Gridiron Meaning
Tough day for CFL supporters, this is.
How do they explain away the full house, or close to full house, at the Rogers Centre for the Bills and Redskins on Sunday, an enthusiastic full house, at that? Even if you accept the general wisdom that the house is papered, you still have to get the people to go, and there is no way on earth the Argonauts could ever dream of attracting an audience like that for a regular season match.
If you believe the customer is always right, and if you believe that the actual bodies in seats at Argo games have been dipping below five figures, then there's some rather direct messages being sent here.
One, the public doesn't like what the Argos are selling (who would?). Two, they will buy (at astronomical prices) tickets for a non-Toronto NFL team. Three, there's a larger football appetite in the city ready to be serviced if somebody - the CFL, the NFL, the Argos, the Bills - can figure a way to service it.
The Argos, ever since David Braley bought the team, have faded into near irrelevance. It's almost as if once it appeared the Bills in Toronto Series was unlikely to be a direct and damaging threat to the CFL in southern Ontario, the Argos stopped trying, or at least trying as hard as they had during the David Cynamon/Howard Sokolowski/Keith Pelley years.
That doesn't mean there isn't an appetite for the Argos out there., however. It was interesting that my 13-year-old son went with his friend to the game and had a blast. They found the whole NFL atmosphere in a packed stadium thrilling. But what souvenir did they buy and bring home? Argo caps. I'm not precisely sure what that means, other than predicting the consumer habits of 13-year-old boys is pointless, but it suggests they haven't ruled out in their minds the possibility that the Argos and CFL might be a product that interests them.
So again, there's an appetite for football out there in the GTA. On Sunday, it was fed by the NFL and the Bills. Theoretically, the Argos could do the same, or something similar, but they would have to work a lot harder to make it happen, certainly a lot harder than they're working now.
A great deal of faith seems to have been placed in the notion that the 100th Grey Cup game in Toronto next season will heal all wounds, or at least make Toronto CFL-centric long enough for Braley to cash in on the big game for a second straight year. And maybe the 2012 Grey Cup will be a huge success.
Next year, however, it will be juxtaposed more directly with the final game of the Bills in Toronto Series. That's a comparison the CFL will want to ensure shines a favourable light on its product or the football market in these parts could change for good.
You want Gridiron meaning? Try 1,500 fans at a High School Football game in Grande Prairie Saturday where the Comp Warriors won their Semi Final game 40-0 a week after 4 players died in a collision caused by an alleged drunk driver. That Damien is GRIDIRON MEANING! Touchdowns were worth $1,100 & Field Goals $750. $10,000 raised for the Warrior Memorial Fund that way PLUS another 19K from a silent Auction that included 2 Grey Cup tickets put up by CFL Comish Cohon! So proud of the way our City of 55,000 has come together through this tragic time.
Posted by: Randy Pike Q-99 News | October 31, 2011 at 11:37 AM
I've been to both an Argos game and an NFL game at the Rogers Centre and can say that the NFL just puts on a better show.
at the NFL game the in house pa announces plays clearly...
at the Argos game the in house pa was so busy either announcing pizza pizza contest winners or "don't forget to buy a 50-50 ticket" that the game had started unbeknownst to the crowd. Within 10 seats of myself I heard at least 4 conversations along the lines of "Hey we missed the kickoff..."
The whole NFL atmosphere is about the game while the CFL atmosphere the game almost seems like it's something to occupy the crowd while they cue up the next marketing video on the Jumbotron. It really does get silly
And I'm sorry but the whole 3 down thing is just awful, I once got into a debate about CFL Vs NFL rules and got the standard, "CFL doesn't need 4 downs to score.." my response "When 3 Argos score in 3 downs, let me know"
"And here comes the punting unit..."
Posted by: mike stewart | October 31, 2011 at 01:37 PM
I guess I just don't see the CFL making any effort to get fans interested.
I mean other than History this, or Legacy that...
I never see the league (in toronto) trying to make it seem like it might be fun to see the argos play.
On top of all this the Rogers Centre really wasn't built for football at all.
Posted by: mike stewart | October 31, 2011 at 01:40 PM
I believe it was only packed because most media outlets were giving away tickets....not because they were sold out...I am pretty sure the star wrote about that last week.
Posted by: sjc2yyz | October 31, 2011 at 02:43 PM
The problem with the CFL is it is now a minor league. There isn't one player in the CFL that would stay here instead of playing in the NFL. When the CFL was at its peak in popularity in the 70s and 80s, salaries were higher and players wanted to come to Canada. Now with the ridiculously low salary cap and the CFL's cheap, penny-pinching ways (that we see on TSN every week) we have no real stars here. Face it, the last top level player to really excel here was Doug Flutie.
For the CFL to become relevant once again it has to start handing out million dollar contracts to top talent and hope that by investing in an exciting game it will build value, much like what we've seen with the Yankees in baseball and the Premier League in UK soccer.
Unfortunately, we have too many people here who are penny-wise and pound foolish. Just like so many things in Canada, they automatically assume paying for talent is a waste of money. No one here thinks that we could have a great second-tier league and sell the TV rights for big money to a cable network in the States and maybe ratchet up interest here in terms of ratings and attendance. The big money people here have already decided we're second rate, and of course the fans here are the bad guys because they don't want to pay major league prices to see a minor league product.
Posted by: the truth | October 31, 2011 at 04:47 PM
If the NFL played a full season here it might be a different story. With 1 NFL game it is an event and a spectacle. I still managed to buy tickets from scalpers for less than face value.
Posted by: Justin | October 31, 2011 at 10:11 PM
If the Argonauts could spend the million-plus dollars that Rogers spent promoting and advertising the Bills game, then the Argonauts would draw more fans. If Toronto sportscasters wore Argos jerseys on-air instead of Bills jerseys like I saw this weekend, then the Argonauts would draw more fans. Actually, forget the jerseys -- if there was a single sportscaster or writer who made a case as to why Canadian football was worth watching, then the Argonauts would draw more fans.
For example, why hasn't any sportswriter corrected the widespread notion that the relative quality of CFL vs. NFL players is reflected in their respective salaries? Why is nobody telling Canadians that the NCAA football factory produces far more good football players than there are job openings in the NFL, and that CFL starters are virtually interchangeable with the second-stringers on NFL rosters? I hear people say that "if CFL players were any good they'd be in the NFL", but this is making the assumption that player evaluation is an exact science. The fact that so many NFL 1st round draft picks turn into busts proves that player evaluation is often a crapshoot, which makes it easy to believe that some very good players fall through the cracks and come up to Canada to play. If more people were told this then the Argonauts would surely draw more fans.
Posted by: Beacher | October 31, 2011 at 11:13 PM
Sure Rogers can't sell the tickets and is losing milions on this thing, but Cox has to do his best to put a positive spin on it. So here we are!
The NFL's not coming north, folks. It's too expensive and there simply isn't enough people willing to pay these prices to watch it.
Posted by: Tridus | November 01, 2011 at 11:38 AM
Two problems with bringing NFL to Toronto in the near future
1) Skydome er Rogers Centre is too small for the NFL. They have rules in place for the size of stadiums and if I remember correctly they are about 5000 seats short. If the NFL were to waive that rule, ticket prices would still have to be sky high to bring in the necessary revenue. They'd be competing with 75000+ seat stadiums so would have to raise ticket prices significantly. As a poster noted above a single game is an event, let's see if people dish $200/ticket out for a full season
2) Price of moving the team. Well the Maple Leafs haven't exactly been snapped up even though they are on the auction block for what, a year plus now? NFL teams are substantially more expensive than that. think $800+ million territory, or is someone expecting Ralph Wilson's family to donate the Billls Franchise north of the border?
Posted by: Guelphdad | November 01, 2011 at 11:58 AM
It's a tougher day to be an NFL fan, Damien, why? Because this Buffalo Bills game has once again proved to be a dud. No one in their right mind is going to pay the prices an NFL team would command. As for the Argos bad attendance it has more to do with the lousy product on the field than anything else right
now. Keep dreaming (and sugar-coating) Damien!
Posted by: steve gormick | November 02, 2011 at 03:46 PM
Why are people still complaining that NFL tickets are too high, they play 16 games! Leaf tickets are higher than that with a 45 game home season, building has been sold out since 1931. Price of tickets is a non issue.
Posted by: Gary | November 03, 2011 at 04:57 AM