Eskimos organization is ignoring the older fans,

For the fans who don't live in Edmonton, you won't likely experience this problem.

This season the Eskimos staff decided to totally revamp their marketing and half time shows. They have musical acts at the half and some even at the end of the game.

Only problem is, the acts are targeted at one age range, alienating the rest of the people who also attend.

The Eskimos have decided that their most important age group to focus on are the young people. They really don't focus on families and they certainly don't focus on the older people who are over 40 and have those young children.

The music they play during breaks on the field is aimed at the 17-34 age range... And 34 is stretching it. the older folk, are easily irritated by it and everything that they do to attract fans are aimed primarily towards the younger crowd.

IMO they are not caring at all what their older and more experienced fans want to see, hear and do at the games.

I realize that they're trying to attract the younger people with their musical acts and all the cool stuff but we know that it is very difficult to maintain their attention and keep them coming back again and again.

But meanwhile they are driving the older fans, the ones who have had season tickets for a long long time away from the game and are losing the variety and now seem to only bring in the young ones who love to drink and drink and drink.. And many of the young fans who are coming to the games are only there to see the musical acts and truly don't care about the actual game itself.

I think what they fail to realize is what happens if their experiment fails and their fans don't keep coming and at the same time their veteran fans, the old ones get fed up and stay home next time?

I think their attempts to gain new and young fans is good but theyre forgetting about the rest of us.

Btw, they only had 32.600 for the Montreal game. For Edmonton, that's awful!!

Totally agree !!

…and you have the stats to back this up right?

There are no stats. It's called observation over the past number of seasons.

I have been to many games in Edmonton and they are totally alienating their older fans.

Attendance in Edmonton is Down and I see way more younger folk , who drink more and way fewer older folks

Btw, I tried to talk about it on the Esks post game radio show and the guy messed up the line and I never got on

I think they call that hanging up. :stuck_out_tongue:

Ya well, he let me on but I think he then "accidentally" hit a button...

...but you don't say it as if it's 'observation', you state this like a fact and you can't do that in this case...it's not 'that stop sign is red' obvious...your case should be peppered with words like 'my opinion' or 'I believe'...

...I don't discount that you are seeing something that you think is a trend, but you can't prove it...honestly, can you?

No, unless you start getting your ticket holders ages, it's hard to.

But if you were to check out the stands all game you might be able to estimate it.

...that's all I was getting at, still you should get that message to the EE mgmt, not the media, phone the front office and see what they say

1 person will not get their attention... They won't care.

The Eskimos invested a bunch of money into the their gameday presentation including their halftime shows. For what its worth this new format is supposed to be better than the old ones. Guess its not working for everyone.

I know how you feel.
The Argos at the crap dome have been doing this for years with the crap music etc.

I’m with Cheif, that’s called getting hung up on.

For a minute there, I thought the annual "the Grey Cup halftime band is bad" thread was starting early this year.

No matter what you pick for music, half the crowd (at least) is going to want you to pick something else. They could just go with nothing instead and reduce the whining. Or maybe they're just figuring that the older fans are coming out to, I don't know, watch a football game? :roll:

18-34 year olds with disposable income is the target demographic of just about everything? What is your point. it is refered to as the key marketing demographic for a reason...it is the largest group of persons more willing to part with ways with extra money. Do you propose that they should focus on smaller demographics, or the one that pays the largest portion of the bill?

Open your ears people and start enjoying some younger acts, what's the problem? We have so many great young musical artists in this country and I for one, at 56, am delighted that a team is encouraging them on. Don't get me wrong, I love groups like 54-40, The Trews, Great Big Sea etc but it's great that younger acts that need exposure are getting some exposure. I wish the TigerCats would do some real young groups, there's a great blend out there now. Take a group for example like Raised by Swans out of London, Ont. that I just listened to this morning or Amos the Transparent out of Ottawa or Zeus or Monster Truck. The list goes on and on and on. What they could do is play The Verge or the Canadian Indie channel over the speakers at half time with videos. That would be super.

Open your ears and you might start enjoying.

Who's to say the oldies didn't stop going on their own (for other reasons)? Perhaps the Esks are just accommodating those who actually show up (and pay)?

Sorry, but if you go to any NHL or NBA game you'll see they play LOUD, current music (with fast graphics / video on the screens) and the oldies still show up. A true fan of the game isn't going to cancel tickets because there is no Barry Manalo between plays.

PS: I'm well north of 40.

Your darned if you do and your darned if you dont. Although there were only 32,000 for a Montreal game that is low but the previous game with Salt n Pepper halftime show drew 43,000 plus.
Edmonton still seems to be the one team that consitantly draws well over 30,000 as an average in an age when all games can be seen on TV at home in comfort.
August is also a hard month for any sport as a lot of families have vacations planned for that month before kids go back to school.
What the CFL may be losing in the stands they are making up the revenue through sponsorships and Television. All sports game attendance is down but for the CFL since TSN has taken over the games the TV audience has more than doubled. Once the division battles hit full stride on labor day home and home back to back weekend rivalries football attendance will be up espcially if the parity continues and everyone is jockeying for position in the standings each week.
The Revenue for sports in the modern era comes from Television money and the CFL will continue to focus on TV ratings and let the corporate sponsors pay the bills in this age of low economy.
Calgary had a particularly low attendance this weekend also.
Winnipeg moving back to the West will help with attendance as their main rival is Saskatchewan along with Calgary and Edmonton but being in the east takes away from that rivalry

I was visiting Edmonton for the week and took the SK game in and thought the half time show was awesome. Salt and Pepper was great. Not a huge fan , but still better than the usual half time shows in the CFL. Couldn't believe how quiet the stadium is, for over 40 000, SK and Wpg WAY louder. But enjoyed myself and had a great experience at the game.

The last thing I go to a football game for is to see a concert, but if that puts butt's in the seats and helps the teams stay afloat then I don't see the problem. If I don't like the band I'll go hit the concessions and have my drink and food there. Heck, it has to be at least as entertaining as listening to Black and Forde trip over their tongues. :wink: