Rider Nation - Why ?

Years ago (in Maple Leaf Gardens days) it was not all that uncommon to hear Aaaarrrrrgooooossss! chants when the Leafs stunk - especially during the years Ballard owned the Ti-Cats. It is sort of an indication of how far the Argos have fallen down the sports ladder in the city that you are now more likely to hear ‘Let’s Go Blue Jays!’ or ‘Let’s go Raptors!’ chants at Leafs games as a way to be derisive towards the Leafs ineptness.

Let me retract the statement about Mad Dogs as the stupidest name.
I am going to put that honor on the Maniax Rage and Hitmen.
Remember that group that Vince McMahon said was going to put the CFL out of business ?

How much of this can be put on the Toronto media ?
I do not read any Tor papers or radio shows, but how much media coverage do the Argos receive compared to the other sports ?
I do not think it can be dumped all on the fans.
Thing is our largest city in Canada has the population to support all their teams. Piece of the pie so to speak.
It is sad when you watch an Argos game and see all those blue seats.

Question is, can they survive til 2017 and then hope BMO is their answer.

go to a leafs game and throw a argo jersey on the ice... The 180 dollars spent, would actually double the Argos marketing budget for the year.

No doubt the media is part of it brihind88 - but to be brutally honest as somebody who worked or lived in downtown Toronto for 25 years from 1987 - 2012 before moving back 'home' to Hamilton - the lack of media coverage somewhat mirrored what was happening in the city. It is almost like a which came first the chicken or the egg situation. Did media coverage wane because interest had waned or did the waning media coverage cause the interest to wane?

I can tell you though in Toronto - the Argos simply were not very much on the radar most of the time over my last 15 years in the city. Seldom was the Argos game from the weekend water cooler or lunch hour talk at work the following Monday in the office. The Leafs, Jays and NFL games would be and a few times in the Vince Carter days the Raptors were.

If a sales rep dropped of a pair of tickets to Leafs game (which rarely happened because the big guys kept those) - almost everybody in the office would want to go - about the same with the Jays. Raptors tickets not as popular but still no problem finding somebody to go usually. Argos tickets - could actually be a tough giveaway at the office sometimes. More often than not I would get them because nobody else in the office wanted them.

The same thing would happen when tickets were being given away as a raffle draw prize in fundraisers for either community groups I was involved with or as fundraisers for my volleyball and softball leagues. If a pair of Leafs or Jays tickets were one of the prizes the bag that you could put your draw tickets in would practically be full for those with so many people wanting to win those. Raptors tickets about half as many. If you wanted a good shot at winning - you went for the Argos tickets because not very many would throw their half of the raffle tickets in for those - so you stood a better chance of your ticket being drawn to win.

It is just the way it has been for years in Toronto. Totally different here in Hamilton where the Cats are at least as popular as the Leafs and Jays in these parts if not more popular because they are the only 'Hamilton' team.

Somewhere , somehow the fan base left. I remember watching tv with full crowds in the late 70’s - late 80’s at CNE and the early years of the SkyDome. Playoffs more of coarse. Wish they would come back.

Well. I will admit.

I went to 4 UFL Games in Las Vegas . While there I did were my Stamps jersey.
Also a few times at the Stamps games , I wore the Locos jersey I bought.

Different league but at least it was the same sport.
Also, I did notice a Rider fan at one of the games in LV.

Well, as long as people are having fun.

IMO Toronto is a preview of what we will see happen with the rest of the CFL if the league does not start investing in getting young fans out to the game.

I’ve always done it too. Flew a Renegades flag from my cruise ship balcony a few years ago.

And the fun thing is, you might get someone from a similar walk of life to notice. I had other passengers come over and chat when they recognized my t-shirt, for example. That part is neat.

quite right.
Declining attendance from 2007 - present appears to be following a similar pattern of decline that started in '78 and not rebounding until 1997.

and keep in mind that the attendance highs of the late 70’s/early 80’s were still far and above the highs of the past decade or so and that another lost generation could be a death knell for the league.

One of the members of the ownership group is from Regina and is a Roughrider season ticket holder.

Link: http://www.riderville.com/article/rods- … 0305025133

ROD’S BLOG- MARCH 5TH
2015-03-05 00:00:00
Rod Pedersen is the play-by-play voice of the Riders. He is a weekly contributor to Riderville.com, sharing his point of view on news from the green and white.

It began as a pie-in-the-sky, wishing upon a star, that kind of thing.

While a group of us were visiting at a Saskatchewan Roughriders practice in early fall of last year, the topic came up of, “What would happen if we were to hold a Roughrider Night at an Arizona Coyotes game in Phoenix?

Many people would of course ask, “Why the Arizona Coyotes?? The question came up then and it’s been asked a lot since. The answer and the connection is easy, one of the owners of the Arizona Coyotes is a guy who lives on a farm just south of Regina, was raised in Regina and is a Roughriders season ticket holder.

His name is Gary Drummond. So after sending a message to Gary regarding our brainchild, he enthusiastically agreed that it would be a tremendous promotion for both teams and in late October we went to work on bringing it all together. A nice trip to Phoenix, out of my own pocket I might add, was a nice side bonus.

Suffice it to say that over 500 Rider fans showed up in Phoenix on Tuesday (March 3rd) to watch the Coyotes host the Anaheim Ducks, and a bursting at the seams tailgate party, no one is asking anymore why would these two franchises partner together.

And here today is a notebook of observations from five wonderful days in the Valley of the Sun:

  • This Riderville Tour stop in Phoenix wasn’t advertised nearly as much as other Rider fan get-togethers in CFL locales such as Ottawa, Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton or Winnipeg. The budget on this thing from a Roughrider perspective was very small and the Coyotes spent even less time and money on their end. It really only was a word-of-mouth type deal to see if an association between the two clubs was even worth pursuing.

  • If you read this blog regularly and follow the Riders on social media, you’d have known about the event. However if you are a snowbird living in the Phoenix area, this likely would have completely flown by your radar without notice. That will change.

  • The day before the event, forecasters warned of a flash flood and as it was, huge, heavy, cold rain drops penetrated the Glendale, AZ area, the home of the Coyotes. Several Rider Priders were coming to Arizona for the first time for this event, and Mother Nature certainly wasn’t giving an accurate portrayal of the climate at the time.

  • In meetings with Coyotes’ marketing staff on Monday, they informed Roughrider personnel that of the 348 tickets which had been purchased through their special promo code, half were residents of the Phoenix area while half were coming from Canada for the game.

  • As it would turn out, there would be over 150 more Rider fans that were completely unaware of the promo code and purchased seats elsewhere in Gila River Arena which would cause a “speckled green? look around the rink once the game faced off.

  • Some important information during that meeting with the Coyotes was filed away: the Arizona hockey team has two very strong members of the Rider Nation – head coach Dave Tippett (Moosomin, SK) and captain Shane Doan (Halkirk, AB). Duly noted.

  • It was cool and mostly cloudy on game day, Tuesday, for much of the morning however the sun came out mid-afternoon once Rider Priders started filtering into the adjacent Whiskey Rose Restaurant & Bar for the pregame tailgate party. The establishment is roughly 40 yards away from the front doors of the Gila River Arena.

  • The tailgate party, featuring Rider slot back Chris Getzlaf who was flown in from Anaheim for the event, wasn’t supposed to kickoff until 4:00 pm MT however the place was filled by 2:30.

  • Before long the place was jammed and all Rider fans couldn’t gain entry. They started to spill over into the 20 or so other area establishments. Whiskey Rose management would later tell us this was the most profitable ‘game day’ Tuesday in history.

  • And those in attendance weren’t the Generation Y crowd. In fact their generation is known as the “Baby Boomers? (people born between 1946 and 1964). There was a lot of grey – and white – hair around the temples of the folks coming in but these are perhaps the most-respected citizens of the Rider Nation. It’s pretty clear they’ve been with Canada’s Team before any of us were even around.

  • However when it comes to the Roughriders, some of these folks don’t act any differently than their younger brethren. When Getzlaf showed up and was trying to go live on air on the SportsCage, a huge rush of fans almost knocked over our broadcast location. A mob scene broke out. Duly noted: next time an autograph station with security should be set up. Who knew?

  • We love this older segment of Rider fans, but from a guy in my chair they can be rather hard to reach. For instance, one gentlemen named Harold is from Regina and comes down to Regina from October to April. How wonderful! But he was asking for updates on the Pats and Riders while I was setting up my radio gear for the SportsCage in the Whiskey Rose. I told him to go to my website daily and all the information is there. One problem: he never goes online. Ever. This would be a common theme of the snowbirds throughout the afternoon.

  • A lot of the Rider fans in attendance were only aware of Rider Pride Night in Phoenix because their kids and grandkids up in Canada called and told them. They seemed a little confused of what the whole idea was, but they dressed up in their Rider garb regardless (which they incidentally had with them for the winter!) and came out for the event. God bless ‘em.

  • And really, that’s what these Rider events are all about wherever we hold them whether it’s in north Regina, Saskatoon, Vancouver, Phoenix or Playa del Carmen, Mexico. It’s about getting Rider fans together. There’s one thing that ties all these people together, and it’s the Saskatchewan Roughriders. I didn’t hear much talk of the actual current team. I heard more talk of people saying where they’re from and that included: Langham, Weyburn, Semans, Saskatoon, Gull Lake, etc.

  • It was particularly heartwarming for me that on three instances, I saw people bump into each other that hadn’t seen other for 20 or 30 years. Each time they threw up their hands, had tears in their eyes and cried for joy! And incidentally they were all wearing the Riders’ Green & White.

  • The Coyotes staff was concerned that the Rider Priders would be cheering for the Anaheim Ducks because of the Getzlaf connection (Chris’s brother Ryan is Anaheim’s captain) but in truth, no one cared about the game’s outcome. It was about getting together with other Rider fans and being in the sunshine was a nice bonus.

  • The Ducks won the game 4-1 and the contest featured a spirited second period fight between team captains Shane Doan and Ryan Getzlaf. The game was also interrupted early in the second period as the Coyotes featured Chris Getzlaf on the video scoreboard at centre ice while the Coyotes public address announcer welcomed the Rider Nation. “Rider Pride? blared through the ample Gila River Arena speakers and it was a real reward, tingling moment for those who brought the event together.

  • And that was the easy part. We knew as soon as we worked out the details and went public, the Rider Nation did the rest and they certainly did.

  • Next year we’d like to at least double the attendance the Coyotes themselves have promised to market it more aggressively in the Valley. Initially they didn’t know what they were dealing with and that’s understandable. I wish I had a nickel for every local person in the crowd who asked, “Who are you guys??, “What is a Saskatchewan?? and “Who are the Roughriders??

  • That just makes us chuckle and the whole idea of these things is spreading the word of the Saskatchewan Roughriders and the Canadian Football League.

  • Maybe the next time the Roughriders get a rookie from Phoenix, he will have heard about us or the next time the CFL is shown on American TV, they’ll already know who we are.

Thanks for reading. Talk to you next week.

Well I would say that pretty much answers the OP's question of WHY.

Another example of Rider fans being obviously "the absolutely worse fan base in the league." according to the resident genius on this forum.

They’re definitely the biggest and most passionate fan base. As such, they will be both the best and the worst. Embrace it.

Interesting how this went from Rider Nation to Argos.

From a strong part of the CFL to the weak part.
Well, I hope they can " right the ship " pun intended.

Get it ? Arrrrrrrgoooos

At least they showed up for their own Cup in 2012.
Just need to get them out for the rest of the season.