Does anyone else see this year as a very serious pivotal year for,the Cfl . Attendance is down
In 3 of the 5 western teams . Last night Edmonton only 26'000 fans - embarrassing - they have had. 3 home dates of less then 30000- never used to happen - BC and Calgary both 6 home dates of less then 30'000
The caliber has been mediocre this year at best for most of the games , the officiating or the lack of clear direction given to the officials how to call a game so,the ebb and flow is not destroyed has been dreadful
The threat of a players strike and really no fans really cared in great numbers if there was or was not a season. - I see no passion by the fans this year- The CfL does no real advertising or marketing for a so called major league - the Commish has been silenced all year ever since he lost the support from Braley , Young and
Wettenhal - there seems to be no vision - by players Owners or Governors . We have been out to sleep this year. I would think that the CFL needs a fantastic playoff run and Grey Cup this year or next year will be
very very tough to win back the fans not to even say anything of any new potential fans - the marketplace is so populated now by so much to do with your entertainment dollar and other things to watch on your HD big screen rather then 40 penalties and the new and fledgling Ref's Football League - if they don't get their act together now it may be too late
Attendance for most teams in most pro sports now have lower attendance in the Modern multi media era.
Even MLB teams have been building smaller capacity stadiums as baseball and football have moved out of the multi purpose stadiums and into stadiums specific to their sport.
As well the attendance may be down in the West, reno’s on these stadiums like Commonwealth, McMahon, Mosaic have have put more popular premium themed seating that have become popular and a bit more expensive than regular seats. As well these sections are more affordable to more fans than the original Suites have been added in previous years.
So less attendance does not mean less revenue.
football is a sport in which you could considered better to watch on TV and TSN has done a fnatastic job with really professional Broadcasts.
In turn the TV ratings went way up since TSN took over full time. Which in turn is turning into more corporate partners and sponsors for games continue to go up each year.
In addition, the CFL officials are ruining the game :thdn: :thdn:
Couldn't of been more than 1,000 at the Calgary game after half time yesterday. So much for Canadians loving their winter football. LOL
Calgary's fans ran from the snow faster than McFly ran from the King when he got caught eating McDonald's. Pathetic.
Was this a known fact, or just speculation? I might have missed the story when it came out.
You guys can lash out at the messenger all you want but Pressbox has been bang on in all of his posts.
urt
Officials taking there time to review plays, DOESN’T"T hurt me. I actually like it. Best to get it right me thinks.
Maybe the players in all sports including NFL which are have a new penalty record year should be more disciplined.
The refs are not making the infractions. Nfl has more penalties per game then CFL on a average.
So which way do you want in. Call the penalties or may call every 3rd penalty so we can have more TV commercials.
News item:: Players make penalty infractions. Get Real please
If it was actually “snow” it would have been great - nothing like a good snow game… slurpee being dropped on your head for three hours… not so much.
Ironically if it was 5 degrees colder there would have been a LOT more people there.
It has been an off for the CFL. There is no denying that. Having said that, there have been off years before and there will be off years again. All we can do is enjoy the CFL while we have it and hope the next generation has it as well.
I’ve heard this, every year, since I became a CFL fan. My guess, I will hear it every year until they put me in a box.
Reposted from the TV ratings thread. This was before this week, at the end of week 16
Consider that the Ti-Cats played 3 games out of Ron Joyce, whose capacity was 6,500, about half the capacity of Guelph's 12,000. So that in turn, pretty much sacrifices three of the 18,000+ games the Ti-Cats had this season to get us back to Guelph numbers of last season.
Since then the Ti-Cats had two games at THF, still running at reduced capacity of 20,000. So realistically the league lost 16,000 people going to games for the entire year (or an average of 250 fans per game), but you also have to consider Ottawa is back in the league playing out of a 24,000 seater as well, bringing the average down (as the average venue size is now lower, even though the total size is larger).
Realistically, the only major attendance hit has been the blue team, and to a lesser extent the Als at the start of the season, and that attendance number is likely going to be made up next year by THF being fully open. We just hope the great fans in Ottawa remain loyal.
This is a transition year in the CFL, IMO.
Many people held off on buying tickets - mainly season and flex pack tickets - due to the threat of a labour stoppage.
Hamilton played out of a dinky CIS stadium for a few games and even when they moved to THF, it was only partial capacity.
Ottawa's Lansdowne project won't be fully completed until next season as well.
Montreal took half the season to find their QB and the fans likely took a wait-and-see approach to buying tickets.
Toronto is still suffering through Braley's ownership and the Skydome experience. Hopefully that first part changes this off season.
Not to mention the last season under Commissioner Cohon.
Next year, everything will be better in both quality on the field and capacity in the stands.
The selection of Cohon's replacement will be critical.
Ottawa sold out every game this year even with construction still going on around the stadium. Hopefully the entire landsdowne park will be comlpeted and they have 9 (10) more sell outs nxt year, the same for Hamilton.
The league will be fine. They are right sizing their stadiums. Ham and Ott at 24 000. MTL at 23 000 with the removal of endzone seats in favor of a beer patio. Of course the West has larger stadiums to deal with the larger demand. Toronto needs a nice 25 000 seat stadium to follow the trend in the East.
What would the “threat” of a labour stoppage have to do with people not buying tickets? the threat was over before the season began.
As for the Lansdowne project, that has NOTHING to do with the stadium. Ottawa has sold out every game this year so I’m not sure what your point is, Ottawa could not have done any better. The condo building over looking the field and the shopping area and commercial area outside of the stadium are not finished, that was always the plan to open that up for 2015. The stadium was completed back at the beginning of July and was always on schedule for the July 014 opening.
I agree about Montreal, they will come out when the team is winning.
Toronto? enough has been said about that situation
Labour threat has zero to do with attendance . Most fans don't live and die with every second of the CFL . Had a huge amount of time to get seasons or flex packages. The excuses on this site for people don't show are ridiculous. Attendance in some cities has been trending down for the last few years. Calgary , Montreal , BC and Toronto has been awful for a long long time. Winnipeg averaged close to 30 k with a bad team. Not sure why excuses are made? it's on the people of their city to support their team. Montreal should have been sold out , for yesterdays pivotal matchup against Toronto. Not like 25k is a ridiculous number to attain .
Correction , I meant to say only Toronto has had awful attendance for a long period.
I tend to agree with this, and I will add that the game has been slowed by alterations in reffing standards, and that has hurt TV ratings a bit. I think the same is true for the NFL as well TBH. It will take some tuning…it was a huge shift for the long-term survival of the game.
Sask attendance was down because they lost a quarter of their capacity, Hamilton’s stadium opening late really hurt, and I think another issue was not playing divisional games much early on. Those get buts in the seats early in the season and force teams to get their act together on O more. I like that the 2nd half of the season has a lot more bite to it when the bulk of your divisional games are played there, but I also think there were a lot of adverse side-effects of it…play the first couple games out of division, then a few within it.
If they hadn’t there would be some huge red flags. Kudos to the fans sticking it out in a tough inaugural season, but I think capacity crowds was kinda an expectation for the new entertainment in town. I sure hope it continues!
People, such as myself, held off on making plans to attend CFL games this season due to the Labour threat. I couldn't book hotels for games I might not have been travelling to see.
I didn't buy my usual flex pack of tickets because I wasn't sure there'd be a season to watch. I only attended 2 games this season.
Hamilton fans held off of committing to purchasing tickets because they didn't believe that the stadium would be complete even if there was a season.