Winnipeg Blue Bombers

[buzzg]

Originally Posted by Boreal

The CFL, in my estimation, is the lowest it's been in Winnipeg this millenium. I find there are far, far fewer people even casually interested then I've ever witnessed before.

I can think of many acquaintances that used to plan summer weekends around Bomber game days, and now they couldn't even tell you when the Bombers are playing, or who their upcoming opponent might be. That is perhaps, an unbelievable erosion of the fan base.

This is the key. People just realize that (even aside from the absolute garbage they've put on the field the last 5 years) the team seems to not give a crap about the fans, so the fans do the same back. What's worse is the excuse of "these fixes take time" is bogus since a team that was equally as bad as the Bombers 2 years ago and a 2 year old franchise are in the Grey Cup.

[esquire]

Originally Posted by Boreal

I hope this Grey Cup isn't a debacle. I'll settle for disappointment, vis a vis host city involvement, fan interest, etc.

The CFL, in my estimation, is the lowest it's been in Winnipeg this millenium. I find there are far, far fewer people even casually interested then I've ever witnessed before.

I can think of many acquaintances that used to plan summer weekends around Bomber game days, and now they couldn't even tell you when the Bombers are playing, or who their upcoming opponent might be. That is perhaps, an unbelievable erosion of the fan base.

I am hoping for the best for the Grey Cup, and the Blue Bombers Football Club, but my expectations are very low.

The Bombers have had a lot of challenges over the past 5-10 years including some beyond their control (stiffer competition for the sports dollar after the return of the Jets), some well within their control (remarkable football ineptitude for nearly a decade). That said, there is still a strong and large fanbase... it's clear that if the Bombers were at least competitive again, people would be willing to support them. The goodwill is there.

(In fairness, I wonder if some of the changes you notice in your peer group may just be a function of age? What you do as a young guy becomes harder to pull off 10 years later when there are more responsibilities tying up your time...)

[cutchemist42]

My opinion is that if the Bombers put out a more watchable product the attendance and interest would be there. I remember just last year when a 5-0 start resulted in the Thursday night sellout against Edmonton. They of course laid a dud in that game and people came away from that bummed. Of course the season fell apart as the start was flukey, and the games became not even watchable. (As a fan, its the worst seeing a game thats over by half which a lot of Bomber games are)

Only the Jets get the crowd support with a bad team in this city.

[bomberjet]

I would be inclined to attend more Bomber games if the off field BS wasn't so bad. A team like Ottawa, who may or may not have fluked it, are in the Grey Cup. After two season.. Yet the Bombers need more time, even more time, to build a team. They got rid of Bellefeulle. So that's good. But taking back Grey Cup tix, lol embarrassing.. Embarrassing is the key word to describe the Bombers. After 25 years with no Cup in an 8/9 team league.. I'm embarrassed for the good ole franchise.

[esquire]

Originally Posted by cutchemist42

Only the Jets get the crowd support with a bad team in this city.

The Jets have the benefit of still being in a honeymoon period as well as a little more fan patience given how it is generally seen to take longer to develop a winning NHL team, although if they remain mired in mediocrity there is no way that they'd be immune to increasing fan apathy. Mind you, they're still several years away from that happening, but if they go through a prolonged Edmonton or Toronto style playoff drought I can see it setting in here.

[rrskylar]

Union taking Bombers, CFL to court over cancelled contract

A local trade union is taking the Winnipeg Blue Bombers to court, claiming the organization influenced a decision to rescind a contract with the union to work the 2015 Grey Cup.

Local 63 of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees has filed a statement of claim in Court of Queen's Bench against the Bombers and the Canadian Football League, over working the Grey Cup Half-Time Show.

From the Freep

[esquire]

^ Meh... IATSE is just doing its thing. They had a protracted dispute with TNSE as well, as I recall.

[bomberjet]

A union for stage employees, wow. Didn't know such a thing existed. I guess there is big money to be made in the entertainment industry.

[Cyro]

^ Similiar to ACTRA

ACTRA (Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists) is the union of more than 22,000 professional performers working in English-language recorded media in Canada including TV, film, radio and digital media..

http://www.actra.ca/main/our-union/

From my perspective, lot's of $$$ to be made in the entertainment industry

[bomberjet]

Yes. Is the union for stage employees for the talent? Or for the stage hands, sound guys, etc?

[CoryB]

Originally Posted by Boreal

I hope this Grey Cup isn't a debacle. I'll settle for disappointment, vis a vis host city involvement, fan interest, etc.

The CFL, in my estimation, is the lowest it's been in Winnipeg this millenium. I find there are far, far fewer people even casually interested then I've ever witnessed before.

I can think of many acquaintances that used to plan summer weekends around Bomber game days, and now they couldn't even tell you when the Bombers are playing, or who their upcoming opponent might be. That is perhaps, an unbelievable erosion of the fan base.

I am hoping for the best for the Grey Cup, and the Blue Bombers Football Club, but my expectations are very low.

The Bombers definitely have a challenging time ahead. With the rush to secure Jets season tickets and a then new stadium just around the corner the Bombers season ticket base hit an all time high. The bad part of this is the peak in season tickets occurred about the same time as the team hitting an all time low on the field. Add into that mix the challenges of opening a new facility which were quickly resolved, especially on the traffic front, but those urban legends have now been etched into the minds of fans permanently.

To further compound the issue, the CFL's current TV deal no longer has black outs on local games and they are all broadcast pristine high definition letting you watch from your couch where the food and beer is cheaper and there is no lineup for the washroom every.

The on-field product from the Bombers has started to slowly turn the corner but has a long way to go to recover. The off-field side has started realizing the fans can't be taken for granted and actually frozen ticket prices for the first time in many years. If the Bombers can get the rapid transit station operational at IGF it should further help improve game day vehicle flow however it is going to take a long time to get people to try it again.

As for the Grey Cup, the on-field side looks like it could be a close game and one of the best games ever played at IGF. It will be interesting to see how it turns out on Sunday. Maybe next time Winnipeg hosts the Grey Cup the Bombers can finally play in the game at home.

[Cyro]

^^ ACTRA - performers | IATSE Local 856 ~~ Local 63 (mentioned above) - Theatrical, Techs, Stage Employees etc..
Unions involved in the Entertainment industry working together to create a production Grey Cup Half-Time show.. in this example..?

Anyway back to the Bumbling Blue..

[buzzg]

Originally Posted by bomberjet

Yes. Is the union for stage employees for the talent? Or for the stage hands, sound guys, etc?

For the stage hands and them. I know a few, they all hate the union. Unlike most unions, which fight for better pay and benefits etc, this one just fights for contracts periods and often the members get paid less (as shown by the low bid for GC). However they're so obnoxious (well, a union) so they fight their way into all the big events and venues so those people often have no choice but to go with the union and take a cut to ensure they get gigs at all. It's bad.

[rrskylar]

Originally Posted by buzzg

Fun fact: a week after offering each high school football team up to 50 tickets to the game, the Bombers called them all back and told them they could actually only have 35 tickets. So some of the coaches aren't able to go now. Really a bad look.

Where did you hear this? Link to the story?

[HomeInMyShoes]

I'm curious. How did Winnipeg handle season ticket movement into the new stadium. I know there is a larger capacity at the new facility, but how did they handle long time season ticket owners who like to sit together, but have separately purchased plans?

[esquire]

Originally Posted by HomeInMyShoes

I'm curious. How did Winnipeg handle season ticket movement into the new stadium. I know there is a larger capacity at the new facility, but how did they handle long time season ticket owners who like to sit together, but have separately purchased plans?

They did it based on seniority. It led to some griping because unlike CanadInns where nearly all the seating was between the goal lines, the seats at IGF are more evenly spread out around the field... the end result being there are far fewer seats between the 40 yd lines than before. This meant that some people who sat at the 50 were pushed out to the 30, etc.

In terms of handling groups that like to sit together, I don't know although I'm sure the Bombers accommodated requests where possible. They had a fair bit of flexibility.

[esquire]

Passed through the RBCCC over the noon hour, looks like Grey Cup fun is starting to rev up. For a fan like me it's pretty exciting to see the hoopla, and seeing players/media walking around. There are some historical exhibits and fan games to check out at the RBCCC, worth a look.

[CoryB]

Originally Posted by HomeInMyShoes

I'm curious. How did Winnipeg handle season ticket movement into the new stadium. I know there is a larger capacity at the new facility, but how did they handle long time season ticket owners who like to sit together, but have separately purchased plans?

There were lots of issues with the move. In the old stadium they had a limited number of club seats there were up relatively high around the mid field point. The new stadium significantly expanded club seats taking up most of the prime seats on one side of the field. Rather than offering people that would have transferred directly into those seats first refusal they sold out the club seats. Then as part of the transfer process they looked at how long people had held seats and located them in that process. This lead to lots of people being moved closer to the end zone.

Another issue was the old stadium had a fairly lively "student section" near one of the goal lines. As part of the move there was no plan initially to directly replicate that same experience. Instead there seemed to be some effort put into dispersing those fans throughout the stadium.

A third big issue was that in the old stadium the seats behind the end zone were the cheapest in the house. At the new stadium those seats were suddenly mid-price. This resulted in some other big changes as more price sensitive fans relocated. It also didn't help that the end zones at the new stadium are the only seats not under the roof over the stands.

The final issue is that fans needed to commit to their seat relocations before ever setting foot in the building. They had a rendering you could use to approximate the view from different seats but it had limited points too. So you could see from row 2 or row 8 but nothing in between. There were also some changes to the design as the build was being finalized. All told this led to fans being placed in seats with significant obstructed views. There are actually row 1 upper deck seats that are blocked from sale for everything except sold out games due to the obstructed views.

In terms of groups on separate accounts, on even the same account with multiple lengths of seniority, the team would accommodate moving them as a group but based on the lowest seniority. That means if you had seats somewhere for 20 years and added a recently vacated seat next to your old location two years ago your whole group would be placed in the two year seniority list instead of the 20 year one. The process also wasn't easy either if you only knew you sat next to "Bob" and you didn't have his phone number, last name, etc. It was often easier to just let those relationships go.

That said, the team is three years in now and game day is becoming much more routine. New friendships are being made and most of the people with the badly obstructed views have had their situations resolved.

[bomberjet]

There's a lot of people around downtown this week. Canadian celebrities.

For the Bomber tix, they accommodated your groups. If you purchased separately, you would put the other peoples names from your group in with your purchase. The Bombers would then link up everyone. But lots of long time season ticket holders felt slighted cause they were pushed to the end zones. Which is fair. As noted, Canad Inns had more seats on the sidelines.

[esquire]

I didn't know there were row 1 upper deck seats that were blocked off?! I regularly sit in the upper deck and I can't say that I ever noticed that.

The fact that endzone seats are pricier than the upper deck seats near the goal line makes no sense IMO. The cheapest seats offer better views than the end zone seats which cost roughly twice as much.