As a former junior player and long time fan I am sad to say the TV commercials have ruined the game for me, and probably a for lot of others. This is probably the most significant reason for losing fans especially in the large cities where there are many other sports options for fans to enjoy tv broadcasts without being bombarded with commercials.
4 Likes
Ads are a part of every sport,can’t stand them either
3 Likes
Remember having the ads is so you don’t miss any plays when you got to the bathroom. LOL! 
I think the big reason for the drop in attendance is with the current rise in price on just about everything people have to cut back whether it’s buying a ticket(s) for a game or cutting the TV cord.
5 Likes
With TV timeouts, penalty calls, coaches' challenges, and command-centre reviews, the game has lost a lot of its flow. If you watch some amateur ball, you can see how fast-paced the game used to be in comparison.
I know the league is trying to address the flow of the game a little bit by cutting down on ref conferences with coaches to explain their calls, but I think more work needs to be done.
5 Likes
Lol!!!
- Gas prices
- Transportation costs (cabs, transit, air, etc.)
- Food Prices (except for sugar drinks, they're still cheap if you want to get Diabetes)
- Utilities
- Cars & trucks
- Entertainment (pro sports, cable, internet)
Fortunately, most Canadians & Americans have built up decent reserves of savings. With all this nonsense going on many Canadian keep spending more on gas, entertainment, housing, transportation, utliities. Essentially, instead of saving 20 to 30% of their incomes they have to cut back to saving only 12 to 18%.
Those with lower incomes but surviving on govt. supports also have savings but instead of saving 15 to 20% of their annual intakes - they're only saving 7 to 10% thus giving the illusion of hardship.
Once people go truly into the red - thats when a real depression, a substantial recession occurs. So far, we are many months, even years away from that.
"The index, which examines how affordable life is in Canada, shows that over half (53%) of Canadians are living paycheque to paycheque and one in four (25%) say their debt load is overwhelming. More than one-quarter (27%) don’t have enough for their daily needs."
Was told public service represents 30% of the Canadian work force which is the lucrative market segment corporations are after. Travel industry has grown over the years and takes a big bite of that disposable income now.
Who hasn't climbed Mt Everest yet is the new norm.
1 Like
Hopefully reducing those challenges will result in a reduction of replays of replays and the inane comments by those old out of touch commentators. I watch the games with sound turned right off and there are so many breaks I can grill a steak and miss virtually none of the game.. stupid !
2 Likes
Anyone for "old Trudeaus" Price and Wage Controls again ? Your totally right..disposable income is at an all time low and going to a CFL game with gas, ticket costs, parking, sky high food and beverage is getting totally out of the range of the average working Canadian.. and to take the kids, future CFL fans along ???
I understand BC has a new low cost admission for young'uns but will they come ? My late Bride and I wintered for a number of years just north of Tampa. I recall seeing on the billboard at the arena a family plan deal.. 4 tickets, popcorn, drink and parking for $85.00. Not sure how successful it was but it was an effort the Bolts put out to fill seats.
Mind you, if I was an average Joe who paid full price for a season ticket ???
Early season game attendance is always poor. The Kids are in school, there are two weeks in June when its pouring with rain on the prairies, and it's the beginning of the season. But the average is still near 21K. (whether its tickets sold or actual attendance really doesn't matter.)
Some of it is performance based as well. And a lot of people forget that, places like Toronto, Hamilton, Ottawa, the stands are not symmetrical and there is more seating on the side where the cameras are than on the side you see all night. Plus in Edmonton since they put in the dark colored seating it is very difficult to judge the size of the crowd because green jerseys blend in with the green seats....
1 Like
In what world are people saving 20-30% of their income?
Or for that matter, how would anyone living on government supports save anything at all? Supports pay only for the necessities, if that. If the government was using tax dollars to pad peoples' savings accounts (to any amount -- forget your laughable 15 to 20% or even your "hardship" level 7%), the uproar would be deafening.
People saved a bit during lockdowns because they had nowhere to spend the money. But if you look at the staff and supply issues happening, its pretty clear that as soon as people had a place to throw their cash, they started warming up their arms.
No, son. Very few people are saving to the levels you describe. Most live paycheck to paycheque with no saving at all, if the aren't actually going backward by increasing their debt.
2 Likes
We lived in Peterborough Ont in the 70s. Went to 1st ever Blues Jays game April 6th or 9th ? Seats were 1/2 way up and directly above 1st base.. cost $8.75 each. My son still has ticket stubs. The Jays did a masterful job of marketing in old Exhibition Stadium... kids could sit in the old football seats in outfield for $1.00 and there were loads of promotions, giveaways etc. The CFL has to start that concept.. family friendly cause this isn't the NFL where seats at at a premium, save maybe Jacksonville ?
Sam Katz former Wpg Mayor owns the stadium and Goldeyes baseball team in the American Assn. He has all kinds of inter inning promos and literally fills the stadium.
It's not just here and just football. Average attendance for the league leading 100+ game winning LA Dodgers last year with an audience of what, half the population of Canada was under 30,000.
Makes it clear you can't just put up a sign and sell tickets anymore. You need to work at putting butts in seats.
2 Likes
81 home games vs 9 isn't exactly an apples to apples comparison. The announced number is always tickets "out" not necessarily sold. If the no-show rate is over 20% You can bet most of those tickets were either freebies or heavily comped. Few people are going to buy $50 tix and not go. Also advertisers aren't stupid. You can't sell them on 25k attendees a game and only have 19k in the house. It's like ordering a large pizza and only getting 5 slices instead of 8. Would you still pay full price for that?
3 Likes
Artificial hurdles are in place to hammer the national economy. That's why attendance could be hindered, and that's beyond the poor playoff system and lack of talent parity.
And our affluent 'I want it, I need it, i'm buying it" is as much to blame as any govt legislation. Go to Europe and the local population doesn't have 3 cars, 3 tv's atv's, boats and the list goes on. I grew up in the late 40s through to 60s and having a tv and a family car was a great thing. Food in Europe in particular meat, is a horrendous price and so it's on the diet once a week. In N.A. We have food prices that those people would kill to have and land ownership is for the wealthy only. We are very spoiled in N.A. and consider the extra cars, atv's, tv's, boats and steaks our right and so buy and finance them.
It's the concept "I have money I haven't borrowed yet !"
Hey, it's a case of choices and gov't programs good or bad has very little to do with the fact of our living standard. Canada continually rates among the best countries in the world to live in. One govt program that saved our butts big time is the level of control that it has over banks and lending institutions. It prevented us having that huge 2008 meltdown they had in the US where their govt, citing free enterprise first, let the lenders through Freddy Mac and Fanny Mae put people in homes that they couldn't afford by outright lying about a persons income. And so when the 5 year mortgage rate went up people had to abandon their homes in droves.. blocks and blocks of them with Repo signs on the lawn. I spent 10 winters there and it was brutal. Thank heavens we had those so called "govt controls" in Canada.
Touche'
4 Likes
Happy 4th!
You were golden up until that question but the size of the slice comes in to play. 5 big slices vs 8 small ones ? Depends how hungry you are I guess.
2 Likes
The largest injustice facing normal Canadians is the free pass given to the banks. The government bent over backwards in 2008 to save those banks from the fallout of their own greed. Reality is the big five suck $50 B out of the Canadian economy in profits every year. The sad part is there is nothing tangible that you can hold, touch, or use after you are finished paying their fees. Lets not start on tax avoidance or stock market manipulation.
Would be not too bad if they were at least Canadian owned but they are not. NFL has a representative sitting on the board of the RBC for one. Government standing by the Bank Act of 1867 tells you how easy it is.
1 Like
Ah but RBC has a huge presence in the USA as does TD who have many branches throughout s eastern US. They operate that as a separate corp to comply with US law. Makes me rather proud of the fact that our banks do well there. As in how many US banks have a "real presence with multi branches ?"
But your right, banks make huge profit in our country but would you rather the Can govt take the risk.
Talk about Bank control, I have an ex Canadian pat business associate who lives in Switzerland. He told me that if you should be able to pay off your mortgage the Swiss Govt basically taxes you at such a high rate it's not worth it unless your ultra wealthy.
Don't know whether your old enough to remember the Social Credit Party in Canada. They were the govt from 30s to 70s in Alberta
big among the Mennonites in s e Mb and in Quebec. They were formed in Alta in 30s when Dirty Thirties had banks foreclosing huge in that province especially with farm lands. The premise was that banks should only be savings institutions and the real money controlled by the people for the people. It worked in a diluted state in Alta for years and we got money/shares back every year as Joe citizen was considered a shareholder. They worked hand in hand with the oil industry in that they charged them fair royalties but insisted that the oil folks not ship raw product out but refine in Alta. The plan worked a the prov govt built up a huge "Rainy Day"fund.
Then the Conservatives under Lougheed got in and of course business first was their credo so banks prospered. Then those fiscally Conservatives decimated the Rainy Day assets and as you know went from a have to have not
economy when oil prices crashed because they let everyone run amok.. banks especially. Then there's the story about the fed govt
Central Mortgage and Housing division. It was set up after WW2 to get Canadians into their own homes. So the ave Canuck could qualify for a mortgage that were tough to get from banks in the 50s-60s. I got my first house that way.
Then the fed govt went from Liberal
To PC and that business first attitude insisted CMHC sell off their mortgages to the charted banks. When things got tough in our city the banks didn't offer the relief but wanted to foreclose and did a lot. The fed govt wouldn't have done that. So i'm a little confused about your political leanings but being down in banks is ok but like it or not they keep the country going.
I shudder to think where Canada would be if our govt were big lenders what with it's huge bureaucracy.
I had never intended to go from CFL football to politics but the anti govt, mainly untrue statements got me going.
Bombers over T.O. by 15.. thoughts ?
2 Likes