Pick a wall. Any wall.

Chances are you’ll see someone famous when you walk into Bob Ackles’ office.

Bayne Stanley, Business Edge
A guest at the Lions’ luncheon has his picture taken with the CFL club’s cheerleading squad at B.C. Place.

Depending on which wall you scan, you’ll see photos of B.C. Lions teams from half a century ago; or former Dallas Cowboys coaches Tom Landry and Jimmy Johnson; or movie stars Nick Nolte, Al Pacino and Cameron Diaz as she poses seductively; or even former B.C. premier Bill Bennett – among others.

Ackles, also present in most of the shots, has crossed paths with all of them during his half-century in football.

But one picture stands out from the crowd – because there is a crowd in it. A sellout crowd.

Taking up most of one wall, it was shot from the top tier inside B.C. Place in 1983 – when the stadium was full of fans.

As president of the Lions, it’s Ackles’ job to bring them back.

For help, he’s reaching out to B.C. business leaders through a group known as the Waterboys.

Bayne Stanley, Business Edge
B.C. Lions president Bobby Ackles has accepted the challenge of improving attendance figures and image in his second tour of duty with the CFL club.

After returning to the Lions in April 2002, following a 15-year stint as an executive with National Football League clubs and the president of the Las Vegas Outlaws of the short-lived XFL, Ackles met with a few business operators.

After kicking around a bunch of ideas, they each invited a few business friends and held three meetings in the same week in the boardroom of the Vancouver Aquarium. Watching fish and other undersea creatures swim around them in a glass pool, they discussed ways to get the business community in sync with the Lions.

‘‘It was a way for getting people involved,’’ said Ackles. ‘‘You’re not pressuring them. You’re saying, ‘You want to be involved, be involved.’ ’’ The Waterboys give customers and friends special business cards that can be redeemed for a pair of tickets to a game. The group’s aim is to help sell tickets and build business relationships, such as sponsorship deals and goods-in-kind agreements.

The group, which has expanded to about 54 members from 25, meets every six weeks in such unique locations as the Dueck on Marine auto dealership showroom, council chambers at Vancouver City Hall, Fire Station No. 1 and a museum that used to be Vancouver’s morgue – helping to make sure that the Lions do not kick the bucket.

‘‘It’s not just supporting the Lions, it’s supporting themselves,’’ said Ackles.

As a result, the Lions boosted season tickets by 30 per cent this year, said Ackles. Heading into the home opener June 18 against Hamilton Tiger-Cats, season-ticket sales were just under his goal of 12,500.

Bayne Stanley, Business Edge
Head coach Wally Buono discusses the Lions’ season at the club luncheon.

The Lions have also generated sponsorship and other deals from such leading companies and organizations as Dueck on Marine, Chevy Dealers of B.C., Scotiabank, Pacific Newspaper Group and restaurant chains. Several companies have returned to the Lions’ fold since Ackles returned from his stateside stint.

For the second straight season, the Vancouver Board of Trade also hosted a Lions kickoff luncheon for a crowd of about 250 recently on the field at B.C. Place.

‘‘The Lions are an integral part of the fabric of our community,’’ said Vancouver Board of Trade president Darcy Rezac. ‘‘If you take a look at the good community spirit that we have now compared to five years ago, there’s no comparison. Take a look at how the community embraced our hockey team. I’ve never seen anything like it, so we’re hoping to work with the Lions to get the same community support.’’ Rezac said the Lions can benefit suppliers, media, hotels and several industries. He said the team is an excellent fit for the board’s Spirit of Vancouver campaign.

But first, Ackles wants to build spirit for the Lions.

‘‘When I came back, even though I knew there’d been a lot of dropoff, I didn’t realize the apathy,’’ said Ackles. ‘‘I’d go out someplace to talk or to meet people and it was just like, ‘OK, fine.’ They’d almost dismiss you. That was the biggest problem after I was back here.’’ Last year’s attendance of 212,881 over nine regular-season games was the best since 1995, when the club attracted 256,961 spectators to games. However, both those figures are still a long way from the Lions’ heyday of 1983 – the year B.C. Place opened – when the team welcomed 448,857 fans through the doors over 10 games.

‘‘We’ve got a ways to go,’’ observed Ackles.

The Lions president added that Hamilton, Ont.,-based owner David Braley, thought to be by some around the league as a complainer and meddler, has lost $14 million since he bought the team a few years ago. But, said Ackles, Braley remains committed to the club.

Ackles’ commitment is practically lifelong. He served as the Lions’ first waterboy in 1954 and rose through the ranks to general manager in 1975 before he left, after B.C. won the Grey Cup in 1985, for the Cowboys. He later held posts with the Philadelphia Eagles, Arizona Cardinals and Miami Dolphins.

Although the Lions won two more Grey Cups while he was away, attendance and interest in the team declined steadily.

Ackles was enrolled in his second season as a fine arts student at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas, following the collapse of the XFL, when Braley called him one Thursday and asked if was interested in returning to Vancouver to run the Lions.

Ackles told Braley he would think about the offer over the weekend – but called him back the next day. The move, said Ackles, was a no-brainer because he has two sons, two daughters-in-law and five grandchildren in Vancouver.

He strives to ensure the Lions provide good entertainment, give the sense that a game is a fun place to be, and demonstrate that the organization is solid in the community. Last year, former star Lions kicker Lui Passaglia and players helped out in a reading program with elementary-school children, and the club participated in 600 community events.

Ackles said the hiring of general manager-coach Wally Buono away from the Stampeders, after he fell out of favour with Calgary owner Michael Feterik and then general manager Fred Fateri, started to make a difference.

So did the signing of quarterback Dave Dickenson, who was not wanted back in Calgary after his own two-year stint in the NFL.

Buono said the Lions appear to be going in the same direction as the Stamps were when they became a model franchise.

But the GM-coach said he did not notice the apathy toward the Lions that he had heard about beforehand.

‘‘This is a very sports-friendly city,’’ said Buono. ‘‘Like every sports city, they want to be treated properly, they want to be respected, they want to be given a reason to come support you. Under Bob Ackles’ direction, that’s starting to occur. Last year was a good example. We started with (B.C. Place) fairly empty and we ended it with the bottom bowl being completely sold out.’’ Sounding like an entrepreneur rather than a coach, Buono said the Lions have to be responsible, accountable and entertaining – and reach out to the community through schools, church groups and other organizations.

‘‘It’s a tough sell because it’s hard to get people to be readjusted to certain things when they’ve changed their habits,’’ said Buono. ‘‘You’ve gotta get in the habit. It’s like all of us. There’s a habit in how you spend your money, how you entertain yourself, then it’s easier to get it done. But the habit was broken somewhat.

‘‘This is a beautiful place. There’s the night life, there’s the theatre, there’s the outdoors, there’s the mountains, there’s the ocean, there’s a lot of distractions other than football. That’s part of it. When you lose the habit, you have to get retrained to say that football is something that’s important to you.’’ But he’s convinced that the Lions can win back their once-faithful followers.

‘‘The fans will come,’’ said Buono. ‘‘They’ve come before – and they’ll come again.’’ Dickenson said the situation with the Lions compares to the Stampeders SOS campaign in 1986, when the Calgary franchise almost folded because of low attendance and financial difficulties.

‘‘I think the people want to support us here in Vancouver – they just need a reason to get excited,’’ said Dickenson. ‘‘I think we started that last year and they started coming back out. It’s definitely a harder sell and I think there’s more football fans on the Prairies, but obviously we’ve got enough people here. We should be able to get enough people excited.’’ He’s starting to notice a difference in fans’ attitudes.

‘‘I’d go out and eat last year, and nobody would come up and say anything,’’ said Dickenson. ‘‘This year, when I’ve been out, they come up and say, ‘I’ve got tickets on the 40-yard line. I can’t wait to get to the games this year’, so something we’re doing is working.’’ What the Lions are doing, obviously, is modelling themselves after the once- successful Stampeders. In addition, to Dickenson, the Lions have several former Stamps in their lineup, including punter/kicker Duncan O’Mahony, offensive linemen Bobby Singh and David Heasman, linebacker Otis Floyd and running back Antonio Warren.

However, former Stamps linebacker Ray Jacobs was released after he was arrested near a Surrey crack house with prostitutes, and traces of cocaine were found in a vehicle that he was driving.

Former Calgary assistant coaches Dan Dorazio and Jacques Chapdelaine now work for the Lions, along with former Stamps player personnel director Bob O’Billovich.

‘‘I’m glad that it worked out the way it did, because other things have happened in Calgary that I didn’t want to be part of,’’ said Dickenson of his signing with B.C. ‘‘They might not like hearing this, but I really believe we’re closer to winning the Cup than they are.’’ He praised Ackles as the key to the club’s turnaround.

‘‘We love him,’’ said Dickenson, his tone suddenly becoming syrupy. ‘‘He treats us fair and is always looking out for our best interests, so someone like that always helps us players.’’ A year ago, Stamps president Ron Rooke, then a team vice-president, said the Stamps job was to market a game as an experience. This year, it’s obvious that Ackles and the Lions are building memories.

He does not have far to look for them. He gets up from his chair in his office, picks up a stack of photos from Lions seasons gone by and plunks it on a table.

‘‘My wife thinks I’m nuts for keeping these,’’ says Ackles, as he flips through the photos.

And he just keeps flipping.