Attendance

BC ,should have had 40 000 at least to show their appreciation for a Grey Cup last night.29 000 is a bit dissapointing, especially on opening night.
Ham, should have sold out, no excuses.25 000 isnt enough on a seaon opener with a Burris and Fantuz.

The long weekend doesn't help anyones numbers.

Opening night is not traditionally a big deal in the CFL like it is in baseball or perhaps other sports. Attendance normally builds through the summer and the biggest crowds are in the fall. Another factor is most Canadian households are highly "wired" and the allure of couch-potato HDTV with no blackouts might dissuade some casual fans from buying tickets and attending games live. Even in the NFL attendance has been steadily declining over the past several years. In contrast, the CFL attendance has been solid and should remains so with half the teams readying moves into brand new stadiums.

:thup:

Hamilton attendance will go down from this point as it usually does, prob average 23k. Bc probably stay around 28 29k.

I agree on BC. 29,000 seems a bit low. Sadly for Hamilton, almost 26,000 is actually good for them.

The season is one day old. It's a little early to start worrying about attendance.

really? only 26000 in hamilton? that's a concern as its the last year of ivor wynne and also the fact that TSN clearly showed about 2000 rider fans in attendance also

BC, i hear the ticket prices have been jacked up so i can understand that but on a night where Geroy broke the receiving record, my dad made a good point, said every time he catches the ball it will be a new record now, but yeah.. you would have thought they would have had a bit more than 29000 out.

Football attendance has been declining everywhere.

lets spin it another way...the Argos had what...42 or 43K at a Tuesday afternoon preseason game...that, I believe, is more than they had to any game last season, so that is a positive sign for overall attendance. They only averaged maybe 22K last year.

Kudos to TO fans...keep it up.

mostly free tickets though lol
we will see how many come to the game on saturday.
I’ll be there :slight_smile:

No doubt even in the US with the NFL and its record profits as a far bigger league. The media down here have not reported it, but the facts remain. I suspect more than anything a generational shift in entertainment habits, particularly amongst those under 30, well at work.

If you can view these links, you’ll find some interesting information on the NFL decline in attendance:

[url=http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303561504577495083707417526.html#project%3DNFL062920120629%26articleTabs%3Darticle]http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142 ... %3Darticle[/url] [url=http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303561504577495083707417526.html#project%3DNFL062920120629%26articleTabs%3Dinteractive]http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142 ... nteractive[/url]

All eight of the home games for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2010 did not sell out.

Only two of the seven home games in 2011 sold out, and those two sold out only because they were night games for which the team bought the unsold tickets so that it could be televised also locally and prevent a readily apparent national broadcast embarrassment by using restricted camera angles on the crowd.

I believe attendance is ‘paid’ tickets. I do not know how many season tickets they sold, but it was way up.

Well compared to last year for their first game so far: Hamilton is up 2000
B.C. is up 7000
Edmonton is up 9500
Last year Calgary had 27,984 for their first game so we will see if they can hold the trend!!! :rockin:

If Toronto could average 25000 PAID ,attendance,that would be a good news story. Letting 30 000 kids in for free is a great way to expose the future fan base,but not indicitive of a renewed interest in the Argos.

Erroneously, I had surmised Hamilton would have attracted approximately 28,000 or so, due to the Burris/Fantuz/Gigurere/Cortez acquisitions, last year of IW Stadium, and decent promotion.
...and also thought BC would have garnered at minimum 35,000 and possibly near 40,000, being Grey Cup champs, and the first full season at the new BC Place.

As usual, Edmonton attendance was a stalwart for the league.
Great support there for a team most believed would struggle poorly this season.

Despite all the bells and whistles, there is little evidence to suggest that a refurbished BC Place has had a sustained, positive effect on attendance. The club drew 50K when it first opened on 9/30/11, but other than Grey Cup and the West Final, the Lions have hovered around 30,000 for all their other games.

Management clearly over-estimated the public’s fascination with the $563 million reno other than the initial “look-see,” and was very unwise with its pricing structure for Lions’ games which I’ve covered in other posts. They obviously thought that CFL games in this market are price inelastic which they’re not. Canucks games are; Lions aren’t. People are interested in going to see the Lions, but not at a minimum price of $35 per ticket (although just last week the club announced a deal with 7-Eleven stores whereby, for $76 including taxes and fees, you get two tickets in the end zone. Doesn’t seem like all that great a deal to me).

And going to an overpriced NHL game is value?
You can’t go to the movies for this amount.
Come on.

No, they gave tickets away to schools. 43 000 people did not pay to see a Argo pre season game. :roll: :roll: They can’t get that for a regular season game, even when Flutie was playing!

Only 29k for a home opener is really disappointing not to mention the record and first game after a GC victory. The weather has been terrible here so its not like everyone wanted to go walk the seawall.
I guess most people here would rather watch it in a bar on HD.

Don’t shoot the messenger - I’ve had season tickets for 17 straight years. But no, $35 plus fees is no longer the affordable family entertainment that it used to be IMO. I pay nearly double that for my seats, but I can afford it. Vancouver’s an expensive city. The lowest priced ticket should cost no more than $20 - $25 per game when you have an inventory of 54,000 seats to move. Again this is IMHO.