Tonight’s attendance at BMO. If that’s not a five alarm fire, I don’t know what is.
Before you write me off as a troll, I’m thinking of getting seasons tix for the Bombers next year, but this makes me worry there will be no league next year. Maybe we should move the Argos to Halifax.
Not a good crowd for sure but that also represents the scanned attendance. Lots of no shows in our section tonight behind the Argos bench which is usually pretty full.
Not many want to come out to watch a 2-9 team that is 2-10 right now.
Considering their last home game was the highest for a Friday night game since they moved to BMO. Attendance was trending up from last year until this game. I think MLSE is more concerned with the on field product than what’s going on off it.
Argos and the league will be around next year and many more to come.
I think you’re good.
Home game attended by under 10,000 fans in your largest market.
But how’s that football initiative going in Ireland.
#priorities
Yes! Just move the team to Halifax! Such a simple solution!
So far. it doesn’t look good .
It will be the lowest average attendance since moving into BMO .
Yep they are lousy this year but the trend should be better .
Too bad as that old boat logo looks sharp and needs some love .
Ya know that has crossed my mind as well.
First. It was Rogers who got skydome for a bag of beans forcing argos as a non factor in Toronto Proper.
Mlse acted like they came to the rescue. Looks great in the press & everyone thought just moving to the BMO more built for soccer and football.
Bottom line i said it before & i will say it again. With the Argos being a DISTANCE 5th of the 4 pro sports franchises.
They need to move to somewhere within the GTA outside of that area.
The money machine that is MLSE. Would be smart to expand into an untapped pro sports market that is Halifax and the Atlantic Region.
They probably would let them fold or move but they can’t .
They are in a catch 22
My feeling is that when Braley owned both teams they lost evenmoresupport . The appearance of thisembarrassment was horrible for the league and it never recovered tothis day .
But the CFL were in a pickle then .
Money from thebroadcaster was injeopardy plus at the time the Buffalo Bills were in play .
They must have examined if they can run the league without the Argos in Toronto andcome up withscenario they can’t risk .
MLSE is doing a good job other than not tarping that stadium on the corners or at least that whole upper deck .
Was there with 17 almost 18thousand with full stadium open and it felt alive .
Was there when they closed that upper with the same amount of crowd and it felt dead .
Atmosphere and optics areimportant for the fan to sit and watch .Even with great pricing they must address the issue .
It won’t be over night but I haveseen what C and S did with tarping at the Skydome and it worked .
Why would MLSE look at moving the team and take them out of stadium they control?
Putting them in another city means they would need an extra sales and marketing team, an extra ticketing team, PR, media relations and so on nevermind costs associated with a new stadium in a different market.
By keeping them under one umbrella with their other teams, they save allot of overhead costs which helps in lean years like this.
I agree with the above, they have never recoverd from the Braley years. Having a combined 20-46 record since moving into BMO including being 6-24 since under MLSE ownership doesn’t help. Not blaming ownership for the record but at the same time, I think they barley scratched the surface in turning this franchise around.
For the few that were there, the boo birds were loud. Unrest I didn’t see since late in 2016.
This season being a write off. What is MLSE’s next move?
I believe you will find last night was the smallest crowd for a regular season home game for the Argos (not including those “home games” outside of the GTA in 2015) in the post war era! . Go back to Wikipedia for the argo games season by season where they post attendance and can’t find one game where attendance was under 10000 since 53. Before 53 attendance figures are not posted.
If that’s not an eyebrow raiser I don’t know what else is.
Well, yes don’t know what MLSE’s next move will be. But it’s a poor year for them and teams get booed in all leagues when they have a very poor record and don’t win much.
It’s really sad. That’s all I can say.
One thing I dont understand is why they arent HEAVILY discounting tickets just to get butts into seats and trusting (hoping?) that they’ll make some incremental revenue through increased attendance and people buying booze/food/merch while they’re there? If they can consistently get 15k-20k people, even with heavily discounted/free tickets, and create a fun party atmosphere then maybe people will start to fall in love with the game again. Yes I am sure a lot easier said than done, but right now they’re not really doing anything other than some more TV and internet ads from my perspective - and I live in Toronto.
As a tiny comparison, the Toronto Wolfpack, the rugby league team that plays in Lamport Stadium, gets about 8k fans a game and has I believe sold out a couple times, which is around 9600. I know for a fact theyre giving a lot of free seats away and hoping people are going to learn the game, enjoy themselves, and spend money while inside. It’s not a long term sustainable solution, their owner is a billionaire so he can take the losses for a bit but he’s no MLSE. Free tickets are available at restaurants/bars all around Liberty Village on game day, and they also use local organizations/community groups to help them get free tickets into peoples hands. People do also buy them plus season seats though I dont know what % of attendance is actually paid. They’re only in their 3rd season and theyre doing quite a good job of drumming up interest and getting butts into seats and into their beer garden - and this is for a game that has no history whatsoever in North America.
For all intents and purposes, I imagine the Argos are a tax write-off for MLSE. And we know MLSE makes a boatload of money. Seems really reasonable they could afford to use a strategy like this, take some losses for the next few yrs, and hope people will start to come for the party and stay for the football 
The Blue Jays did Toonie Tuesdays as well as the Toronto Star Season Passes as ways to lower the costs and get people to go. I have yet to see the Argos try anything remotely like this and quite honestly it shocks me. Seems almost like a no brainer… Am I missing something??
something about disrespecting the existing season ticket holders …
all 11 of them.
(i’d be doing that as well…papering the stadium…)
Ok, I get it, the Argos are your rivals, but your post helped how? How will you fare if something happens to that historic rival, think about that. There’s already lots of trolls who pretend they are CFL fans posting here who will do that work for you, they don’t need the help.
Let’s see they moved to a new stadium and nobody comes , they got new management and coach, they got new ownership, changed the days they play more weekend friendly and still nobody cares.At some point you have to look at reality and say it’s reached it expiry date in this city. The city has outgrown the CFL. I’m a ticket holder for a long long time. I have run out of excuses.Some people equate empty seats with lack of marketing. The reality is they are selling a product nobody wants anymore except us. Maybe move them outside Toronto where there is still a small community feeling. Guelph,Oshawa, London. You can still call them Toronto. A lot of sports teams don’t play in there city.
Theyre already disrespecting the season seat holders though. Two of my friends are former Argo SSH and they didnt renew because the Argos would actively work with places like TravelZoo and Groupon to give out special ticket deals that were better priced than their season seats. On top of that they didnt receive any real extra benefit for being a SSH - no welcome package, free swag, discounts, nothing to make them feel special at all. They also bought their Grey Cup seats then the Argos discounted them after the fact and I’m not actually sure if they were able to get some of that refunded.
At the end of the day, IMO there isnt an issue with heavily discounting tickets if youre offering the loyal SSH a real good reason to be a SSH. If you basically give them nothing then allow anyone to go on TravelZoo and buy seats for $20 then why would anyone be a SSH.
In Hamilton, Ive been a SSH for about 3 or 4 years now. I know I can buy much cheaper seats game by game and wander around the stadium if I want but I like being a SSH because of the food and merch discounts, the annual events with free beer/food, plus the bonus money on our All Access cards each season. They do a much better job than the Argos from what I have seen, my friends got none of these benefits a few yrs back which I thought was pretty odd.
A quick scan of Ticketmaster for the Oct 11th game against the RedBlacks shows me tickets are selling for SEVENTY SIX DOLLARS to sit upper level about halfway up. That pricing is INSANE to me. Argos are one of the worst teams in the league, playing the worst team in the league on that day, and theyre trying to get people to pay SEVENTY SIX DOLLARS to sit upper level. How am I going to pitch the game to a friend of mine to come with me and tell them its going to cost SEVENTY SIX DOLLARS plus beer? I cant. Sell every ticket in the upper level for $10 and my confidence level is really high you’ll get a lot more people there. Take the loss but get butts in the seats. A lot more butts.
As a comparison, my seats in Hamilton work out to $32 a game and I am upper level row 18. Less than half the cost of what the Argos are charging, and it is a much better product. Hands down.
Yes theyre selling a product nobody wants, and charging an arm and a leg for it. Thats not how you win new (younger) fans over. They really need to re-evaluate that. Among other things.
I am one of those 11 you speak of. Comments such as yours are classless, plain and simple. I recall in the early 90’s crowds that size at IWS. Glad the Cats were able survive those dark times. Same goes for Saskatchewan, Calgary, BC and other CFL cities.
As a CFL fan for the past 40 years, I don’t joke about other teams possible demise.