^ That's as random as the time that I read in the Globe and Mail that Jimmy Swaggart was a Shreveport Pirates season ticket holder and big fan of the team.

The 18-49 growth this season doesn't exactly make up for the losses in previous seasons.

The National Post had sourcing from TSN showing that 18-49 had declined on TSN and RDS between 2014 and 2016. (I think 18-49 is useless as a demographic, IMO, since its such a large swath of ages and people.)

https://nationalpost.com/sports/foot...cfl-be-worried

TSN 18-49
2014: 209k/game
2015: 157k/game
2016: 170k/game

RDS 18-49
2014: 58k/game
2015: 63k/game
2016: 41k/game

If the league is gaining 2-3% overall per year that's good but it doesn't make up for the 15% losses of previous seasons.

From the National Post:

These sorts of figures, combined with the Angus Reid findings, should provide some pause for thought.

In saying all this there's more moving pieces than simply looking at TV numbers.

----------------------------

In other CFL news, New Era will be taking over the league's apparel supply, including jerseys, starting next season. Four year deal.

http://3downnation.com/2018/09/12/ne...-same-in-2019/

They'll be using the same manufacturer as Adidas but effectively with a New Era patch instead.

I wonder what the viewership numbers both overall and in the 18-49 demographic relative to th other sports leagues in NA... outside of NFL and NHL, I’d guess that the 18-49 CFL viewership demographic is greater than the total viewership numbers of the MLB, NBA, and MLS.

So relative to the the CFL overall numbers, the 18-48 viewership demographic may be somewhat concerning, but relative to other major sports leagues total viewership numbers, the CFL 18-49 numbers I’d consider are actually quite impressive, even in the CFL low years.

Isn't pro sports viewership/interest slowly declining for most leagues at the moment?

CFL's 18-49 would be greater than the MLS regular season and MLB as a whole in Canada.

The CFL's 18-49 floats around 150K-200K, while the Jays overall is usually north of 500K with MLS overall numbers usually around 100K. In good years the Jays overall outdraw the CFL overall, but i'm not sure how much other MLB games in Canada would weigh down that overall MLB number, if that's what you're asking.

The CFL still lags considerably when looking at median ages and % that 18-49 comprises of TV audience.

From the same NP article above:

For the most part yes, although some services are beginning to combine streaming figures to give us a better idea of a more full picture.

In terms of the US the NHL has been more or less static, as has the NFL. NBA and MLS are on the rise and the MLB is steadily decreasing. Then you have sports like NASCAR which are having their floors fall out entirely. We don't really have that wide breadth of ratings reporting in Canada in 2018 so it's tough to say what current trends are in their entirety.

As I mentioned there's a lot more going on than just TV for most of these leagues, so it's just one piece of a larger puzzle overall.

NHL fervour in general seems to be down in Canada, in my observation.

Well you live in an area where the two most dominant teams are at their lowest point in decades.

This is true to a point, but my sense is that it's not the only part of the country where interest is either stagnant or waning.

Yes, the Leafs are resurgent on the ice but I don't sense the same mania there would have been a decade, or two or three ago. Hockey in the GTA while still arguably the top dog is increasingly challenged by other sports seen as "sexier" like basketball and soccer.

I am far away of course but to me interest seems stable in the western cities that have teams in the NHL, and slowly declining in parts of the country that are great distances away from NHL clubs.

As I have mentioned before, if you go to Anchorage Alaska the bars are packed with *attentive* people for Monday Night Football and other NFL games (especially the playoffs) even if the closest team is a half a continent away.

You used to have that for the NHL pretty much all across Canada (thinking of places like Halifax, Regina) for big Saturday night games during the season, and for the playoffs. But no so much anymore.

CFL ratings report: Labour Day rematches just as good as the original
Drew Edwards 3downnation September 14, 2018

While the Labour Day games have always been a ratings juggernaut for the CFL and broadcast partner TSN, the second-half of those matchups are proving to be just as popular – and in some cases, even more so.

The Banjo Bowl between Winnipeg and Saskatchewan featured an average of 836,200 viewers on English-language TSN, just a couple of thousand less than the Labour Day game the week before (838,300.) More impressively, the Banjo Bowl ratings were up a whopping 45 per cent over last season’s contest.

It was much the same story in the Alberta re-match, which outperformed Labour Day by a substantial margin for the second straight year (though it was down slightly from last year’s game.) Only the Argo-Ticat tilt failed to deliver big numbers, with an average audience of just 413,000.

Overall, however, ratings for the week were up 2.6 per cent and year-over-year numbers have improved by any measurement.

Week 13 ratings

Friday
Ottawa at B.C.: 461,000

Saturday
Saskatchewan at Winnipeg: 836,000 (+44.9 per cent over last year)
Calgary at Edmonton: 744,100 (-0.9 per cent over last year)
Hamilton at Toronto: 413,000

Week 13 (2018) vs. Week 12 (2017): +2.6 per cent
Year-to-date (50 games) vs 2017 (49 games): +3.7 per cent
Through 13 weeks 2018 vs 2018: +5.5 per cent

Some interesting kidfluence marketing at work here.

Family Channel celebrities making appearances at CFL Family Day games, and the websites were promoting ticket sales as well. Further evidence that Commish Ambrosie, Christina Litz and the CFL are looking well down the road beyond the millennials to the upcoming generations of potential fans.

https://i.imgur.com/3qr0Diz.png

TV Weekly Top 30

These reports capture the top 30 shows that air on conventional and specialty television networks each week. They're ranked by Average Minute Audience (the average number of viewers, age 2+, watching the program during any given minute). Reports are available for Total Canada and Quebec Francophone.

August 27, 2018 - September 2, 2018 (National)

Interesting to see the CFL in the top 30, the only sport and the only cable outlet.

I'm too young to really be able to make comparisons, but anecdotally it really does seem like sports are not very high up on the entertainment list. I would not bring up any sport in any league as small talk, even with men.

Funny you say that. I find it interesting that at my workplace, which is almost all young men, the two things that are almost never talked about are chicks and sports. When I started working in the 80s, again in a male dominated career, that's all we talked about. Times do change.

Not sure why but sports seem less important now (at least to me). Maybe it's just the sheer availability of it, 24 hours a day. I used to watch everything when I was a kid but back then there wasn't much on and IIRC that was probably only on weekends.

I have to admit I am turned off by the big salaries and yesterday it dawned on me about the stupidity of the choreographed TD celebrations. They even do some stupid "dig me" show after every play. I guess I've grown tired of it.

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

There is still some sports talk around my office, but not nearly as much as there used to be. The guys who are into it seek out other guys and they chat mostly bilaterally.

When I started my career in the 1990s you might occasionally have had someone walk into a morning staff meeting, and some guy would make a comment about a "play" from the big game the night before, and almost all of the guys would have something to say about it. Nowadays you only get that for very special sporting events, like maybe the gold medal match in men's hockey at the Olympics.

And my workplace hasn't changed much since then in terms of "style" or demographics either.

When the NHL was only on Saturday night, MLB on Saturday afternoon, the CFL was only shown after Labour Day and the NFL had one or two games shown Sunday (this was in the days of 3 channels on the antenna) it was a big event to watch the game(s) and the thing to talk about on Monday. Now with 100's of games being shown every minute of every day its just so much white noise to me now.
I'm an older white male with major rural roots so this may not be what young urban hip folks are thinking.

Except for a few isolated cases during the year, "The Game" no longer exists anymore.

And it's just simply that males are all over the place in terms of their sports interests. There is some of that as you say, but the percentage of males just not interested in sports has gone up as well ISTM.

I suppose that back in the day there was probably more peer pressure than today to follow the most popular sports or teams if you were a guy.

Contemporary society gives people a lot more opportunity to opt out of the mainstream.

Off topic, but you just reminded me of a great TV series that is not too well known but was pretty trendsetting.

• Video Link

• Video Link

And yet ironically the CFL's low salaries are commonly brought up as a reason why people don't watch it!

That's part of the reason why I like it because the players are more "accessible" but I've never really heard that people don't watch it because of the salaries (unless they mistakenly use it as a judge of the overall quality of the player).

For example, I doubt Delvin Breaux is likely much better or worse of a player since going to the NFL and being a highly paid star for a few seasons vs his time before with the CFL and his career in the CFL now.

Maybe the NFL snobs associate the wages with the quality of the player, which is not very intelligent. I can post a thousand quotes from people (who should know) how close in quality are the NFL and CFL players. It's the wannabes who make these comments and I find it interesting they can offer expertise in a subject they proclaim not to watch or follow.

I think there's a legitimacy that high salaries lend to sports. As in, the big 4 leagues all have high salaries, since the CFL doesn't it must not be a serious entity. And yeah, as a proxy for player quality as well.

It's usually in conjunction with other arguments, but the salary thing is one I've heard before.

^ Yeah, not many people will specifically cite low salaries as the reason they don't watch the CFL, but you definitely get the feeling that some people look at it as an inferior league, with the low salaries being among the reasons for that. A lot of people are under the impression that CFL players all make McDonald's money.

As to the earlier point about water cooler sports talk, the audiences are way too fragmented these days for that. In my workplace, younger guys will be less into hockey and more into basketball, UFC or whatever, and older guys tend to be hockey all the way. The recent Jets playoff run was one of the rare local instances of everyone being on the same page. But that's obviously a very exceptional set of circumstances.

The average CFL salary is probably a little more than 80k (and that was mentioned a few years ago). Haterz often quote the rookie minimum of around 50k. Be that as it may it's still peanuts compared to the other big North American sports but still not bad for six months work for the average Joe.

A more prized commodity like a star, Canadian lineman or ratio breaker will make over 100k and the top QBs are over 400k. Regardless of pay, some will find a second job and some won`t, preferring to devote to training full time in the off season.

As for interest where I`m at, it`s baseball, hockey and NFL. There used to be some interest in Nascar and UFC, Nascar has almost fallen off the radar and UFC is greatly reduced. I think WWE is still popular. No basketball (aside from a hat) or soccer interest in anyone I come into contact with or our kid's friends.

There is no CFL interest but just from asking, they will support a team if it comes to Halifax. From what I've seen there seems to be more general interest in the NFL (pools, water cooler talk) than actual team devotion. With a CFL team, I think the interest will come from being a fun thing to do rather than a general interest, although if it's done right Halifax/Atlantic could become like another Regina. The potential is there.

There is more interest in MLB than NHL in PEI?

$80K for basically 4-5 months of work is not too bad at all... I assume there is some sort of bonus as well for a Grey Cup win.

Don't think so, but both are pretty popular and I didn't mean to put any order to those sports.

It can be stated the CFL player mean income is over two times the Canadian national median income for males in the 25-34 age range. While they pale in comparison to some professional athletes, CFL players are paid more than the general population in their age group on average, most players would be in the top 10% income earners in Canada while the highest paid players are in the top federal and provincial income tax brackets and the top 1% (over $225,000 in 2014) income earners in Canada, contributing to the 4.4% under 35 that make up this group.

The minimum player salary as dictated by the Collective Bargaining Agreement is $54,000 in 2018, incremented by $1,000 per year for each year of the current CBA.

Players are also compensated with a per diem when travelling, free and discounted tickets, playoff and Grey Cup compensation and pension contributions.

https://i.imgur.com/jXhu9aE.jpg

What is the CFL players daily per diem? What is the travel allowance for a CFL player?

The travel allowance for CFL players is defined in Article 25 of the Collective Bargaining Agreement. For the term of the 2014 CBA the daily travel allowance is $115 for each day travelling for a pre-season, regular season, playoff or Grey Cup game.

The allowance is reduced by $30 for travelling days where the team provides a meal and by $50 on departure or return days where the departure time occurs after or before 12:00 noon respectively. See the CBA for the full details of the exceptions.

For comparison, this was higher than the base NHL per diem (Article 19 of the NHL-NHLPA 2013 CBA [pg 128]) established in 2013

Moncton will be setting a new high for single-game hockey attendance in New Brunswick this Friday. Wildcats have sold out their new 8,800 seat arena for the game against Saint John on Friday.

Will any of the province's premiers be attending?

All four of them. :tup:

Assuming an agreement for funding is reached within the next few years between the Nova Scotia, Halifax and the ownership group for a new stadium, I wonder how long it will be before talks begin in earnest for a new arena. Before you know it, the Metro Centre will be 50 years old.

I wonder what the ideal size for a new arena would be? 12,000? 13,000? 15,000? Current one seats a little over 10,000.

I've always been surprised Halifax's arena is as small as it is, but the age definitely helps explain that.

Given the city's pre-eminence as the major city of the Maritimes, I could see them building a 15K similar to what people want to build in Saskatoon.

It sure looks like Alessia Cara will be the Grey Cup halftime act
Drew Edwards 3downnation September 29, 2018

So the official announcement for the Grey Cup halftime act is supposed to take place today at halftime of the Eskimos game with the Bombers but the news may have already leaked out.

Several Twitter accounts supporting Canadian singer Alessia Cara are saying she’ll be performing on Nov. 25 at Commonwealth.

https://i.imgur.com/qZYjBMW.png

The Tweet links to a Global News page that exists but the video is currently inactive, meaning they likely pulled it down.

The 22-year-old Cara is from Brampton and performed at the pre-game show at the 2016 Grey Cup in Toronto. In January, she was named Best New Artist at the Grammys, the first Canadian to win the award. The move makes sense: she appeals to the younger demographic the CFL is chasing and she’s from Canada.

We’ll wait for the official announcement but it sure looks like Cara is the one.

Props to Ticat fan and internet sleuth Laura Stewart (@lstewy) for figuring it out.

^Just confirmed

they had to have an official announcement for her? By the hype I thought they where going to have John Lennon, MJ or Elvis playing half time but I guess a no name Canadian Singer will do.

She's a much bigger name and a better choice than <insert old rocker from the 70s here>.

Don't worry, they still have Kim Mitchell playing during the Grey Cup Festival. :)

^ Not unlike Maroon 5 at the Super Bowl... both are acclaimed big-name pop acts but neither is really the kind of performer I would think of first when it comes to big stadium halftime shows. I get the impression this decision is driven more by TV ratings considerations than anything else...

It absolutely would be. Any halftime performance is going to be purely for TV ratings. People in the stadium are already there.

She's a pretty big name to young people.

So "no name" Canadian singer is now equal to multiple Juno and now Grammy winner. She is long since off my radar, but pal, I nominate your post for lame post of the year.

I think the unlikely combo of the Bieb and Wrong Chord Gord spiked pretty high when they were the half time show a while back. I read and have posted this before (but I can't find my verification) but I believe the artist is not paid by the CFL or GC Committee. The record label takes the hit for the good promotion of their artist to an audience of 3 plus million people.

Posted in wrong thread

USports roundup: Ottawa beats Carleton in 50th Panda Game
3Down Staff October 1, 2018

OTTAWA – The Ottawa Gee-Gees snapped a four-year Panda Game skid with a 38-27 win over the Carleton Ravens on Saturday at TD Place.

The win, in the 50th edition of the showdown between the two Ottawa schools, was Ottawa’s first Panda Game triumph since 2013. It came before a record crowd of 24,470.

Gee-Gees quarterback Sawyer Buettner threw five touchdown passes as Ottawa (4-1) grabbed sole possession of second place in Ontario University Athletics.

The Gee-Gees picked off Ravens quarterback Michael Arruda four times as Carleton dropped to 4-2.

Sportsnet PR
Featured on the first Scotiabank Wednesday Night Hockey broadcast of the season, the Original Six matchup reached 4.7 million Canadians - 11% more than last year’s #NHL opening game on @Sportsnet. #HomeofHockey Retweeted by Sports Business Canada


Sportsnet PR
Yesterday's #Leafs vs. #Habs showdown was the most-watched opening night game on @Sportsnet since 2014. The #NHL season opener garnered an average audience of 1.73 million viewers, marking a 26% increase vs. last year’s puck drop b/w Leafs & Jets.

Sportsnet PR
Making its debut last night, @Sportsnet #IceSurfing captured a total audience of 649,000 viewers during its 3-hour premiere on @Twitter. Following all the #NHL action, #IceSurfing attracted 503,000 unique visitors on Tuesday – 200,000 more than its pilot episode last season.

If Halifax were to go to the trouble of building a new arena, like Moncton they would want to build at least 40 to 50% larger than what they already have.

I'd imagine they would need to have tenants to regularly fill that seating capacity too though, so unless they can secure a main tenant like a NLL team like Saskatoon's 15,200 SaskTel Centre did, there may not be enough incentive to build anything new just yet while Halifax arena still viably usable.

Interesting to note though that Halifax had a bigger arena than cities like Calgary, Ottawa back in the day before NHL in Cowtown and O-town

Saskatoon renovated SaskTel Centre to 15K years before the NLL was on the radar; they're just the first team to be able to fill it on a regular basis. They expanded for the World Juniors (which I believe Halifax could easily get if they wanted) as well as to stay on the radar for concerts.

Furthermore, Halifax is getting an NLL team next year.

According to the Winnipeg Free Press, the Western Hockey League Kootenay ice are planning to move to Winnipeg in the near future. At this point they don't have an arena available, but the plan is for a new one to be built in the southern suburbs. Apparently they would play at the University of Manitoba's arena in the meantime. For those unfamiliar with the U of M's Max Bell Centre, it is a very small and very basic facility that looks more like a community center that a major Junior venue.

I find it somewhat strange, given that the local hockey market is saturated. Winnipeg is a very small City to have two existing professional teams, and I'm not sure that a WHL team will be able to break through and carve out a fan base of its own.

Are they keeping the same owners, or are they being bought by True North? I don't think the team would last long if it's the former.