Argos July 13th game 'You Can Play Night'

Cfl commissioner Orridge was joined by Brian Bulcke of the Argos and the Argos ceerleaders marching in the massively attended Pride Parade in Toronto today.

The Argos also made a special marketing announcement related to the You Can Play Project they have joined for their next home game.

The Toronto Argonauts are proud to announce that they have teamed up with the You Can Play Project to host a You Can Play themed game on Wednesday, July 13 against the Ottawa REDBLACKS at BMO Field. The game will promote equality, respect and safety for all athletes and fans, without regard to sexual orientation and/or gender identity.

This will mark the first time a professional sports team in Canada has hosted a You Can Play game.

“We are proud to use one of our games to promote this very important cause,? said Michael Copeland, Argos President & CEO. “The Argos are deeply rooted within the Toronto community, and we welcome everyone to be a part of the Argos family.?

The Argos’ You Can Play game will feature the singing of our national anthem by Forte, Toronto’s gay men’s chorus and a special guest to perform the ceremonial coin toss. The recently launched Argos You Can Play merchandise line will be available for purchase in the stadium with 25% of proceeds being donated to You Can Play’s work within Canada.

The Argos are also making a special ticketing offer for this game. For every $30 ticket sold using the code ‘YCPARGOS’, six dollars will be donated to the You Can Play Project to help fund their initiatives in Canada.

[url=https://ca.sports.yahoo.com/blogs/cfl-55-yard-line/argonauts--you-can-play-game--cfl-presence-in-to-pride-parade-are-big-steps-211454305.html]https://ca.sports.yahoo.com/blogs/cfl-5 ... 54305.html[/url]

Now, that it is evident the Argos and CFL have stepped up to support the "you can play " cause , it will be interesting if that community steps up on July 13 to not only support their own cause , because they get financial benefit from doing so , but if they also support a organization and league that is supporting them.
I will be watching closely to see if they as a community, step up to further their cause and support those whom support them. A sellout should be close at hand on July 13 th if they do so .

Good stuff, glad to see that the Argonauts are continuing to be active in all communities.

Hard to say Mr. Pike. I only stumbled upon this when I went specifically looking on Twitter to see if there was any Argos/CFL presence at Pride today. I think it is great they are doing it - but the announcement from the Argos today will get totally lost in the LGBT community with everything else happening today. They need to be actively working with a community group like PFLAG or actively approaching some of the gay sports leagues in Toronto and promoting this later this week for this to have any legs.

And the Argos generally up until now have not had nearly as high a profile in the LGBT sports community as the Leafs, Raptors and Jays have had - who for years have done a number of things with the LGBT community - especially MLSE with Brian Burke at the forefront of that effort for years.

I was involved with organizing a 'Gay Night' with the Jays about 10 years ago where a portion of ticket sales using a certain code went to a gay sports group and we managed to sell about 500 tickets that year. The Jays were really helpful creating ads and posters that we put up in LGBT businesses, distributed to various gay sports organizations etc. But we had well over a month to promote the game.

Other similar nights with the Jays and Raptors with less lead time or less involvement from the community overall have had mixed success at best.

I'll certainly bring it to the attention af my friends in Toronto - but this will be doing very well to sell a few hundred tickets with such short notice. But this outreach to different communities is exactly what the Argos need to do to rebuild their fan base.

All I am saying is its an opportunity , baby steps , a few hundred is a win , win , lets support each other , lets scratch each others back . Its a chance to support the cause , why wouldn't the community want to celebrate and embrase it . Cheers

Completely agree Mr. Pike. :slight_smile:

I just hope this doesn't turn into another "If a million LGBT people don't show up it will be a failure" chorus from the haterz. It's another good, positive step in the rebuilding process, one of many the Argos will have to do and keep doing to become relevant again.

Exactly Charukfan. Excuse me for bringing up another sport again - but a number of MLB teams do a similar 'LGBT' night each season and have been doing them for years. In most cases the first few times were being very polite - only moderately successful - but they kept at it each season and now some of those LGBT nights are very successful.

The Washington Nationals for example now sell about 4,000 tickets each year to the LGBT community on their 'Gay night'.

The Argos should do smilar outreach to other groups. Maybe have an Italian Night or Asian night to try to attract new fans from those ethnic groups. The Raptors Asian nights at the ACC do very well. Or one of their games in September when the Universities/Colleges are back in class a College/Univesity student promotion of some sort.

Yes, we are going to the game we bought two extras for my daughter and son-in law, only $20 each on the upper deck east side.

Well said. :thup:

Nice to see Bulcke out there doing some good old fashioned P.R. It all counts and it all adds up. Go Cardinal.

The more season ticket holders the better get all those gay guys packing the stands

Let’s try to be inclusive, what about the gay gals? The lesbian market could be huge for the CFL. :thup:

Yep the dykes too :thup:

As long as there are people there and they’re wearing Argo gear and engaged in the game, I could care less if they’re attracted to bowling balls