Ticket sales for game in Quebec City. Very poor

Media reporting that ticket sales for the event (managed by The Rouge et Or) are very slow. 2000 tickets only have been sold.

I was looking at attending but I couldn't see the value at that price point.

Well… If they ever needed proof that a team will NOT work in Quebec City, they’ve got it.

Atlantic Canada or bust.

Interesting that the Rouge et Or are managing the event.

Makes me wonder if they're just doing a half-baked job and poison the well for the CFL. But I've never seen this market really interested in the CFL, they support the Rouge et Or and want the Nords back and that's it.

That's the first thing I thought Mightygoose too. Rouge et Or - who are making a mint having that market to themselves - the last thing they would want is to become the little kid on the football block - which is what potentially could happen were Quebec to get a CFL team

What better way to make sure that never happens than to host an unsuccessful CFL preseason game. So how much effort are they actually putting into ticket sales - or did they intentionally price them too high understanding that market as they obviously do so well.

Yes you are right, I’ve said all along that there is not much interest in CFL football in Quebec. Ottawa would have been better off to hold a pre-season game at Carleton U

Definitely a conflict of interest.

It should have been Moncton. The Renegades were going to play a pre-season game in Halifax, but the game was cancelled when the team folded.

Hmm. It did get put together very late. Not sure what to make of it. Hunt and OSEG could have taken an easier route and played at Carleton or even at McGill.
I would not expect to see a CFL team in QC anytime in the near future.
OSEG has its ties on CIS in Ottawa for sure. Maybe not a CFL team but a CFL fanbase could be a step. There are so many more Laval and other QC area players now playing more and more throughout the CFL.
A whole generation of Quebec Football have grown up with return of Als, Start of Route et Or, expanding to Sherby and Caribans, and now Trois et Riveria.
Players as well as fans could be much more intersted in CFL games as a whole.
Pride in seeing players from your school, city, province, on National TV in pro football each week could gain more interest going forward.

Those numbers are terrible, but might the fact that it is a preseason game play some part in this? Hard to drum up interest in a game where all the starters will be out by halftime.

Will be interesting to compare Fort McMurray's sales to QC.

I have been monitoring somewhat the two games in Ft. Mac , the preseason game between EDM and Sask , sales are pretty good but not sold out , they were the first one out of the gate. The other, between EDM and Argo’s is a much tougher sell for some reason .

I am sure the Argo’s don’t care cause I believe they got a guaranteed price for the game from the organisers .

Interesting timing with the results from the Memorial Cup held in QC, and the Memorial Cup is a national championship at the highest level in Canada for Canada's no. 1 sport as most see it, at the junior level, as:

Quebec City Making Poor Case For NHL Return

[i]There is no way to sugarcoat this — Quebec City does not deserve an NHL team.

Not after its lack of support for the ongoing Memorial Cup.

A sparse, make that shameful crowd of 6,533 showed up to watch the host Quebec Remparts battle their arch-rival Rimouski Oceanic in a tiebreaker elimination game on Thursday. That should have been the hottest ticket in town since the Nordiques left. The Colisée Pepsi — with a capacity of 15,176 — should have been packed to the rafters, cramming in people like sardines for the third-to-last game ever played at the former home of NHL hockey. Heck, a high-stakes contest like that should have been a scalper’s paradise, with the entire province willing to pay double to witness it. We’re talking standing room only.

Instead, crickets could be heard from the bowels of the old building, which will give way to the shiny new 18,482-seat Videotron Centre following Sunday’s championship game between the OHL’s Oshawa Generals and either the WHL’s Kelowna Rockets or the Remparts, who lived to see another day by beating Rimouski 5-2 to reach today’s semifinal.[/i]...

[url=http://thehockeywriters.com/quebec-city-making-poor-case-for-nhl-return/]http://thehockeywriters.com/quebec-city ... hl-return/[/url]

Wow, that's shocking, and I fully agree with the article. Even the Bulldogs pulled more then that during points of their season for the last few years, never-mind a championship game. I fully believe if and when the memorial comes to Copps, the place will be packed.

As far as the Rouge et Or and the CFL game. It is what is is. Keep in mind that for years the Rogue et Or have been slagging the CFL and unless the league makes a big splash in QC, I doubt it's going to do well.

I fully believe that when the Rouge et Or finally start to do poorly, support is going to dwindle fast.

and yet the 2003 exhibition game (Ottawa vs Montreal) held at PEPS completely sold out with standing room only available.
There were 10,358 tickets sold and only 10,200 total capacity at the time. (capacity was later increased by 2,000 in 2008)

Having the Rouge et Or manage/market this upcoming game is akin to asking Mike Duffy to guard the buffet table or George Clooney to look after your wife during a business trip.
not a good idea.

why would the CFL allow the ReO to be involved considering the conflict of interest and potential harm for this region?
Makes no sense whatsoever.

Wow, this is bad.

As much as I hate to say it this makes me think a 10th team is at least a decade away.

Combine this with the last Moncton game where they reduced capacity and still could not sell it out, and there’s your answer about demand for CFL in Canada.

This combined with ratings and attendance trending down (still not bad) and the CFL can’t be too happy.

Where was this media report? Let me guess Roger's sportsnet perhaps.

Don’t think Mark Weightman works for Rogers.

Interesting that the major site for events in Qubec city does not even have the game listed on its front page, in fact I could not even find it, but I did not look long. You would think it would be right out in front

http://www.ticketofficesales.com/QC/Quebec-City-Tickets

Neutral-site games are a tough sell. Who do people from the host city cheer for? If the Argos and Als held a game in Hamilton, not many Ticats fans would go because they have no rooting interest. The Moncton games have featured Hamilton, Toronto, Edmonton, Calgary and Montreal. What if there are a lot of Rider or Lion fans in Moncton and the surrounding area? You can’t judge the viability of the CFL in Atlantic Canada based on poor numbers for a neutral-site game. Also, those games are seen as mini Grey Cups, with fans traveling from the cities the two teams are from. I went in 2011, but opted out of going in 2013 because I just went. Perhaps some Ticats fans felt the same way.

While I agree that a 10th team is some time away, I don’t view that as a negative. I would rather wait and get it right than rush it and watch it flop. The league is just getting healthy now with nine teams, so let’s get that all set before we start worrying about a 10th team.