Last week there was talk of possibly 45,000 attending the home opener and Ricky Williams debute. Then as the week progressed they realized they over estimated the interest and declared 40,000 will attend. On game day CBC was gitty and stated that an Argo season opener of over 35,000 hasn't happened in 40 years! The attendance? 27,689.
Is Ricky Williams worth his $500,000 in more tickets? I think not! David Cinniman et at. need to understand that Argo fans while supportive at times, are far too finicky and cold! They averaged 22,000 fans when Doug Flutie was leading them to a grey Cup!
They had 10,0000 more fans at the preseason
game then last year. Even if you lowball the average at $30 a ticket, thats $300,000.
Williams will bring in a lot more than his salary ($250,000 to $500,000) to the Argos. He’ll make the other teams a few bucks as well.
No inflated numbers like has been the case there I've heard, so not bad considering the heat with the roof closed before the game, must have been a scorcher in there, and the fact that the Argos do have to compete with the Blue Jays in the summer for fans sports entertainment dollar and those birdies are playing fairly well this year so people have to remember this.
What I need to do though is start a campaign to get rid of the Blue Jays from Canada, they are hurting the CFL in Toronto I think. Have to put my thinking cap on...
That’s a BS argument. Last year, they played their preseason game in Halifax, so the 11 000 people they got as a crowd was the max they could get. You can’t compare the two years.
I thought I read that they had 10,000 more fans than their
last preseason game at the Rogers Centre. I could be wrong.
Anyway I still think Williams was a good investment and will earn back his salary.
That was because the 2004 pre-season game was booked for a Thursday afternoon. It was mostly school kids that attended. Now, how many bosses would be so understanding if you skipped work to go to a bloody pre-season game?
I wouldn't judge Argo fans based one game even if it is the season opener. But there is that Torontonian mentality of always wanting to hang with the 'cool kids' -- i.e. spurning Canadian football in favour of their struggling NBA and MLB franchises. I wish more Torontonians would grow up and stop wishing their city was part of the U.S.
I hope the Argos average no more than 25,000 for the next few years. Why? Because then they will more easily be able to move into the new soccer/football stadium, if it seats 25,000. If they average 30,000 plus, they will probably stay at the Rogers Centre which will not be as good of a game experience as the new stadium going up at the Ex.
This morning on TSN I was watching a Russ Jackson profile and saw him playing at the Ex, and coaching there also, brought back great memories for me just seeing football played at the Ex. I'd go to Cats/Argos games any day of the week at the Ex in a completely open air stadium but I won't go to the Rogers Centre as I don't like how the stadium is constructed in a bowl configuration and doesn't have the open air feeling even with the lid open.
Calgary played Edmonton at the exact same time Game 6 of the Stanley Cup was being played. Calgary was short about 11,000 Esks fans. It made the game a bit more enjoyable though.
