I see RedBlacks fans at Tim Hortons Field, even a few when we're playing non-Ottawa teams, but of course being only 6 hours away makes it a much more feasible road trip.

I'd say its relatively even with the amount of Als fans I see.

In terms of the away fan presence in Winnipeg I'd divide it into the following groups:

1. Saskatchewan, by far... they are the only team where you will see entire rows in the opposition colours. Although in recent years the level of Rider Pride on display has quieted down somewhat ;)

...huge gap...

2. Calgary and Edmonton... you will see a good handful of people wearing these team colours when they come to town.

3. BC and Hamilton... the numbers will be smaller, but there are some. Hamilton is the only eastern team with any kind of critical mass of away fans, which I find kind of weird.

...gap...

4. Toronto and Ottawa... very few people wear this gear at IG Field, but there's always some guy.

5. Montreal... hardly anyone, really. I'm sure a few Als fans are friends or relatives of Brock Gowanlock who played for the U of M Bisons. But there are always a couple of guys in old Calvillo jerseys and I am curious about their stories, haha.

If I were to organize it like that for THF I'd say:

1. Toronto far and away, for obvious reasons. Probably ~20% of the crowd at rivalry games.

gap

2. Saskatchewan. They sure do travel well / come out to represent their home if they've moved away

3. Ottawa, Montreal. Expect to see a few, might be a large group or two somewhere.

4. Rest of the West. I want to say slightly more BC but that might also just be because bright orange sticks out... Bombers might have the edge here lately.

https://3downnation.com/2022/10/02/o...rd-panda-game/

A massive crowd of 23,078 was on hand at TD Place Stadium on Saturday to watch the Ottawa Gee-Gees defeat the Carleton Ravens in the 53rd Panda Bowl by a score of 37-7.

The score was 17-7 heading into the fourth quarter before two field goals from Campbell Fair and two touchdown runs from Jean-Paul Cimankinda blew the game wide open to secure the victory for the Gee-Gees.

Ottawa’s offence moved the ball seemingly at will, generating 572 yards of total offence. Third-year quarterback Ben Maracle completed 20-of-23 pass attempts for 354 yards and two touchdowns, while fourth-year running back Jean-Paul Cimankinda rushed 31 times for 166 yards and two scores. Third-year receiver Nicholas Gendron was Maracle’s favourite target on the day as he caught eight passes for 211 yards and one touchdown.

The Ravens struggled to move the ball throughout the game, generating only 215 yards of total offence. Fifth-year quarterback Tanner DeJong completed 10-of-16 pass attempts for 125 yards, one touchdown, and one interception, while fourth-year running back Josh Ferguson carried the ball 16 times for 62 yards.

The crowd was larger than any the Ottawa Redblacks have drawn to the same venue this season. The Panda Game is known for its raucous atmosphere, which spilled out into the Sandy Hill neighbourhood following the game.

The police issued a statement indicating that as of 1:15 a.m. local time on Sunday, seven people had been arrested for reasons including public intoxication and mischief. They described the behaviour they witnessed as “unacceptable, dangerous and, in some cases, criminal.”

The first Panda Game was played in 1955 and carries the name of the trophy that is handed out to the winner, Pedro the Panda (pictured). The Gee-Gees hold a 36-17 all-time record in the rivalry contest with Carleton’s most recent win coming in 2017. The game set a new attendance record in 2019 with a crowd of 24,600.

Since no-one comments on Canada's baseball team much, I'll report that 44,000 fans enjoyed the sunshine on a gorgeous October day as the Jays eeked out a 10 to 0 victory over Boston... the day after their 9 to 0 squeaker over Boston.

The Jays are on track to secure home field advantage in their wild card post-season series (DoG willing).

Jays actually do an excellent job of fan engagement and attracting fans both male and female, young and old and all backgrounds since their 2015 playoff run they do a much better job than the MLSE run teams. Their game presentation always looks very well done and high end.

I decided to take in a Regina team with a winning program. So I went to a UofR Rams vs UofA Golden Bears game at Liebel field. Great atmosphere and fair turnout of Alberta fans. The quality of play on the field was very good. Canadians are missing out by not watching these kids playing their hearts out.

^nicely done.

I miss going to UofA Bear games, but since they moved to the south campus the atmosphere is lacklustre and there are no walkable pubs pre/post.

The Rams had a beer garden. Leibel field is the right size for USports but its located in Wascana Park and there is no pubs or eateries anywhere close.

I live close to the U of M campus so I'm there quite often for sports (CFL, WHL). But Bison football is a tough sell for my family. I took my son to a couple of games last year and this year, and both of them were boring losses with small crowds even by Bisons standards (say, around 1,500 as opposed to the 5,000 homecoming crowds when you actually get a bit of fan atmosphere). So I think he's pretty well done with it... there is no comparing Bison football as an event compared to Bomber games which in my opinion are unparalleled by anything in this province when it comes to fan energy and atmosphere.

My son loves hockey so I'm sure we will go to a few Bison hockey games this season, but that's it. Even there it's kind of comical how few people attend, anything north of 200 fans is a good crowd. There are roughly as many people at a Bison hockey game as there are at my daughter's Timbit ringette games. It's always been that way, though... there are vintage Bison hockey youtube clips from the 80s (I think isaidso may have posted them?) when there was the same 100 people in the stands for games even back then. And this is when the arena was new and there were no AHL or WHL teams in town to compete for hockey fan attention. I guess the U of M is OK with that.

Our universities seem to have it as a badge of honour that nobody comes to their games. It seems that they are so scared that varsity sports will be like it is in the states (there is no real reason for that POV) that they do everything to ensure there is no widespread popularity of USports games.

I don't think that is the reason. Please tell me if you think I am wrong but I've never lived anywhere where I felt welcome on a university or that they encouraged the community to be there. I am sure there must be some that do but I am fairly well traveled and haven't seen it.

Case in point, when I was a kid i used to go the university to skateboard on their hilly paths but unlike just being in another neighborhood I just felt like I shouldn't be there and didn't belong, like a club where you're not a member.

Don't get me wrong I am not saying they try to make people feel unwelcome, I just get the feeling that they have their own private space and want to keep it that way.

Do universities reach out to the general public to encourage them to come to sporting events? It's not that I think they are against it, they just don't do it (in my experience) Personally, I have never felt the local university to be a part of the community, they just seem to be like an enclave on the edge of town or a Hutterite community where I couldn't go. (Big Hutterite fan here)

They don't seem to have that vibe like in the US, maybe because of the proliferation of state colleges and so many alumni who are still attached to it that live in the community. Where I l grew up, most people went out of province to university.

Maybe I have it all wrong and probably didn't word it very well, you tell me. Also, maybe big city universities seem more open to the public than small town universities, I don't know :)

43,500 or so watched the Jays complete the sweep of the Red Sox (6-3) on yet another gorgeous cloudless October day.... but the roof was closed (bizarre).

Teo-OSCAR had two homers and someone won more than $3.5 million in the Jays Care Jackpot (an MLB record by a large margin for this year at least... I think).

The Rays lost so no chance of the Jays having to a play wild card series in front of 10k-15k disinterested Tampa fans.


Teoscar wearing his Blue Jay homerun jacket... again. :cheers:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FeFyp9dW...name=4096x4096
Link

I don't get the local newspaper anymore but I remember Western used to advertise several sporting events on a regular basis. They do advertise football games on the radio very frequently.

As for the Panda game, my daughter and some friends went. They partied hard on Friday night, she came home at 8am, had a short nap, then went to the game. Then they were at another party last night where the police were patrolling "30 wide, across the street" as my daughter described it. Her and her friends were in the backyard of the house that one of her friends lives in and the police actually came back there and told them to go inside the house. So they walked around the front of the house and went inside. Then they went back out the back of the house into the backyard again and one of the officers actually came back and told them to get inside or they would be arrested. Severe overreach it sounds like, but I wasn't there.

On the university sports thing, the only one locally in Winnipeg that draws any kind of decent crowd on a regular basis is Bison football. But even there the crowds are pretty sparse, generally in the 1 to 5 thousand range in a large stadium, with the lower end being common for bad-weather games and the higher end being common for homecoming or playoffs.

I find it very surprising that Bison hockey doesn't draw better than it does. Most of the players have elite backgrounds (typically major junior or junior A, some even have pro experience) and the hockey is exciting to watch. In terms of female hockey, the Bisons are the highest end program that exists in Manitoba. Production is pretty good, the Bisons bring mascots and in-game hosts, there's music and there is a jumbotron for replays. There's a concession stand serving up food and drinks. In short, it basically has what you would expect at a major junior or pro hockey game. Prices are super reasonable. Yet a Bison hockey game typically has a hundred or so people rattling around an 1,800 seat rink. You would think that friends and family of players plus maybe some interested alumni could get the crowd to at least 500.

USports is missing out on some large revenue for the product it produces. I don’t see any advertisements in Calgary, yet the level of hockey is 2nd best in the city next to the Flames. As said, it’s all former Major Junior and Jr A kids who are now that much bigger, stronger, more mature and over just better hockey players.Evwn for USports to try to advertise and get the student population out to the games, let alone the general public, they could make some serious dollars off of beer sales alone. It should almost be like a degree projector for those graduating with a marketing degree to market USports athletics.

The only time I see university hockey advertised in Calgary is the game when UCalgary plays Mount Royal, and they get over 10,000 in the stands.

^ 10,000 for university hockey in Calgary? That is impressive, I don't think the Bisons have ever pulled numbers like that.

The funny thing is that every year the UM Bisons play an annual exhibition game 2.5 hours down the road in North Dakota and it's a 12,000 person sellout every time. So the Bisons go from playing here to playing in front of 150 people at home...

https://www.theralph.com/assets/img/...8c365f14dc.jpg

They've been reasonably successful with the Carleton-UOttawa Capital Hoops Classic.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capital_Hoops_Classic

Aside from this, both teams draw flies (like 150 people) to their other home games.

Even Carleton which has generally been a powerhouse basketball program for ages, and measures up well to some pretty good NCAA colleges when they play them in exhibition games.

I wonder if a main reason USports has failed to take off in any meaningful way is that, with exception of a handful of games like the Panda Bowl, there simply isn't a culture of students/alumni travelling with their teams in any meaningful amount? Thinking back to my own experience at USask, you'd be hard pressed to identify any supporters from a visiting school. Having that presence helps games feel more high stakes and helps people feel more invested. No real easy solution to it, either; not sure any amount of marketing would convince UBC students to come to Saskatoon for a game, or vice versa.

In my experience, almost no alumni attend the Panda Game. It's not that type of atmosphere.

The crowd in the stadium is 99% comprised of current, young students.