Highest BMO gate revenue? MLS Cup, Grey Cup or Cent. Classic

CFL Talk
1

I would have initially thought the Grey Cup but looking at the prices for the other events and likelihood of larger attendance figures I'm not so sure now.

Grey Cup

Ticket prices were reduced for the Grey Cup a few months back - the range of prices was from $89 - $899. I'm not sure what suites were being leased for.

We know that TSN/Bell bought a massive number of tickets at a discount and gave them to employees/clients. We also know that there were widespread reports of freebies being given away and the game was not a sellout

Final Attendance: 33,421

MLS Cup

Ticket prices range from $65 to $552. Game sold out within hours. No freebies and no corporate sponsor had to buy thousands of tickets at a discount to sell out the event. Again, I am not sure what the suites are being leased for.

Attendance will be over 36,000 for this event.

Centennial Cup

Ticket prices range from $129 - $399. Event is not sold out but playing around on ticketmaster, I found most available seats were in the final few rows of the east and west side so I would guess they are down to a 1000-2000 at most. Once more, I am not sure what suites are selling for at this event.

I am also uncertain about the seating capacity. I have heard 36,000 and 40,000. They would only achieve 40,000 if they build a temporary set of stands on the north side of BMO and I do not know if they have done this yet. Of note, it appears the majority of the seats at this event will be $299 and up which would mitigate against the absence of seats which are $500 and up to keep the average ticket price relatively high.

What are your thoughts. Which event will achieve the highest gate revenue and in what order?

2

I'm still going to say Centennial Classic will be the highest. It's the Leafs first of all. Those final tickets will be scooped up by a combination of Leafs Nation and those coming from Detroit. They so have extra seats at the north end since a hockey rink is much shorter.

Then I will say the MLS Cup final. The home team being involved alone makes it a bigger ticket than the Grey Cup plus capacity is a little higher.

Grey Cup will be third but despite the fiasco is still respectible. The higher price points were not discounted and we'll never know regarding the discounts how much did corporate pay to the Comitee. The game was listed as a sellout as capacity was 33K and change.

MLS semi would be 4th. Though it sold out faster, ticket prices were far less than the CG.

3

I think you’re right, can’t see how the Centennial game isn’t a huge success. TFC is hotter than ever right now so no surprise they sold out so quickly, but also helps that they get to play a championship game on their home turf.

The victory for the CFL in this one will be the game itself which saved face for a lot of people. It was a mistake in the first place to try and put the Grey Cup in Toronto in their first year at BMO, never should have happened.

I never want to hear excuses about accessibility to BMO ever again though, people can get there if they want to. UFC and MLS Cup are taking place in the city tonight and I guarantee people will find their way to each event.

4

If you include in stadium beer sales - I lean towards the MLS Cup. lol

To Extra time we go!

5

1.Centennial classic – but its still not even close to sold out, you can easily by 8 at a time on ticketmaster. probably make $7-8m if sells out
2. Grey cup - even with drop in price, they didn’t make $14m but probably $7m like winnipeg. alot of tickets in 599,499,449 probably range 10000+. but another 20000+ were 100 to 299 range after drop.
3. MLS semi - probably made $2m most tickets were 45 to 128 range
4. MLS cup - had to give mls 5000 tickets but most tickets were 55 to 150 range

alway a ton of comps for all these type of events … thats why sponsors pay big bucks. whether its mls getting 5000 freebies for sponsors, or tsn getting 1200 freebies

6

Your numbers for the MLS Cup are highly suspect.

Toronto will be lucky to profit $5 million from Grey Cup week. It's unlikely they will profit $7 million like Winnipeg did.

7

how so, those we are public ticket prices to season ticket holders and those released to the public for MLS

As for grey cup, the lower deck between the 40s prices were far higher for Toronto. And those did sell right off the bat. It was the the upper deck 499 and 399 tickets they had a hard time on. those tickets were reduces so it was more inline with winnipeg … and ottawa next year The level of sponsor tickets/comps was probably similar between two.

8

Good question.

I like the fact that there will be three big time events to help offset the cost of all the refurbishments to BMO. This makes this venue that much more desirable for future endeavours...

9

There were several hundred and possibly even over a thousand of those seats still available between the 40s even after the discounts were first announced. They did not sell right off the bat. Many were probably bought at a severe discount and some of those seats were still available on the day of the Grey Cup.

It’s laughable to suggest the level of comps between the two were similar. TSN/Bell had to buy up several thousand tickets leading up to the Grey Cup due to pathetic sales. Once tickets went on sale for the MLS Cup they sold out within days. There was no need for comps or at least an excessive number of comps due to brisk ticket sales.

10

Lots of tickets available for the Centennial Classic per TSN

[url=http://www.tsn.ca/tickets-still-available-to-centennial-classic-1.639810]http://www.tsn.ca/tickets-still-availab ... c-1.639810[/url]

Still can get at least 8 together pricing at 229.00 pp and the game is 4 days away.

Looks like the Grey Cup is not the only event suffering from so called event fatigue. It's more like a backlash from gouging and not even the Leafs are immune.

Even the World Juniors have lots of tickets available aside from the sold out Canada-USA game on New Years eve. Their next game vs. Latvia has lots of availability with a starting price of 84.00 plus fees...I won't be going at that rate. It's much worse in Montreal. Funny though only the Grey Cup gets raked over the coals in the media.

Funny thing is, the picture in the TSN article is of the close to capacity Argo home opener. The Centennial Classic and alumni game are being broadcasted by Rogers and their partners. Sportsnet articles on this event shows a near empty BMO for the Argos likely the one vs. Ottawa. The shots accross by the 2 media firms is facinating.

11

All I can say is when PT Barnum came up with his classic line, he had the population in the city of Toronto pegged.
Again, why do we continuously give a rats rectum about the MLS/TFC?
And please do not say because it's the same city owned stadium involved.

12

It is probably because the apparent inferior franchise who plays the ever unpopular sport of soccer averaged 26,000 fans this season in the same city and same stadium that the Argos could barely fill. The MLS is a good comparison for the CFL because neither are seen as the best in the world, but they are the best in our country. Let’s not forget a lot of excuses were thrown around about the stadium location and how hard it is to access, late cold weather games being a deterrent, going up head to head with local competition on the same night … but none of these problems seemed to trouble TFC this season despite playing in a less popular league.

The rise of TFC as a legit franchise in Toronto just creates that much less room for the Argos to grow their brand, they get lost in the shuffle behind the Leafs, then Jays, then the Raps, then TFC, and the NFL creates havoc in the situation as well.

13

Not a good comparison 2ez.

MLS is American, CFL is Canadian. CFL supports Canadian players, MLS does not.

Statistically anyways, I believe the CFL is close to having NFL caliber rosters if they want to. Right now they don’t because of the rules, but they are not far off. The current ratio rules mandate the “Canadian player numbers” which have allowed them to be drafted and developed. The League, P.A. and Fans support this so this is what we have to work with right now.

Statistically speaking only, a CFL squad would have as high a percentile a draft as anything else in this country including anything currently in Toronto.

As a general rule, the more players that play a particular sport at a high level and the fewer number drafted (300 NFL/CFL), gives the league that selects them a fairly high level athlete.

Consider Major Jr. A hockey as a comparison with NCAA football. Major Jr. A hockey have 60 teams with 25 players = 1500. NCAA football NOT including “U” sports, Jr Football, High School on both sides of the border plus semi pro leagues have 71,000 playing NCAA football right now. Which do you think would net you a higher level player?

In fact add NCAA baseball, basketball, hockey numbers together and it won’t equal the total number playing NCAA football.

Suggestion I can make to the league is that if we continue to loose FA, and our National players from University take the NFL route, we relax the ratio rules in future. Also would help when injuries happen, coach won’t have to disrupt the whole team because of the ratio rules. That’s what happens now.

Here is the link

[url=http://www.ncaa.org/about/resources/research/estimated-probability-competing-professional-athletics]http://www.ncaa.org/about/resources/res ... -athletics[/url]