2009 CFL Attendance

Not bad, and hopefully the playoffs will boost the numbers a bit. :rockin:

I couldn't believe that first four Esks home games were thursday nighters. That was probably the worst thing in the world. Then when the weather turned bad, we finally got friday/saturday night games but nobody wanted to come out. They'll get it done next year with the Grey Cup coming to town next year and the playoff buzz this year, they'll probably see a big boost in avg attendance like in 02

A subpar team, recession problems, Olympic tickets and a lack of hardcore fans all lead to lower attendance in BC. We simply aren't a 13-5 team (duurrrrrr) and people in this city don't really like to support anybody who's not a winner.

Don’t agree with lack of hardcore fans. We have the same core of 18K-20K avid CFL fans that every other market has. We were still 4th in the league in attendance with a sub-:500 team. Maybe a lot of ‘fickle’ fans in this market, but still a hell of a lot of dedicated Lions fans here.

Also can’t pin the drop on recession. Every CFL market in the same situation. In fact, I would submit Vancouver was far more insulated than other cities from the recession. Olympic construction, booming housing market etc.

The real reasons I posted on the other page:

  • the 1-4 start including 2 blowout losses (3 in total but the last one came in Week 18), as well as the loss of many of the recognizable “faces” of the Lions: Clermont, Murphy, Wake, Floyd, Williams etc.
  • an unusually sunny, hot, and l-o-n-g summer was not condusive to getting people off the beaches and into a hot, stuffy, dome.
  • screwed by the schedule makers. Only 2 Saturday games (to draw fans from the Fraser Valley and Vancouver Island). One game was against the Argos, the other against Calgary…on Halloween night! Yea, lots of kids there that night.
  • Marketing department needs to step up its game. Same quirky TV ads from the (yawn) Rethink agency, same bland newspaper ads the week of the game. Same old, same old in a crowded market won’t cut it.

Not knowing if the Lions were going to show up to play some nights would have kept people away. I didnt go this year cause Im not driving 3.5 hours to watch a lopsided game. 2 years ago I went to Van. when Burris was out for Calgary and the game was over by the second quarter that was a waste of time also.

Why not… Saturday afternoon games help ratings, then I’m all for it. The next TV contract is going to Make the CFL. Proporionate TV money for proporionate viewship.

on the sports radio, i actually heard quite a few complaints that the games got moved back to sunday. i like them better on sunday, but aparently years ago, they were on saturdays.

From what I heard, there was a big stink when the league started playing games on Sunday. That was seen as "the Lord's Day", at a time when that meant something. As a Christian, I'm all for the Sabbath, but what can I say? I likes me Sunday CFL games!

Playoffs and Grey Cup should be on Sunday. Prior to that, maybe one game a week on Sunday. I like the double-header being on Saturday: afternoon and evening. Maybe the occasional Thursday, as scheduling dictates, but no more than one per home team. And of course, Monday games on Labour Day and Thanksgiving.

I have spoken.

im a little annoyed the cats game is so earlyish. It starts the same time as my church service. but im just going to pvr it. problem solved

The East is always the early game, 1 est. Not sure why that would surprise anybody ?
I liked last years playoff games being on Sat. People a lot more festive, not having to work next morning or call in sick.

I agree with Yukoner.
I remember last year saying the only reason TSN put the playoffs on Saturday was so it wouldn't
hurt CTV's TV NFL ratings.
Since CTV owns TSN.
Tradition matters.
So I'm glad Cohon put them back on Sunday where they've been for years.
But its disgraceful the league has to schedule their games around the NFL.
When CBC gets back in on the next TV deal, we won't have to worry about accomodating the CTV or the NFL.
I say look for a Friday night, Saturday night (until hockey season), and Sunday night game when we get CBC back in on the next TV deal.

The same CBC that only CARED enough to broadcast half a season and fired Cuthbert for no reason. Sportsnet or the score will broadcast some games before CBC. Tsn pulled this league through some tough times and are the only broadcaster to do EVERY GAME ! Not like CBC , you may not get to see your team that week if they didn’t choose to broadcast it . TSN has other interests as well, they have juggle all sorts of programming and they still do every game! WOW and your whining :roll: :roll:

i dont ever want the cfl on cbc again. it was aweful the way they treated the league like a red headed step child. discusting the way the cbc treated the cfl as the second rate slave child to the NHL. tsn got the league, improved it, got better ratings, now people are mad since the cfl doesnt get enough money. The cbc turned the cfl into a charity case that TSN rescued from the swamp. no money should ever have the cfl sell out to the cbc again. put some games on the ctv network would be nice though. if the rating get high enough, im sure they will.

How much higher do the ratings have to get? 99% of the time, the top two watched sports in Canada are the NHL and CFL. CFL regular season games get 600,000-1,000,000 viewers and usually crush NFL ratings (including games shown on CTV). I think it’s a crying shame that CTV shows NFL games instead of CFL games. I hate how a Canadian network spends more time promoting the American league than the Canadian one.

I agree with you about CBC and TSN, though. TSN has been great to the CFL. CBC was not. The one advantage of having games on CBC was that then they could be seen on basic cable.