20,085 - BC lions supporters- what is the solution

I think that the end-zones have 8-10 ,000 seats in Bc Place on the lower bowl level making the. 17,000 seats between the sidelines look like more - also probably why the seats are all priced high they don't have a lot of them

Okay, back from a quick trip to the mall (about 45 minutes there). The results: Four Seahawks gear sightings (one Broncos, one Niners), zero CFL of any sort. As an aside, three Whitecaps, and a ton of MLB (six of the ubiquitous Yankees caps alone). One Vancouver Grizzlies hat.

I will say this, the sports stores are all carrying Lions stuff, much better than in years past, and you do see (occasionally) someone wearing it (typically older males). But younger people are not, they’ve clearly been lost to the NFL due mainly to Braley’s ineptitude. He basically rolled over and let the Seahawks take over Vancouver without a fight. You hear numbers like 20,0000 greater Vancouver area residents go to Seahawks games, they even have a Canada Day to honour them. Braley is an idiot, and the sooner he’s gone, the sooner someone can take up the image rebuild so desperately needed in this market.

Oh, and like in another thread, tickets are way too expensive. I had some younger non-CFL friends of mine considering going after I’ve been working on them for a long time. The $90 ticket price for decent seats scared them off. Probably for good.

Wut? Wait… Vancouver has a soccer team?

When I mentioned part of the problem this weekend for the Lions might be so many BC sports fans taking in the Jays down in Seattle and I mentioned the figure 10,000. I think I may have been way too conservative with my estimate. It looked and sounded like that almost half the 45,000 crowd there today were Jays fans. Here is the video evidence.

[url=http://m.mlb.com/video/v293851683/torsea-carrera-hits-gametying-tworun-homer-in-8th/?affiliateId=clubMEGAMENU]http://m.mlb.com/video/v293851683/torse ... ubMEGAMENU[/url]

The Jays are the biggest reason for the Argos decline in Toronto over the last 20+ years. For this weekend at least - they may have had the same impact on the Lions.

Lol, you must not have ever ventured out of BC. Next to Ontario, BC is probably the next heaviest hit with American influence.

I’m concerned about the Orridge hiring. I don’t think he’s the right guy at all to develop a younger fan base.

Doesn’t Vancouver have a huge Asian population? don’t they have a huge Indo population too? have they made an effort to sell the sport to these huge immigrant populations?

I don’t understand the silly comments about “American influence” etc, how about including Quebec in that too. Montreal trying to get an MLB franchise, filling the Big “Owe” for baseball, the Canadiens in talks with the NBA about a team in the Bell Centre. 1 million viewers on RDS for the Super Bowl. Declining Als attendance.
Sounds like Vancouver, Montreal, Toronto are just experiencing the “Big City” major league syndrome.

The radio broadcast on fan 590 claimed 17,000 were jays fans. They took the total attendance of the game (45,000) and subtracted the Mariners average attendance (28,000) to come to the conclusion that 17,000 jays fans were taking in each of these 3 games in Seattle.

If they wanted a more accurate number, they should have subtracted the Mariners average weekend attendance from the 45,000 instead of the overall average. I’ve got to believe they get better weekend crowds than weekday crowds.

It would help to bring in some dynamic players like in past years (Walt DeWalt, Doug Flutie, Mervyn Fernandez).

But ultimately what they need to do is - "Just win baby's".

Aren't the Lions for sale ?

I was chatting with a friend who went to the game late last night and he figured over half the crowd was cheering for the Jays and apparently some of the commentators on the Seattle broadcast at one point said ‘I think we’re outnumbered.’ My friend guesstimated between 20,000 - 25,000 of the 45,000 there were Jays fans. If true that would be more than what the Lions got Friday night.

I would venture that there are a lot of transplanted Torontonians and S Ontarians living in Vancouver and surrounding area without a doubt. They do love the Blue Jays that's for sure.

Couldn’t you say the same thing about the TFC or the Whitecaps? that their arrival coincides with the Argos decline?
Three or four seasons ago TFC were averaging 14k and the Argos 26k, now TFC averaging 26k and the Argos 11k - 14k
The Whitecaps are what around 20k average but didn’t exist 3 seasons ago and now the Lions starting to decline. Montreal seems to be going through the same thing with the Impact and the Als attendance declining.

I don’t think there is any relation between MLB attendance, MLS attendance and the CFL. Teams like the Jays play over 80 home games a year and the Argos only 9, a CFL season ticket is affordable.
I can’t believe that attendance at a Lions game would be linked to the Jays playing in Seattle - does anyone really think that 8 to 10,000 Lions fans decided to go to Seattle to watch the Jays instead of going to a Lions game?
I think all these sports have their own fans and they aren’t making choices. Not many MLS fans are going to CFL games and vice versa and same with the Jays crowd.

Tfc never averaged 14k. Since their existance in 2007 theyve always hovered around 20,000 give or take. In the lean years like 2011/ 2012 18,000. In the better years 21,000. Now with expansion and a good team 25,000.

They definately take a bite out of argo attendance. Same with the whitecaps. There never used to be 20 soccer games competeing with the CFL schedule drawing at least 20,000 per game.

Also the impact attendance isnt great for regular season either. The owner joey saputo ripped on the fans. They only show up to big champions league games. They were getting 14k to reg season matches in the spring. Just last night they got 17k to saputo and thats considered a good crowd for them.

Yes they sure are.
Braley has stated that both teams were for sale.
Not as bad but this looks similar to the Argo’s situation. Bigger city. More teams and other entertainment to compete with.
Like the Argo’s rumor’s will swirl as to no one will want to buy them. Others that there are several groups interested and people doubt it heavily. In the end Bell stepped up. A huge corporate brand that can easily take of the costs of promoting them through already owned multi media. As well as a number of corparate sponsors that associated with the Bell/TSN Brand.

Like the Stamps being bought out primary shares of stock by the Flames Brand.
The Lions being bought out buy the bigger Canucks name brand.

S&E groups are a model that is proving to work across many sports. Made up with different other entities that tie the sports franchises, Arena Mangement/ownerhship, other media and corporate entities, as well as partnerships.

David Braley did a great thing when he saved the BC Lions and stepped in as their owner years ago when NO one else would and he has to commended for doing so. It's a big gamble to buy a CFL team especially years ago when he did and up until this past June when he sold the Argo's to Bell and Larry Tannanbaum who owned two CFL teams and did the same with Toronto stepped in as owner when no one else would? I give the guy great credit in doing so, instead of a bunch of whining fans who couldn't rub two cents together.

The fact is and Mr. Braley knows it I'm sure that the CFL as a brand has changed, it's become a different league to the time when he bought into the BC Lions now the fan base has changed, marketing etc. Braley has been looking to sell the Lions just like he did with the Argo's and I'm sure that will come soon enough when the right local buyer from Vancouver steps up and buys the team.

Here is Braley owning the Lions and once owned the Argo's up to recently and he resides in Hamilton home of the Tiger-Cats, maybe it's high time some of those deep pocketed local business people from Vancouver step up and buy the team instead of fans whining why their are only 20,000 fans in the seats?

Hey tip for you Vancouver faithful, the owner of Boston Pizza Jim Trevelling lives in Vancouver maybe he can buy the team and call BC Place the "Boston Pizza Dome" and your team can play ours at "Tim Horton's Field" in Hamilton home of the Tiger-Cats!!!

GO CATS GO!!!

They sure as sh*t aren’t Argo fans. I saw exactly 2 people (not together) wearing Argo T-shirts on the concourse, outside BC Place at Terry Fox Plaza, and around the perimeter of the stadium the whole time I was there. And when the Argos scored? Crickets and tumbleweeds.

Um, what the hell are you talking about? The Seahawks presence in Vancouver is HUGE, and it is easily the number one factor for the decline. I have trouble believing you live in Vancouver. You go downtown, or anywhere for that matter, and you see at least five times the Seahawks merchandise than Lions, not even close. Vancouver residents may be number 1 as the most influenced by the NFL. I honestly have no idea where you came up with this, you're entirely out to lunch on this.

Not that I'm happy with this of course, they've lost two entire generations of CFL fans in Vancouver. The worst thing that happened was the loss of Bobby Ackles, who had the team's attendance up in the 30,000's. David Braley is an idiot.
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I guess the survey that came at in 2014 is wrong, because it has the Lions the clear second team in Vancouver with Settle a distance 3 rd. lions fans out number settle fans 2 to. 1 in Vancouver

If you think that TFC really averages 26,000 your kidding yourself. Funny the T?O media never questions TFC attendance number, yet go on TFC fan boards and you will find we laugh at the announced attendance. They announce 24,000 and the 15,000 of us who are REALLY there just chuckle

I agree with you.
MLB and specifically the Blue Jays have little or no impact on the Lions or Argos here.
To further suggest how the dying MLS being a niche sport impacts the two teams is ludicrous.
There are cycles in sport, not only for teams but the fans as well.
We had a boring 2014, this year the games and excitement with the new rule changes is on an upswing.
The fans will come back, the TV numbers are strong as well.
Next year here in Toronto we are out of the Skydump and the new BMO will be a resurgence.