Riders against BC easily had the highest viewership in Canada on the weekend.
One question.
Why weren't more CFL games scheduled for the weekend, as opposed to say, Thursday night?
So as to maximize TV viewership.
Just wondering.
Below are the weekend TV ratings:
There was a double-header on the holiday Wednesday, which normally would have been split between a Friday and Saturday.
Because in reality this is a gate-driven league, and many people are away on the weekends. That is one reason why a lot of games are on weekdays during the Summer.
True but the increase in ratings give the CFL more fuel for asking for more money from TSN when this contract is up.
...exactly, 'cause all you can get off the rabbit ears at the lake is Linus Westburg out of Yorkton with the farm report...
....(if anyone remembers Linus then you and I need to clink glasses)...
Its funny reading all the comments concerning the fact the CFL game outdrew everything else on Canadian TV. People are making all kinds of excuses as to why baseball or the NFL or tennes aren't getting higher viewership. Seems these people just can't accept that the CFL is popular in Canada. Why, I don't know?
Every year the same poll reveals as do these TV numbers how the CFL by far and away is the second most popular sport in the land. And what those hockey pucks won't ever allow is how the CFL is increasing with the gap narrowing.
If we had 9-10 teams these numbers would grow substantially.
I would actually look at it from the other point of view. TSN could probably offer up less money for a new contract because there isn’t much competition out there to broadcast CFL games. The CBC gave up broadcasting CFL games and I don’t see them returning to broadcasting them with the CBC’s general direction of reducing the amount of sports coverage they provide. Whats left? The games won’t be moving to CTV directly since CTV owns a part of TSN, theres Roger’s Sportsnet and The Score. If the two sides started playing hardball with one another over the amount of money in the tv contract, I see the CFL caving in to TSN’s demands moreso than I see TSN caving in to the CFL.
The CFL did not get the full value for its current contract with TSN, as only negotiating with one network.
It came out afterwards how the CBC was willing to pay more for the rights.
That is an interesting perspective, for sure. It's just that I am not sure that CBC is out of the business. When I look at curling (the other truly Canadian sport), for example, after TSN won the rights to one set of major championships, CBC spared not expense to get the other remaining set. Not saying I want CBC, just that it might have more desire to get back on the CFL bandwagon than it appears. But if I am wrong, I agree that your scenario is a real possibility, although "less" is a relative term - they may pay "more" than the current conract in absolute dollar terms because of the higher numbers but "less"/viewer, so to speak.
The CBC took itself out of the running when it chose to settle for cheap productions that it would just as soon pull the plug on in favour of a movie. Honestly, it's a pain that it's on cable only, but TSN is doing a HUGELY better job than the CBC did.
If the CFL can keep increasing its ratings on TSN over the next few year. Then you throw in a new franchise in Ottawa, and maybe one other in Quebec or Halifax. Then add a more business like guy like Cohon to negotiate the next TV deal over a rube Tom Wright. Add in fact the Blue Jays may be on the way out of Toronto within the next few years if Rogers can't find a buyer. And we could see big money for this league for TV rights when the current deals ends.
Well berezin, according to this article, Blue Jays attendance is down markedly this year and even with the good start. I'm sure Rogers is taking notice.
http:// www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/article/130080
A big question in Toronto is what will be the next stadium of significance there, baseball or football (CFL or NFL)? That would be a huge blow to the Skydome er, Rogers Centre, that it ended up being a stadium not specific enough for baseball or any type of football, ouch. And really, while it's way down my list for places to watch sports in, it isn't that bad I don't think mainly because of the retractable roof which works well. Maybe Rogers should gut the thing and make it either one or the other, baseball specific or football specific, and at least get it right for one sport.
EArl. Jays are down big time in attendance from last year, but it was also well known that Paul godfrey was fudging the attendance figures to make himself look good.
Its rumoured Rogers wants out of baseball, but like Claud Brouchu in Montreal found out with the Expos, who would want to touch the Blue Jays? I say nobody. Which is why I say they're destined to eventually leave Toronto.
Also, about this new stadium in Toronto. If Hamilton or Quebec or Halifax or any other city in this country can't get a new stadium, how will Toronot?
Unless the good people of Toronto get out their wallets, there will be no new stadium in Toronto. They better hope that Skydome stands for the next 100 years!
its funny how bad and greedy a lot of the networks are about wishing the CFL would just die so Global TV NFL goes through the roof (man what an easy money maker the CRTC lets stations just broadcast a game off another channel in the US with Canadian Ads).
Well its not gonna happen, its getting stronger in some way or form each year stronger than the previous.
It'll take some time but once Attendance numbers just keep going up and TV ratings as well they will have an un-ignorable mark that will start filling up some of the bigger stadiums past 40,000+ per game.
All it takes is this during the 8 team league (its amazing how the league was able to keep its momentum without Ottawa, I was really hoping it wouldn't affect anything) is the league to keep growing like it is and then bam they can put two teams in the league at once probably. Whenever Ottawa gets Lansdowne ready (hopefully Ottawa figures out that stadiums are money makers) and Quebec City or somewhere gets 20,000+ seats I think the CFL's popularity would go through the roof whenever that 10th team comes. Man would people really be excited with Ottawa and the first 10th Canadian team.
I agree. Its so obvious all this league needs is a few more teams in strategic locations and it will become twice as big as it is now. It may even threaten the NHL for number one if Bettman keeps pissing off Canadian fans!
What's becoming more apparent is that the Blue Jays are just 1 team in just one city, large yes but still one city, in Canada like the Raps. The way I see the pro hieirachy in Canada with representation from as many areas as possible, nothing to do with number of postings on forums or what have you, is:
- CFL - 8 pro teams
- NHL - 6 pro teams
- MLS - 1 pro team but 2 soon and probably 3 with Montreal
- MLB - 1 pro team
- NBA - 1 pro team
Not sure about NLL (lacrosse) and how many they have.
This is nothing to do with popularity or numbers of fans or that, it's about the number of pro teams in Canada. The CFL is no. 1
Hey berezin, here's something that you might get a chuckle from. It's from a Fox article that is discussing the Jays plight and quotes Paul Godfrey as:
[i]The stars lined up in the perfect way," said Paul Godfrey, the former team president. "The team had never won an AL championship or World Series, and it looked like they were on the verge of doing it. The stadium was new. People were in awe of the world's first meaningful retractable roof. There was the novelty factor.
"The hockey team was in the doldrums. There was no pro basketball team, no pro soccer team. But here was this competitive baseball team in a new stadium.[/i] - http:// msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/9752536/Long-gone-are-the-halcyon-days-of-the-Blue-Jays
He doesn't even mention football in this paragraph, CFL or NFL, interesting.
Well you gotta think, these guys think they're big shots cuz they're running the big team. And now they're losing in average attendance to Canadian Football which has always been some kind of joke to people maybe because of a country with a government run TV station with a population 1/10th the size of the United States constantly being compared to Private production companies like NBC, CBS, FOX, ABC, ESPN.
Its great how far the CFL has come since the late 90's. I know I tried to champion the league everywhere I went, and I know I got all my buddies into it...finally. Now there's games that aren't just +1 because of me, there's +14. One game a year or two ago there was about 25 friends of mine, and on top of that was about 4 family members. It was really awesome.
Canadians are starting to realize what a precious gem this league really is. Anybody can go and make an XFL, UFL, World Football, AFL (now AFC right?), NFL Europe? Look at what the CFL has outlasted.
I could keep going, but either way. I think Canadians are realizing why with 30 million people we can't make as big productions as a country with 300 million, we have been getting a lot closer tho. As long as its better than CBC not showing the full punt because they didn't want to show the 9,000 people at the SkyDome 7 years ago, y'know?
From about 2000-2004 the league went from having horrible attendance to getting 20,000 averages in BC and Toronto. From 04-08 the league has solidified itself in all the other cities and continues to push the envelope. All we need is Hamilton not to lose as many games and with Hamilton bringing in more than 24,000 again or so the league will probably have another year of attendance records. I think 09-13 will be when we start pushing more limits up here. Whats in store a jump to 40,000+ a game in BC?
Lets hope so.
Don't forget, Mr Godfrey among other things, is famous for fudging the BJ attendance numbers.
It's the old "buy one ticket and I will count three".
Good riddence for him and I hope the team is next to leave, that in itself is not such a far fetched idea, with what losing upwards of $30M annually since Rogers bought the team.
And how long will the corporation take such huge loses now that Ted is gone?