IBL has 8 teams, 3 stadiums 1500 or under, a few in the 2000-3000 range and London at 5200. Attendance is typically a lot less of course, other than the special events, like Canada Day in London where it's full because of the fireworks next door. Both the IBL and WCBL have a few former minor league affiliated ballparks in use.

I can't see leagues like this playing each other though. Neither league plays on a regular daily basis like minor league baseball does, and they don't generate a ton of cash. It would be very difficult to see them travelling to other parts of the country to play each other. IBL teams are concentrated in southern Ontario (they did have a team in Ottawa for a short time) and it takes at most a couple hours to travel. They go, play, and come home. Can't see them making enough money to take extended road trips. Not to mention, if you start playing more than a couple times a week the players will need to be paid.

Eskimos post $2.8M profit for the 2018 season
3Down Staff May 7, 2019

The Edmonton Eskimos posted a profit of $2.8 million from the 2018 season.

That’s up significantly from 2017 when the Eskimos made $431,638 and even the 2016 total of $1.4 million.

The Esks held their annual general meeting on Tuesday and made the full financial details known.

Edmonton hosted the Grey Cup in 2018 which generated an economic impact of over $81 million for the city and the Eskimos benefitted from having the CFL title game.

"Toronto’s Game 5 victory over the Philadelphia 76ers soared to 1,333,000 overnight, estimated viewers on Sportsnet — a new high for B-Ball coverage this playoff season."

https://brioux.tv/2019/05/numbers-in...-ratings-roll/

"TORONTO (May 13, 2019) Basketball broadcast history was made last night as 5.8 million Canadians watched some or all of the Toronto Raptors vs. Philadelphia 76ers nail-biting Game 7 on Sportsnet. A record-breaking average of 2.2 million viewers tuned in, making it the most-watched NBA game ever in Canada."

http://media.sportsnet.ca/2019/05/sp...ver-in-canada/

2.2M average is right around where I thought it would be. The 1.3M average for the series is also a good number.

I bet you could add maybe 50,000 more with online streamers. I don't know a single person my age who's watching the game at home on cable. The vast majority of university students are also streaming through various legally questionable platforms.

Official streaming numbers (IE, via legal means) are usually up to 10% of the total viewers on TV but usually between 4%-8% if Canadian figures are similar to American, so Raptors game 7 would have had maybe 100K official streams or thereabouts as an average.

Illegal streams are probably a similar figure if not higher. Everyone my age knows how to find a stream of basically any sporting event imaginable. :hmmm:

Reddit has subs dedicated to streaming literally anything. You can watch a 24/7 stream of HBO in HD nowadays.

The quality people upload in compared to even 5 years ago is insane. Sports were the primary reason for many people to hold onto cable packages for the longest time. Now it's pretty much moot.

What makes the numbers even more impressive is that Game of Thrones cut into the last roughly 30 minutes of the game for many viewers.

It's pretty extraordinary how far things have come in the last five years or so. Yesterday I was able to watch a League Two (UK fourth division) playoff match between Forest Green and Tranmere on DAZN, a match I would have never had the opportunity to either stream or find online five years ago. Tomorrow OneSoccer will be streaming all three matches of the Canadian Championship from Vaughan, Blainville, and Victoria, three matches which wouldn't have even had video a couple of years ago. And those are just the legal streaming operators... :P

The ironic thing is that the ability to watch pretty much any sporting event on TV or online (legally or illegally) is available at a time in my life when I don't watch much sports any more. Would've loved to have these options when I was 25 and younger.

I still find the process a bit of a pain.

I didn't bother with a Sportsnet subscription because there is little on that channel that interests me aside from the odd Jets game. But for those Jets games, I would occasionally find streams via Reddit. But half the time there was something wonky, or feeding it to my Chromecast was an issue, the feed would just die, or some other problem would present itself. When it actually worked it was great, but so much of the time it wouldn't.

Maybe there is some secret trove of reliable quality streams out there, but in my experience it's isn't that great a method.

Never a problem for me, but I used an HDMI cable over a Chromecast, which can cause lag regardless of how good your stream is.

Better to run a no-script extension on chrome which cuts out a lot of the noise on questionable streaming sites.

Heh, heh, got to agree with that.

I use Kodi with a dedicated laptop connected to the TV via HDMI and a wireless keyboard on the couch. That's about as uncomplicated and reliable setup as you can get. I went from about 100 Kodi addons to about 20 now that I have learned something about Kodi. What's also amazing is the amount of free, legal (cleared) content you can access. If I VPNed I'd have even more, but I am stuck on the principle of no payments (aside from the Internet connection). After all if we pay for a VPN we might as well pay for the cable.

Locast in the US is very interesting, it's slightly different from Aereo (non profit) USTVNow and CBC Gem work very well for me and I watch a lot of NFB stuff and Youtube through Kodi (access my subscriptions)

Adding to this:

https://brioux.tv/2019/05/numbers-in...-2-2m-bonanza/

Hockey gets the benefit of being split between Sportsnet & CBC...Raptors get Sportsnet & Sportsnet One+ when they're broadcast on more than one channel.

Raptors v Bucks

Game 2 (TSN): 925K
Game 3 (SN/SN1): 1.67M

https://brioux.tv/2019/05/numbers-in...ay-square-off/

Surprisingly low for a Friday night game 2. I think people were/are jaded on the Raps chances of making it through.

Ticats’ Grey Cup plan is outside-the-box thinking at its best
Josh Smith 3downnation May 25, 2019

https://i.imgur.com/db18j23.jpg

Getting a Grey Cup isn’t exactly the easy part these days, but putting on a good event is definitely the hard part.

While many things still need to be figured out, and the team has almost two years to do that figuring, the Hamilton Tiger-Cats unveiled some of their game-day plans for the 2021 Grey Cup this week. And it’s definitely something we have not seen before.

The biggest and most ambitious reveal is what they are calling the Grey Cup Social. Basically, it looks like a massive, standing-room-only setting in the south end zone of Tim Hortons Field. It will feature pregame concerts, the “CFL Food Experience” and it will be where the halftime show and Grey Cup trophy presentation will take place.

It’s a unique experience, to be sure, but one that fits in with what the Ticats have been doing since moving into Tim Hortons Field. The Ticats have made common areas a big part of their marketing to get people to come to games. There is the Stipley, which is a massive bar area in the same south end zone where the Grey Cup Social will take place, and the Coors Banquet Bar. The concept seems to take those ideas, sprinkle in a little of the Raptors’ Jurassic Park, and what you get is the Grey Cup Social.

The Ticats will also be doing traditional things, like adding additional seating in the north end zone and adding some premium sideline seats on the east side. All in all, these additions will get the capacity up to around 33,000.

The Ticats are going with fresh, innovative ideas to boost attendance for the league’s biggest game. Tim Hortons Field seats a capacity of 23,500, so something needed to be done to increase capacity for the Grey Cup.

The CFL Food Experience is something that I think will be a big hit (CFL fans like food… or so I have been told). As I have talked about before when discussing Hamilton’s Grey Cup ambitions, the food scene in Hamilton is Masoli-level elite. Adding that into the overall Grey Cup presentation is a genius idea. Adding the twist of having local chefs prepare foods that represent each CFL city is going to make this a must-attend aspect of game day.

While I am sure many would have liked the team to take the traditional stance of adding bleachers to the end zone, I applaud the Ticats for thinking outside the box, something they have done a lot of over the last half-decade.

Whether any of these creative ideas will work is yet to be seen, but the Ticats are trying something new — new for fans across the league, not new for the team — and that is to be commended.

Update on the Alouettes situation from Dave Naylor:

https://www.tsn.ca/cfl-wants-guzzo-a...ttes~1.1311006

This section partially resolves past discussions we've had on this forum:

Given what we know of operating costs and revenues from other CFL teams it's hard to imagine how the Als lost that much money in that short of time. I don't think their operating costs are high enough to warrant such steep losses.

There's also the possibility of the Als playing one game a season in Quebec City if Guzzo ends up owning the team.

The Argos are playing a preseason game for school kids and that’s pretty cool
John Hodge 3downnation May 26, 2019

A quick look at the CFL preseason schedule reveals an interesting quirk in southern Ontario.

The Alouettes and Argonauts are slated to play on Thursday, May 30 in Toronto. That’s not the weird part.

What’s odd is that the game is scheduled to kickoff at 11:00 AM ET.

That’s strange. And it gets weirder.

The Argos don’t appear to be selling tickets to the game on their website. The club’s schedule includes an icon for tickets sales but it merely redirects to the ticket page that makes no mention of a preseason game.

The game does not appear on BMO Field’s website, either. You can access the game on Ticketmaster but there don’t appear to be any tickets for sale.

“Oh no! These tickets went fast and we’re unable to find more right now,” says a banner on the webpage.

What’s strange is that the venue map doesn’t resemble BMO’s regular season seating configuration. It’s… odd.

A google search led me to a press release from early last month — one I clearly missed — that explains why the circumstances surrounding Toronto’s preseason game are so abnormal.

The Alouettes and Argonauts are playing a game at Varsity Stadium for a group of school kids. And that’s pretty awesome.

Varsity Stadium is a fantastic venue, located downtown on campus at the University of Toronto. It houses approximately 5,000 seats, most of which should be filled with school-age children when the Argos kickoff their preseason.

The game isn’t pure charity — the tickets aren’t being given away, but sold at $20.00 apiece — and some are being held back for season ticket holders.

Even so, this is a cool initiative for a team that desperately needs to entice new, young fans. The Argos’ most recent preseason game at BMO Field drew just 5,532 fans and there’s little reason to believe this year’s contest would have drawn more. Why not try something new?

This is a neat initiative that may play a small role in increasing Toronto’s ticket sales in the long-term. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

With the success of the Raptors (sure to set new Canadian viewership records in the finals), I think the time is ripe for the NBA to return to Vancouver.

Have not followed the NBA that closely until this year (kids are huge BB fans now), so not sure how the league works all that much - but from what I read is that expansion is possible (or relocation..?). I'm sure Seattle would get a team back before YVR, but the NBA is one of the 3 most popular pro leagues in NA to watch - so I do think they will (need) take advantage sooner or later with an expansion.

If Vancouver want an NBA team it will presumably be an expansion team. The price will probably start at $1 billion US. Who would be the prospective owners?

Rogers and Bell of course.

They already own a team, not allowed to own another. You'd need one to buy out the other of the Raptors and good luck getting them to figure out who stays and who goes. And Bell's first priority for a new team will be getting behind the Expos hoped for rebirth in Montreal (nothing has obviously been said officially on that, but Bell isn't stupid, they've seen what Rogers owning the Jays has done for their various platforms).

Well, I guess the obvious answer would be the Aquilini family - they already have the arena. They could bury the hatchet (over the Canucks purchase) and partner with the Gaglardi family (owners of the Dallas Stars).

Maybe Chip Wilson could get involved, too. He could pony up a billion on his own I'm sure - but he would also need to build a new arena.

I don't think Pattison, or the Lalji or Louie families would be interested.

Marketing the Argos

Here are a few posts from the Argos Mike Hogan hinting as to what is going on behind the scenes

If your definition of marketing is putting an ad in the paper or an ad on the radio, that's not the best bang for the buck anymore. The targeting of specific groups, school kids and young athletes, is something that needed to happen in this market and is long overdue. The connection to the Toronto Flag Football League is targeting young athletes who already have an interest in the sport, now we have to get them interested in our brand, team and league. The same goes for the pre-season game, it's an effort to get kids exposed to the Argos at an impressionable age...the same as many of us were. It's the same with our effort to get free footballs into the hands of kids. The more they play, the more inclined they'll be to become fans of the sport.

I think the people on the social media side have done a great job of keeping fans informed and entertained over the off season. I feel our Argonauts.ca content has kept fans informed of what's being done on the Xs and Os side, more so than in other off seasons.

The goal is to get people to become long-time fans. Without getting into specifics, our research shows if we can get people to a game, there's a good chance they'll come back. If we can get them to come out 3-4 times the odds are really good that they'll keep coming back on a regular basis.

The goal is to make going to an Argo game the best sporting event in the city for fans (I think it is now, but the goal is to make it even better). Be patient, I think you'll like what we have in store for this year.

This is the first full off-season for us to do a plan for a season. I've seen what's gone on behind the scenes and it's impressive. If you think MLSE is in this for the short term, you're wrong. The goal is to make this team a success on and off the field year after year after year.

What our ticketing department did last year with a 4-14 team and essentially three months lead-up to the season was astonishing. After Labour Day there was no walkup crowd, based mostly on the team's record, but overall the paid attendance still went up. There are some incredibly hard-working people with some great ideas busting their rear ends to make this team a success at the gate. Let them work their magic.

I love your passion and your desire to see more splash, but this is not a short-term turnaround in the market, and everyone I work with is aware of that. I hope you continue to work with us, not against us, to make that happen.

...

We'll obviously pump things up when the season starts. James Wilder Jr, for example, is throwing out the first pitch at the Jays game tomorrow.

Ticketing is targeting new Canadians in terms of group sales. Football can be a difficult sport for newcomers to understand, not just new Canadians, but people unfamiliar with the sport. The goal is to start making a dent with different groups within the GTA's fantastic ethnic gumbo. There's no more "Canadian" event than the Grey Cup, something we're stressing to those groups. Other events are planned as well, again, I'm not going to jump any announcements here.

So...long answer short, we're trying to get a toehold this year so the interest in those communities grows going forward.

As for the interplay with our other properties, the Leafs, Raps etc, the plan is to better cross-promote franchises. That's something that has definitely been talked about and I can guarantee you it's going to improve over time.

It was under the radar, but Derel Walker was flown to Toronto the opening night of free agency. He spent the next night at a Raptors game in a private box with Wilder, Lemon, Edwards, Darby and the personnel guys. The money was significant, but that event helped put him over the top. He cancelled two other planned visits the next day and agreed to the Argos terms. That MLSE connection with the Raps may have sealed the deal.

Much of the stuff being done is directly with a targeted group and wouldn't be visible to the masses. We'll get a lot more visible closer to the season. We just had a meeting to go over what's planned for written content for Argonauts.ca and some of the social media content...I'm going to be a busy boy this season and am energized by that.

I hope you trust me...I'm not BSing you at all. Things will be announced in the days and weeks ahead. I hope you can lure some of your pals back to BMO Field so they can experience some of the improvements. I can honestly say this is a great time to be an Argos fan.

Pull Together

Raptors & Bucks, Game 6 = 3.1M combined average viewers on Sportsnet & Sportsnet One. Nearly half of the viewers were on Sportsnet Ontario.

Audience peaked at 5.3M during the end of the game.

Three Raptors game from the Bucks series averaged 2.1M on Sportsnet, a 77% increase over the Conference Final against the Cavaliers in 2016.

---

Canada/Czechs on Saturday had 442K on TSN.
Jays/Padres on Saturday had 256K on SN.

https://brioux.tv/blog/2019/05/27/nu...all-benchmark/

Vancouver trying set up "Jurrasic Park West" by Thursday. Realize no ssp forum folk will be there ;-) but I guess there's some fans in the area.

I know, I know... just a marketing ploy to get the city Grizzlies redux.

That is cringeworthy... watching it in a sports bar or whatever is one thing, but Jurassic Park West... yikes.

While ratings are soaring in Canada for the Raptors, I’m interested to see how they fair in the US. I’d be inclined to think they would be some of the worst just due to the fact a foreign team is playing and yet another Warriors final... Or maybe they will still be decent due the fact Leonard has been playing so well. Anyone have access to ratings from the US for game 6 of the conference finals?

See:

https://www.sportsmediawatch.com/201...game-five-tnt/

It's not doing too badly considering one of the team's local markets doesn't factor in to the national figures.

A good resource:

https://www.sportsmediawatch.com/nba...stern-western/

Are the Toronto Raptors like a “college sports team” as Drake eludes to? Why would Drake elude to the Toronto Raptors as a “college sports team”? I don’t quite understand his statement. Is it because of the excitement of the city for its pro trean making it to the finals? “College sports team” is not how anyone would have described the excitement of Calgary during the Flames cup run in 2004, which was completely indescribable. I’m wondering what sets Toronto apart for Drake to label Toronto as a “college sports team”?... maybe just too many beers?

Good question. Kind of an odd comparison, but I'll throw this out there. Jurassic Park, which is where he was when making that statement, is akin to ESPN College Gameday for football and basketball, both of which I attended at Michigan State. Fun times. Don't know of any other NBA city that has a Jurassic Park of their own.

https://imagesvc.timeincapp.com/v3/f...sc&w=850&h=560
https://tipofthetower.com/2016/05/27...ge-real-thing/

http://www.rantsports.com/nba/files/...NBA-Canada.jpg
http://www.rantsports.com/nba/2014/0...rated-fanbase/

https://images.thestar.com/Y75_MyCzL...y25-001jpg.jpg
https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/201...ssic-park.html

https://storage.tvasports.ca/v1/dyna...7,5x&version=1
Crédit : USA TODAY Sports

https://images.thestar.com/mJVBy3tr5..._190525_26.jpg
https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/201...-concerns.html

https://assets.sbnation.com/assets/5..._7665749_n.jpg
(Credit: Peter Armstrong)

https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.town...19b9.image.jpg
https://www.richmond.com/sports/coll...5ffc654.html#1

https://cdn.herosports.com/upload/po...506869862.jpeg
JMU ATHLETICS

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/t2KJ3PiGZr8/maxresdefault.jpg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2KJ3PiGZr8

Apparently ratings for Raptors games on RDS have been running in the 250-300,000 range since and including the night with The Shot.

Highest they've ever been I am sure.

Another @Raptors win, another broadcast record!

Last night's Game 1 of the #NBAFinals on @Sportsnet reached 7.4M Canadians and captured an average audience of 3.3M viewers, making it the most-watched #NBA game ever in Canada

#WeTheNorth

https://twitter.com/SportsnetPR/stat...46487520763904

RE: Raptors Game 1.

Wow 7.4m is a big time number. I was guessing 5-6M for viewers, I am very surprised.

TSN numbers for Raptors/Warriors Game 2:

• 4.3M average audience between TSN/CTV2/RDS (3.2M on TSN)
• 10M+ unique viewers
• Audience peaked at 6M near end of game
• In Toronto, the game had a share of 68% on TSN and CTV2, meaning that more than two thirds of all people watching television in Toronto on Sunday night were tuned in to the game.
• Additionally, TSN’s live streaming coverage of Game 2 attracted nearly 100,000 video starts across the network’s digital platforms, including TSN.ca and the TSN app.

Most watched sporting event in Canada in the past year after the Super Bowl.

https://www.tsn.ca/game-2-becomes-mo...wers-1.1316165

Every game is breaking records so far but I wouldn't be surprised to see a dip tomorrow. Mid-week game coming off a loss where a lot of casual viewers might think the Raps now get reverse-swept after pulling off the initial upset.

That truly is amazing. Cool to see. I’m hoping TSN pulls in better ratings for the games they show compared to SN. TSN is overall a better sportscaster than SN, in my opinion.

Hands down. SN has been around for a long time now but it still feels like they just started up last month whenever I watch them. I really hope the Jets renew their regional broadcasting deal with TSN so I can continue to avoid SN as much as possible...

The Raptors had the 4th highest attendance in the league this past season. Not bad out of 30 teams.

And only 600 a game less than #1, Philadelphia. Both Toronto and Philly played to better than 100% capacity, so it would be interesting to see who finishes ahead if each team had the seats to sell. Of course, Dallas at number 3 played to 104% so they might have been at the top if they had the seats to sell. Chicago, I think, has the largest arena in the league and played to 96% on average. If the Raps still played in the dome though (and still somehow managed to have this team lol), they would have blown everyone away lol.

Saturday:
Bruins/Blues Game 3: 1,685,000 (CBC & SN)
Jays & Rockies: 226,000 (SN1)
Ti-Cats/RBs: 203,000 (TSN)

Sunday:
Raptors/Warriors Game 2: 3,191,000 (TSN)
Jays & Rockies: 312,000 (SN1)

Monday:
Bruins/Blues Game 4: 1,921,000 (CBC, SN, & SN1)

https://brioux.tv/blog/2019/06/04/nu...anley-v-kawhi/

Tom Mayenknecht is reporting 3.8M average audience for last night's Raptors/Warriors Game 3.

Anecdotally, I thought a 9PM EST start on a Wednesday meant it would be easy to find a bar to watch the game at and...at 8:30 it was pretty tight. Managed to squeak a table, but it was pretty busy.

Game 4 Friday night is going to be insane in the various "Jurassic Parks" springing up in various cities. Especially if the weather is nice. Those, and the bars, are the big difference in the ratings. Huge numbers however they are measured, but I think there are a hell of a lot more people actually watching.

Team values are based on more than just TV ratings. The world doesn't revolve only around TV ratings. They're a fun indicator but they only glean light on one small corner of a team's public presence.

MLS team valuations are based on market value, corporate presence, brand integrity, along with all of the other normal sport indicators. TFC aren't valued highly based on their domestic TV ratings or attendance - they're valued highly because they're getting a slice of the MLS pie, and the MLS' market value is increasing on a yearly basis. The league is signing corporate deals in the hundreds of millions, including sponsorship and apparel deals, and owners are willing to spend hundreds of millions to get a piece of that pie via expansion. Adidas signed a deal worth $700M to be the league's jersey provider. Kit sponsors are valued at $2M-$5M per team per year. Things like that are why TFC are valued highly. If owners are willing to spend $200M just to join MLS then that thereby increases the value of the already existing franchises/products to at least around that neighbourhood.

Bournemouth is a good example of how this works. The team only has an 11K capacity stadium and play in a small town and loses money annually, but because they play in the English Premier League they're the 26th most valuable football team in the world.

https://www.afcb.co.uk/news/club-new...football-brand

...as much as I say there's more to life than TV ratings, the Raptors are setting some pretty incredible records.

Monday's Game 5 had an average audience of 6.4M. Breakdown is 3.8M on SN National, 783K on SN1, and 1.8M on CityTV. Raptors games are now drawing Super Bowl numbers (and there's still potentially two more to go).

Game 5 was the most watched program ever on Rogers media.

21st highest viewed sports broadcast ever in Canada (top 10 if not including Olympics).

In Toronto, Sportsnet Ontario had an audience share of 40%. CityTV had an 18% audience share in Toronto.

http://media.sportsnet.ca/2019/06/ra...rtsnet-citytv/

I can't believe how many people I know who watched their first NBA game EVER on Monday night.

Hype is doin' its job!