bills broken in TO, not CFL

Well they could do like Rogers and give away 20 000…

When they were winning: October 27, 2007 had 40,116 in attendance. Bodes well for a team on the upswing…

that would actually be a good idea. If people are not going to pay anyhow, fill the seats anyway you can. If you go through a full season with over 45000 in the stands, some of those people are gonna want to pay the next yr. It will look good on tv. They will make a louder noise for surrounding neighboorhoods to listen to and make some people more interested, create more cflargo talk at the office, etc etc.

In theory it should work but it doesn't, people are not willing to pay for something the use to get for free... plus I've read in the past that Brailey is dead set against that sort of "promotion". He'd rather take 20 tickets and have corporate guys be hosted by himself or his crew but to hand out free tickets to people without a face does not work. They endup being sold for ten bucks to the guy who would pay 40 on game day. Suks but that's how it works.

Perhaps, but the tickets were still overpriced. What’s most important is the number of people that paid the prices similar to those that they would’ve paid if they watched the game in Buffalo.

So what are the excuses going to be?

"It's ridiculous to expect people to go support another town's team"
A: Then go support YOUR team. Yeah, you know the team which is 5-2, the biggest surprise in the CFL and about to play their biggest rivals in a game that matters big time.

"People would go if tickets weren't that expensive"
A: Part of the reason prices are so high is because Skydome is a small stadium by NFL standards. That won't change. If you want the NFL, then be ready to pay NFL prices.

"If Toronto gets a permanent NFL team it will sell out blah, blah, blah"
A: Toronto's wasn't getting an NFL team and certainly isn't now. You can spin it all you want, that's the truth.

  1. So, not that long ago. They certainly weren’t going to sell 40,000 seats in 2008 and 2009 when they had 4-14 and 3-15 seasons.

Toronto will get a team. It’s just a matter of when.

From what was said on CBC radio sports report this morning there were likely no more than 20k at the game. Doesn’t look like tremendous success to me. When they announce their attendance at these Bills in Toronto series, don’t believe a word of it.

The Argos attendance number this season is legit. I know in future years they have padded numbers, but not this season. I was at the opener and second game and both times thought the numbers were around 25K. I was shocked when I heard the announced attendance. I even ask a friend of mine that works for the Argos and he said they use to padded the numbers similar to what the BJ's did. This year both organizations are announcing actual numbers. Thank's in part to both Braley and Beeston. Solid sports businessmen.

As drummer_god mentioned in his well written previous post, the NFL or the Bills didn't fail in Toronto. Rogers did. They overpriced the original tickets, pissed off the 10-12K that purchased all eight games by reducing prices and give aways.

I believe the NFL and CFL could co-exist in the GTA. But in order to do that, they would need to be partners not rivals.

Sorry I disagree you cannot have a partnership with a guy who is going to stab you in the back when you turn.
The NFL is a big elephant in the room.
Now that the city has showed with their pocketbook about not wanting the NFL, good riddence once this disasterous contract is done.
As for the crowd yesterday, all of the papers are reporting of course the announced numberas we know is bogus and likely only half that number was there.

There's a big difference between an NFL city and Toronto. The 3-13 Raiders — a team that has been HORRIBLE for several years in a row — has the lowest attendance in the league and has averaged over 40k a game. If Toronto really and truly was an NFL city it wouldn't matter what team was playing in the dome, the place would be nearly full if not sold out. And remember, the Raiders play in Oakland. That's not exactly a high-income city, yet season tickets cost around $60 a game. The Coliseum, as unattractive a place as it is, even sells out occasionally depending on which team is playing (the Chiefs for example). Also, remember that, just like Toronto, the Raiders share its stadium with an MLB team, and until the baseball season ends (and the As miss the playoffs again) the Raiders have to play with a more than 1/3 of the "turf" covered in dirt.

There are no excuses. The stadium is no excuse. The team is no excuse. The location is no excuse. This was Toronto's chance to show that it is an NFL city. It failed. It will be a cold day in hell before it EVER gets a permanent team given its poor showing.

http://espn.go.com/nfl/attendance/_/year/2009

I didn’t watch too much of it, but it did have some good plays and decent scoring. See what the regular season game is like I guess…

NFL is boring.. and pre-season is a word worse than boring.

it'll never fly.

I know its been said 100 times before by 100 different posters here....but:

Remember how THIS was suppoesed to the 'final nail in the coffin of CFL in Toronto'!!?? Just like MLS (!!???!?), arena football, etc...

I think it is fair to say (as another poster put it earlier - not sure if it was in this thread...) the CFL is the only thing that will kill the CFL. So, unless the sky actually does start to fall, lets talk about the amazing turnaround of the Argos, thats the feel-good staory of the year so far!

no worries, the Toronto Star will find something they can use to slag and insult the CFL and the Argos this year.. already likely working on it! :roll:

Precisely.

They better get their winter jackets because it’s nothing more than a ‘chicken or egg’ question. Which comes first? The Olympics or the NFL team?

how about the answer “Neither!”

I hope neither too, but if my options are Bills to Toronto or Bills to LA, would prefer the Toronto Bills over the LA Bills.

I just hope the NFL Keeps the Bills in Buffalo were they belong. Bob Young keeps the Ti-cats in Hamilton were they belong. And Argos in Toronto, the greatest city on earth :slight_smile:

So true, I swear some years the really do try to kill themselfs. I always wonder if the CFL BOG is made up of manic depressive people.