Little energy in the stands... almost like pre-season!

Hamilton Tiger-Cats
#1

I was worried about this becaus we .... well... because I 've lost my emotional connection to this team. I mentioned that 2 games ago.

But I still have my season's tickets and I had seats for the whole family today so we went.

Other than the 2 TD's (when you expect people to be excited) the only buzz in my area was when people were angry at the roughing the passer call.

The talk was of going back to school, home renovations, even thanksgiving plans (!) etc. To many of the people the game seemed incidental. Many didn't really care that the 'Cats were losing. It seemed that it was expected.

The team may now be in the process of losing the fans... and not just for the short term. I fear a return to the days of 5 years ago before the new ownership. In fact, if I WERE the new ownership I would be questioning my own involvement.

Not good.... not good at all.

#2

It's sad to say but losing has become the norm. It is expected now in Hamilton. This isn't good. It's tough when you look forward to the Labour Day game and it's the same old thing. The Cats vs. Argo is slowly become a nothing game. Gone is the rivalry. That's just plain sad.

#3

I have made my decision to NOT renew my season's tickets for next year. I will be living in Ottawa, and I cannot justify the expense of travelling to Hamilton eveery other week in the summer (even IF I could get the time off) to watch such a sub-par team.

Three years ago, I was in Syria on a United Nations mission. I followed the Tiger-Cats religiously. We have now had 2.5 years of futility. This is the final year in my three-year contract for tickets. I cannot afford the $160 price increase, nor the travel.

I will continue to watch and follow the Tiger-Cats from Ottawa, but I ope to be at IWS a couple of times a year.

#4

Just wondering. We are in Sec. 30. How was it where you were?

#5

Other than having a gloating Dana Seguin sitting beind me in Box I, the blue team fans were OK, and the rest of us were in a state of apathy.

#6

I admire your dedication to this point, but if I lived in Ottawa I don't think I'd be a season ticket holder either.

#7

I dunno...I sat in the Endzone and it seemed there was plenty of energy to go around. The Event Staff and Police seemed mighty busy where we were.

Actually haven't seen that many issues in the seats in a long time.

#8

I agree with slodrive. There was plenty of enthusiasm in the endzone, not sure about the other areas though.

#9

I am getting woried about this franchise. Not only is there no healthly southern Ontario competition, but I am actually getting worried that the Ti-Cat situation will go back to that of the late 90s when the team was in danger of folding. I don't know how much more the fans can support this product. I'm woried that the CFL will go down to 7 teams, like one big division and the Argos will haveto play the Blue Bombers like 7 times a year :frowning:

#10

I too, am most DEFINITELY Worried for this Organization ... I too, SENSE the GROWING DisEnchantment with the Team.

Not so long ago I was ACTUALLY Optimistic ... but after this Weeks FIASCO of a game ... the writing seems to be on the wall.

This current REGIME is showing alot of INCONSISTENCY in thought. They are showing a COMPLETE LACK of Competence, and there does NOT seem to be an END IN SIGHT !!

Peace.

P.S What happened to all this "Taaffe is a QB GURU talk" ??? He has DONE NOTHING with the QB's he has on staff ... and he can't even EVALUATE the Talent properly !!

#11

There has been a trend over many years to mitigate the natural advantages IWS has historically had as an imposing and intimidating place for opposing teams to play in.

For me, you can track the slow decline when the west end zone bleachers were taken down. I remember going to games in the late seventies -- sub-par Ticat teams in that era -- and you couldn't hear yourself think. The enclosed fans-on-top-of-us feeling weighed on opponents and gave the fan experience a dynamism that is light years ahead of the piped-in passivity of today.

When those west end stands came down, the oomph factor ebbed and flowed with the on-field success of the team. You didn't hear the same roar in the crowd, even when the team was in the playoffs and getting 24,000-plus for big tilts.

After the 1989 season, it really became tenuous as fan support teetered even more precariously than the 14,000 diehard daze I can testify to during parts of the eighties.

A horseshoe layout with a Lite Brite scoreboard and a poor team on basically spraypainted concrete isn't a recipe for getting one's neck hair to stand on end...

In recent years, we've seen and heard the Beat The Fans Over The Head With Amplified Simon Says Quality Cajoling And P.A. Buckshooting Industries approach. The Jason Farr fare of 'FIRSTTTTTT DOWNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN TIGERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR-CATTTTTTTTTTS !!!!" when the team is tanking it by 30 interspersed with "MAKE SOME NOISE!" and electronic droning of "DEFENNNNNNNNCE" is the kind of mix that gets fans a little bit backed up on their benches. Take out Pigskin Pete this year and have what we have on the field and, well, you get fan kibbitzing about Wal-Mart Back To School instead of actively engaged fans into the game.

Even in the worst Buffalo Bills games I've witnessed at Rich/Ralph Wilson, there is a cultivated fan pulse. The choice of up-tempo music, the use of the SCOREBOARD to engineer chants as opposed to a thirdrate cattle call-type urging track, etc. gets the young fans concentrating more on the game and allows everyone to feel some resonating energy they themselves generate.

Ivor Wynne at its best blows any other facility in the CFL out of the water when the fans are into it, IMHO. When the fans are on top of you, it t'aint a fun place to visit as an opposing team. In lieu of enclosing the field on all sides with stands, the team has to turn the experience into a FOOTBALL LAIR and not some a la carte family outing to break the Madden fan audio monotony. LOL

The team can cement the next generation of fans not just by improving the on-field performance of the team (which is a must). It has to develop an activated fanbase that brings its lungs and feet to engage the opponents of that day as one big organism. Celebrity Peteing and other packaged palliatives won't cut it.

Oski Wee Wee,

#12

As I said on the play calling coach thread it was absolutely STUPID . and it isnt the first time with his play calling

#13

the endzone is always loud and involved in the game, more than likely due to the heavy drinking that takes part in the area but its always a good time in the endzone.But i am getting sick of us losing over and over again, and not by just a few points, but by getting smashed so there are no fans left by the end of the game, except the few of us that stay and yell at the opponents just for the hell of it

#14

I sat in section 25 near the top. This is the first time I mhave been in the south stands in a long - long time. The guy sitting beside was wearing an Argo Suck Button - however he had placed masking tape over the Argo part and had written Ticats - That pretty well sums up what the buzz was in are area except for a few aggrivating Argo fans who were promtly advised to keep it civilif you know what I mean. Nothinh like an aggrivating Argo fan who don'r know $#@% about football and where they are visiting. Enough said.

#15

Yeah but Ti-Cat fans are so docile now, I was in section 5 for Argos @ Ticats earlier this summer and we were yelling and jumping with an Argos flag and nobody said a thing. We couldn't have got away with that 5-10 years ago without getting an earful of Steeltown ire. The new jumbotron is really nice though..

#16

if you are yelling and jumping with an argos flag i feel worse for you than i do for myself cheering for the ticats.

#17

Hey sig:

Good luck to you in Ottawa. Too bad you will miss so many games.
Maybe by the time this team finally gets it together and becomes competitive, Ottawa will have a team. Then at least you will see some of the away games. My memories of being a Tiger-Cat fan at Ottawa football games in the mid-60's were not good though. It was a dangerous place to be. Maybe things have changed.

#18

Ok, I have to ask, this has been really bugging me - what could Dana Seguin possibly be gloating about? His career shanking percentage? Or was it more of a "this is nothing, my Tiger-Cats were way worse than these Tiger-Cats" type deal?

#19

Section 25 at the bottom was the same way. The fans seemed numb. A sense that their spirits have finally been crushed was palpable.

...in relation to the latter part of your post - I saw this guy with a really nice "Argos Suck !" shirt, one with the vintage lettering and everything. Moreover, he happened to be bald, and he had stenciled "Argos Suck !" right on the top of his dome, again in the vintage lettering. I said to him "wow, you must really be a huge Tiger-Cats fan." He said "no, actually I'm from Winnipeg. I just really hate Toronto."

Presented with a perfect example of the extent to which the Forbidden Chant promotes national unity, I was glad there was at least one thing to take pride in at the Labour Day "Classic."

My Canada includes "Argos Suck !"

#20

We left the Labour Day Game with about 12 minutes left to play in the fourth quarter. As we were walking down the street, there was very little sound coming from the stadium itself. No fans cheering or booing. Nothing. The atmosphere was dead. The team is dead. it was more of a funeral, than a football game.

Brox