I did this last year and thought it was interesting, so I decided to do it again this year... Anyway, here are a couple graphs and such thrown together to show attendance figures around the league.
I just used the wikipedia figures for capacity (although I changed the Toronto one as it was posted on the forum what capacity would be this year, due to the closing of the upper level). I know BC Place and Commonwealth Stadium are also partially blocked off, so if anyone has the capacity figures for those stadiums I can adjust... Anyway... here's what it looks like so far:
As a comparison, last year as of week 5, the average attendance across the CFL was 28,777.
I did some comparison to last year earlier this week but was going to post it after week 6 (1/3 of the season) because not all teams have hosted the same number of games as last year as of week 5. But as of week 5, while tv ratings may be up and excitement is up, attendance is actually down, by 3.5%.
But in my draft, I had noted as follows: While the excitement level is definitely up this year, the effect that it has on attendance must necessarily be a delayed, particularly compared to TV audiences; that is, it will translate into more butts in the seats later in the year or even next year but not during the games in which the added excitement took place. Hopefully, those teams that still have some room for upward movement will increase attendance even this year because of the exciting season so far.
Anyways, I will leave it to Saskie to provide numbers and hopefully he will take up Argotom's suggestion and do the year-to-year as well so you can see the raw numbers for yourselves.
does that percentage drop since last year have a lot to do with increase ticket prices for the ti-cats?
i went to a game in hamilton last summer and it was sold out! from your statistics they have almost 10,000 empty seats per game this year... that sucks.
Actually, Winnipeg also dragged down the totals, but I think it is because there is no Stegall-chasing-a-TD-Record phenomenen at the beginning of this year like there was at the beginning of last year. But personally, I find this dissappointing for a team that went to the GC last year.
After five weeks, the changes are as follows:
Team Delta (Home Games)
W -8,827 (3)
S +6,717 (3)
T +883 (2)
M 0 (2)
H -11,076 (3)
E -15,329 (2)
C +3,970 (2)
B +7,323 (3)
Edmonton is a good example of why 5 weeks (and in their case, 2 games) is just too short to identify a trend. First, many Edm fans claim that one of the problems is that both of their games so far were on Thursday nights (whereas only 1 of the 1st two last year were - got 33K); their average attendance is about 32k in the two games this year so, given how close they are in avg attendance to the one Thurs game last year, this perception may be justified. Second, their second game last year was against Sask and anyone who knows Sask at Edm games, half of Sask shows up (they got 46K). So, really, most of the drop this year is from one game, a game that has not yet been played this year to offset the apparent decline.
Not making excuses for them, but one has to look beyond the summary numbers to fully understand what is really going on.
I remember this from last season and found it interesting.
I think somebody has already mentioned this but the only other
thing I would like to see are the comparisons from last year.
If I may offer some criticism, drop the 2 line graphs.
I think they are too 'busy' and difficult to read.
Your first chart with the actual numbers tells the story
quite well without them. I find that chart very well laid out
and so easy to pick out the important information.
Thanks for your time and efforts. It's well appreciated.
Both Edmonton and Calgary's averages will go up after the Riders visit them. Will probably be a sell out or very close to in McMahon this weekend because the Stamps Rider rivarly has heated up the past few years and with many former Sask people living their they usually draw pretty close to sellouts. Same formula for in Commonwealth, a lot of former Sask residents live there and contribute to the draw, pretty good rivarly as well.
i wonder how different those numbers would be if there were no thursday games...one friday, then 3 more spread over sat and sunday would probably be best.
i still believe, if a thurday game MUST be played, it should be in montreal, where attendance wont be hurt by a weekday game.
The Calgary Herald said that as of Tuesday afternoon, over 34,000 tickets had been sold for the Stamps-Riders game … capacity is 35,650.
So it should be a sellout for sure!
Winnipeg's attendance is down because of the Stegall record chase last year. At the start of the year they were sold out or close to it every game until the record was broken. Once the record was broken, attendance dropped to close to what the numbers are this year.
If your working its a hard thing to do especially if you have to get up in the morning. The first two home games that I took my neice to we ended up getting home after midnight.
Looking forward to that Lions game tonight, but being from B.C. I’m always up when the Eskies play the Lions. I’m kinda bummed about missing the Ti-Cats playing the Al’s but thats what highlights are for.
