There were a lot of off-field happenings for the Hamilton Tiger-Cats this past season but it all added up to the club's worst attendance since Bob Young started signing the cheques three seasons ago.
Coming for 2007, a return to traditional yellow pants and no ticket price increase, hopefully.
But first, a look back. And it has to be said the Tabbies' 4-14 record didn't exactly make the team's front office effort any easier.
The Ticats averaged 26,730 at the gate, their worst attendance since Bob Young took over the club before the 2004 season began. Attendance before Young was about 14,000 per game in 2003.
The Ticat average was down about 1,500 per contest this year compared to the average Ivor Wynne Stadium crowd of 28,002 from the season before.
Going four consecutive home games without producing a touchdown will do that to an organization.
The Ticats averaged 27,843 in Young's inaugural season.
Still, Adam Provost, the club's vice-president of external relations, said he was pleased with attendance.
"I'm very happy with that number. You look at the season that we had, we had the one bad (weather) date and we weren't winning games," he said.
"I still think off the field we had a very successful season. We had just over 18,000 season ticket holders," he said, adding the Cat corporate sponsorship numbers remain solid.
The club's off-field performance got off to a rocky start when two Kingsgate Financial Wealth cheer team members were suspended from appearing in the club's first pre-season contest after they were photographed riding a sex toy on controversial shock jock Howard Stern's radio show. Both cheerleaders eventually quit the team.
"The two girls made a poor choice and made a mistake and paid a price," said Provost, adding both cheerleaders were personally embarrassed about how the planned promotion of a fitness event they were involved in went so awry.
"We did get off to a rocky start but sometimes with a football organization things don't go perfectly."
Provost adds the Cats unveiled a spectacular gold third jersey for the first time that drew an enthusiastic response. The same goes with the club's white helmet with a stylized tiger head logo that was unveiled on Labour Day. Unfortunately, the all-white translated to no-fight as the Cats were trounced by the Argos.
And here is something for Cat fans to look forward to. The club plans to return to their traditional yellow pants for next season instead of the whites that have been the fashion in recent seasons.
And here is another piece of good news. While a final decision must still be made, Provost hints that season ticket-holders and single-game-day ticket purchasers will be spared a price increase for 2007.
"Do I see ticket prices going up? In all honesty I do not," Provost said.
Meanwhile, The Tiger-Cats will have a presence at the Grey Cup festivities in Winnipeg next month. Beginning Nov. 16, the organization will host a nightly Tigers-town party at the Winnipeg Convention Centre.
