What makes you think they are BS’ing their attendance figures, they sold out 2 games (35,650)last year and had a pretty solid crowd for the other game with only white section seats in the upper corners usually empty, and expect the numbers to be even greater this season at the end of may the President of the stamps has announced ticket sales are up 10 percent
If I'm not mistaken, the Cats' season tickets last year were in the 18000 range. If that's correct, then 16000 is a drop, but not as bad a drop as you might expect from a team that has missed the playoffs three years in a row (five of the last six), won just 12 games in three years, and has just increased prices in large portions of the stadium.
For many, many years Edmonton has led the CFL in average attendance. Could this be the year we see a new top dog? The Lions look like they are poised to take a serious run at the Eskimos. What do you think?
I think the Lions will do it.
kel
Larry Smith stated at the Alouettes State of Franchise call on May 29th, 2008, that Montreal has 17,400 season ticket holders and he would like to reach 18,000 with season ticket package in the End Zones.
Pretty good numbers considering that McGill has 20202 seats and will not play a regular season game at the Big O this year !
Apparently the Lions should be close to 40000 for the season opener.(according to Dupsdell hes up on that sort of thing)
That would be 7,000 more than last years opener. That would be awesome. I’m gonna have to start tellin people, i got at least 20 extra people in the stadium last year. Bring everyone you can everybody!
We must not have seen the same games… IIRC the free ticket promotion was for the Hamilton game. As for the other two, I know they could not have been more than 37k at most, even counting the few hundred tailgaters on field level. The endzone bleachers were not open, so it can’t really be called a near sellout, and the crowds at those two were not as numerous as the first game against the Riders or the LD rematch against the Stamps.
I should see what the attendance figures purport to be, I know this site has them.
EDIT: It seems I stand corrected caneskimos. I suppose one should always remember that many people spend the game walking around, at the concessions, etc…
the SK game was over 40k.
Montreal was just over 36k
Calgary at Labor Day was over 42k
That is indeed what the numbers say. The 3rd game over 40k and the extra people at the Hamilton game (number would probably have been lower without the free tickets for buying a burger at the previous game)were enough to push us up. Thats why we play the Riders more often than anyone, they truck the fans in no matter what. Although this year, they only come here once for regular season, while BC comes twice. So look for the average to be down, unless the disgruntled fans from last season are part of the surge in sales that the ticket office was mentioning.
After all the winning seasons and not missing the playoffs forever, the eskimos should never have an attendance problem unless the team is run really poorly. Sometimes your team just finishes last, i know i’ve been a Canucks and Lions fan since 86 when i think its about the earliest i can remember the team and i was always collecting Canucks and Lions stuff throughout those years. The Lions haven’t had near as successful years as the Eskimos, and there are many times where the Lions avg. Attendance is far above anything Edmonton can do.
You would be surprised at the number of fair weather fans in this city… always winning tends to breed the unrealistic expectation that always winning will always happen. You are absolutely correct that fans here have absolutely no reason to cause an attendance problem, but Eskie fans, well… some of them have taken Maciocia hate to a team level I suspect. 
It was Montreal because I only went to two games and the first one was the Montreal game where Ray beat Moons record. I took my neice and nephew to that game because of the free tickets they got from school. I would’ve went to more games but for most of the season I was in Fort McMurray working.
I remeber seeing most of the stadium being full except for the corners at the very top, but there was also alot of people standing and watching from that walkway on the south side of the Stadium and there where lots of people standing in the covered part of the stadium.
That was the night I got my Eskie blanket and it came in handy because it got cold that night. It took me forever to get my hands on the thing that night. I seen people walking around with Eskie blankets all night, and I asked everyone of them where they got them. Nothing was going to stop me from getting my blanket. I was totally shocked by some of their response’s because half of them said they got it through Avon. That made me scratch my head, a company that sells make up sells Eskie blankets now.
I remeber the guy smoking a joint outside the stadium aswell. I remeber that because there were two cops looking for the guy smoking the joint. They were scoping the whole place out looking for the guy and I sat there laughing my butt off because the whole time he was standing not even two feet in front of them.
I was looking forward to teasing my mom at that game(she is a hardcore rider fan) but the Eskies blew that lead and lost in overtime.
Anyone heard any new numbers?
Updates?
Winnipeg has sold 19,023 season tickets as of today according to an article in Slam Sports.
I read an article today in Slam Sports that said Edmonton has sold 23,500 season tickets this year and that was pretty well the same as what they sold last year. I would have thought it would be at least 25,000. It seems B.C.'s 25,000 are the highest this season.
I'd have thought so too, consider we have 33.5k and change for the preseason game. If we can get a 10k walkup crowd for preseason, maybe attendance won't be going down as it has a bit over the last few years. Provided we don't pull off another Hamilton-lite performance this Thursday.
I'll donate half the cost of a Bronze seat at Commonwealth to someone wanting to go to the game on Thursday, but who doesn't quite have the 25 bucks it costs up there now IIRC. That should bring attendance up.
Only one donation on offer though!
I guess the totals look roughly something like this....
BC 25,000
Edm 23,500
Skn 22,000
Wpg 19,000
Mon 17,400 (were hoping to hit 18,000 with new season ticket packages in the endzones)
Ham 16,000
Tor 14,000
Cgy ??? (I never heard any numbers from Cgy)