According to Mark Spector from Sportsnet the CFL Attendance was down considerably in the semi-final match up's in Montreal and Edmonton.
It was a worrisome day for the CFL, starting with a Commonwealth Stadium playoff crowd of just 26,237 in one of its stalwart cities. It was pretty cold in Edmonton, with a temperature of -10C at kickoff. But in Montreal, another anchor town for this league, they announced a crowd of 15,107 for the Eastern semi. Not good.
In Hamilton at Tim horton's Field for Sundays Eastern Final between the Tiger-Cats and Al's it's SOLD OUT and a waiting list for available seats unlike the fair weather fans of Montreal and the Bum Birds!!!
Fact is semi finals are not big draws. Casual fans are done buying seats for the year and late season weather keeps even more away - the casuals are what puts the attendence over the top - diehards come regardless.
This thread is a perfect illustration of what is being talked about in a different thread. Move the season forward three or four weeks. That would help have better weather conditions for the biggest games of the year.
It just makes no sense to play in conditions that see smaller crowds turn out for some of the biggest games of the year because of bad weather conditions making sitting through a game uncomfortable for fans so they sit at home instead. And that is exactly what happened in both Edmonton and Montreal.
IMHO the Ti-Cats did things right when they made the purchase of a playoff ticket mandatory for season ticket holders. That guaranteed ~16-17k seats already sold for either the EDSF or EDF. Montreal instead forced their STHs to purchase tickets to the pre-season game, leaving them to scramble to sell tickets for the EDSF. Their loss, our gain.
…and they didn’t try and gouge their fans with inflated ticket prices. If the price is so high and the game is available for free in HD in you nice warm living room, why buy a ticket to freeze your a$$ off?
because that is what die hard tough football fans have always done. guess though that they are a dying breed. we have become a society of wimps in so many ways. why not this way too
You are correct, it’s a different generation , they are used to sitting in the living rooms watching their HD TV and playing on their laptops. You have to do some good marketing and a comfortable environment to get these people to a CFL game.
The CFL may have to look at things like moving the season ahead, I would love to see the GC on Thanksgiving Monday.
They have to figure out what went wrong this season, not just playoff attendance down but attendance in general and that’s a huge drop in TV ratings. My guess is that the NFL will have a huge increase this year in Canada.
All true but there are other factors.
Overpriced tickets in Montreal where the economy is very soft
Lost generation of fans in Edmonton
Changes in officiating
Meltdown in Toronto caused by ownership and scheduling problems
TSN presentation in desperate need of a refresh, the entire TSN schedule should be refreshed IMO.
Add in:
Much better defensive play resulting in lower scoring games
VERY questionable officiating
Greasy scheduling in Toronto
I.O. p00ping the bed building THF causing even more nomadic experiences for the Ti-Cats and their fans
I would tend to agree that with the rivalries that exist in each division the fans, I would think, would prefer to have a playoff game against a conference opponent than a team that they only see twice a year.