I can’t believe how 15 years have gone by already.
Since 2009 now there is a grown generation of the kids and teens who were around then, but they have new kids and in turn different interests than the grandparents.
Those in younger generations than most of us here have not been going to sporting events in the same numbers in aggregate and don’t watch as much sports on TV either.
The NBA and soccer provide a few exceptions with often higher attendance and ratings amongst the youth.
Another example is Winnipeg. They brought in and sold 50,000 seats for the first Grey Cup there in 1991, which I was at. The last Grey Cup in Winnipeg and the only one at their new stadium was in 2015 and I was there as well. Much warmer.
There were no extras seats brought in for that one and there won’t be for 2025. There isn’t realistically any place to set up extra seats.
Don’t need extra seats, sell the existing seats at an average of $300 and they make enough money.
They are definitely charging a lot more and I believe many of the seats are going for at least $300.
I believe they had plans for a small amount of temp seats for that one endzone but cancelled for whatever reason and turned it into the stage for the music performance .
That may be and I remember something along those lines. In theory a few seats could be added, but very few. The stadium is basically enclosed all around with a roof to keep rain off of the spectators and the brilliant design also minimizes any wind and funnels crowd noise to the field. But really no room to add a significant amount of seats.
Just speculating here, but I think the need to have a large amount of extra seats may be gone.
You now have the TSN contract, which basically pays for the players and Grey Cup revenues are now shared which eases a team from the burden of having to have a huge Grey Cup to make up for any short falls and bank money for the next few seasons.
Except that the TV revenue of $50 MILLION is split 10 ways and the $5 MILLION to each team doesn’t go that far. It doesn’t cover the injured players, the reserve players or the coaches.
With each team having 12 coaches I would think that takes care of close to $5 million
You are totally correct Paolo! I teach these kids and they are so bombarded with stimuli that I did not have to worry about when I was their age. It is also important to note that soccer and the NBA reflect sports that are low cost to play so youth become more interested in these sports since they played them in larger numbers. The world of leisure in general is absolutely saturated with so many options that it makes sense that being in person at a spectator sport is largely a secondary activity today.
Yes but while they charge more, they also restrict access to participating in the event, which means they are in turn shrinking the market for potential consumers rather than growing it.
Food for thought
I was watching one of those car chase videos.
The cops traffic stopped a guy who had his 5 year old nephew in the passenger seat. When they find the guy has a warrant, and the cop is trying to get him out the car door, he takes off dragging the cop who is halfway in the doorway. After trying to knock the cop off by driving 90 mph and sideswiping other cars, the cop finally plugs the guy and the car crashes.
As another cop goes to rescue the kid, the kid is screaming. Is he crying about the car accident or seeing his uncle get shot, he is screaming “My phone, My phone” (which was still in the car).
As Davey Boy Smith used to say “That is fooked” Something has to be done when these devices and their media are playing with kid’s minds.
I believe all the new stadiums were able to accommodate 40k with extra seating, which was also the minimum to host a World Cup group game.
BC @ Montreal - 23,035
That is a sellout
Elks - Stamps 32.144
“Closing the upper bowl is key to enhancing the game day atmosphere and rebuilding our home field advantage by bringing our fans closer to the action. With a capacity of over 31,000 in the lower bowl, Commonwealth Stadium will still have one of the largest capacities in the CFL.
I’ve seen the controversial comments regarding CTV in other sections of the forum. My thoughts are as follows:
It’s not necessarily about getting a higher audience the first week. It’s about exposing your product to a different audience. If your parents are not into sports at all, then they won’t bring you to games. If by some miracle some kid is flipping through channels instead of surfing the net and stumbles across the game then the experiment is worth doing.
The CFL doesn’t market itself well. There are many people living in Canada, who don’t know the CFL even exists. Teams get out into the community but that touches one person at a time and they are hoping that one person spreads the word about the CFL. The billboards or posters that the teams advertise on (if they do) are focused in high population centres. Once you get out into the burbs or single family home neighbourhoods, you’re not going to see anything. (Rightfully so after a cost/benefit analysis). Putting the CFL product on CTV helps reach a different set of people.
I’ve read that people who have TSN+ were also able to find the game. This move to put it on CTV is also about Bell trying to encourage more subscriptions to their various other programming.
https://www.reddit.com/r/CFL/comments/1fbfrfi/false_alarm_on_banjo_only_being_on_ctv/