupe CH President, Sports and Entertainment, France Margaret Bélanger.
“We are very proud of this new partnership with the Montreal Canadiens,” said CN President and CEO Tracy Robinson. “The Habs are a quintessential Montreal institution and as a Montreal-based company ourselves, we wanted to contribute to our hometown in a meaningful way. The Sports Complex is a great opportunity to give back via a state-of-the-art facility, which uses physical activity as a means to create special moments for users.”
The facility’s interior and exterior signage will be updated in the coming days to reflect the new partnership.
In related news, Norfolk Southern (NS) announced via a LinkedIn post that it is now an official sponsor of the Atlanta Braves. “We are excited to partner with Norfolk Southern and welcome them to Truist Park,” said Atlanta Braves Senior Vice President of Corporate and Premium Partnerships. “They are a leader in the transportation industry, and we are proud to have them on our team.
Editor’s Note: Hockey, golf, baseball. How about motorsports? This seems like a really good time for CSX to return to NASCAR Cup Series Racing and resurrect the “Play it Safe” and ”I Brake for Trains” prime-sponsorship themes that appeared on the Front Row Motorsports Ford Fusion from 2013 to 2016. It was an excellent public safety message as well as a popular incentive program for CSX employees—well worth the cost. With former Ford executive (and motorsports enthusiast/car collector) Joe Hinrichs as CSX CEO, the program would be a “natural.” FRM is now a championship-caliber NASCAR team, with Michael McDowell winning the 2021 Daytona 500 and 2023 Verizon 200 road course race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, driving the No. 34 Ford Mustang GT. The 2024 NASCAR Cup Series will be here before you know it. Let’s get it rolling, CSX!— William C. Vantuono
