https://cflnewshub.com/cfl-news/cfl-...nd-tv-ratings/

• The Week 5 slate of games on TSN averaged 563,250 viewers. For the season, the CFL is averaging 532,263 viewers per game.

• Friday September 3rd’s Montreal Alouettes/Ottawa Redblacks game averaged 256,000 viewers. The lowest rated CFL game of the season, to this point. (Week 1, Toronto-Calgary: 318,400)

• Sunday’s Winnipeg Blue Bombers/Saskatchewan Roughriders game was a smashing success, averaging 980,000 viewers. The telecast was the highest rated game of the CFL season, besting the week one clash between BC and Saskatchewan, which drew 764,000 viewers.

• Monday afternoon’s LDC clash between eastern rivals, the Toronto Argonauts and Hamilton Tiger-Cats averaged 436,000 viewers.

• The second half of the LDC doublehader, which saw the Edmonton Elks best the Calgary Stampeders 32-20 in the battle of Alberta, averaged 581,000 viewers.

Strong start for the CFL on TV. Let's hope they can keep it up through this year and onwards!

Glad to see those Formula numbers. I was a casual F1 fan until I started watching Drive to Survive on Netflix. Now I’m hooked! Like the European soccer, love watching with a coffee the qualis and racing weekend mornings.

The production and access to the teams is amazing. I believe they turned it up a level since a US entertainment company bought F1.

Bombers get their first sellout with the banjo bowl. Hopefully attendance for Winnipeg can average out to 28-30k by the end of the year.

Crowded night up against the Federal debate:

Sept 9
Jays/Yankees: 969,000 (SN)
Bucs/Cowboys: 790,000 (TSN/CTV2)
US Open: 534,000 (TSN)

Debate:

CTV/CP24/BNN/CTVNC: 1.01M
CBC/CBCNC: 963k
Global: 538k

https://twitter.com/AHBSeaborn/statu...04698383269889

I am surprised the tennis is that low.

Though I am positive the numbers on RDS were really good.

A few years ago when Bianca Andreescu was in the US Open, her semi-final got 350,000 and her final got 750,000 on RDS.

And she isn't from Quebec. My guess is that last night the semi-final probably topped the 350,000 figure on RDS fairly easily.

And BTW... Go Félix! :cheers:

Honestly wonder about these numbers sometimes, I think it was Genie Bouchard's number at the US Open that surprised me at how low it was. I'm going on memory and may have this all wrong but it was well publicized, it should have been better. In today's market it would be great but this was back in 2014.

I looked it up: Bouchard's final loss to Petra Kvitova averaged 1.1 million on TSN, a number that would have been substantially higher had it gone more than two sets. It drew an average of 1.8 million when French-language RDS's ratings are thrown in -- a record for tennis in this country. Making those numbers even more impressive is the fact that Saturday at 9 a.m. ET (6 a.m. on the West Coast) is hardly prime viewing time.

It's better than I remember but I guess I was expecting Olympic size numbers because of the buildup.

Also wonder why Ottawa RedBlacks numbers are so low and have been since the beginning. They have an engaged fan base, they've never been a boring team and they found success quickly.

I know at one time Ottawa was not a metered market but I'm pretty sure they have been for a while now. Maybe, similar to TFC, all their fans are in the stadium.

1.174M for TSN women's final on Saturday. Add on whatever we think for RDS and it's probably equivalent to Bouchard Wimbledon 2014. Bouchard's final was at 9AM versus Fernandez' at 4PM.

As I mentioned Bianca's final drew 750,000 on RDS in 2019, so I suspect that given Leyla's Montreal roots and the better time slot it may have been close to 1 million viewers on RDS.

There was a tremendous buzz about Leyla here Saturday afternoon and social media was almost as active as a Habs playoff game.

We went to some friends for dinner that evening and when we got there our hosts (not known for being tennis fans) were watching the match on TV.

For those who can read French here is an article from La Presse published earlier this summer about NHL TV ratings.

https://www.lapresse.ca/affaires/202...re-au-pays.php

Most interesting to me is that the Ottawa Senators get higher ratings in French than in English.

Which is something I had thought about in regards to the Redblacks. Earlier, there was an Ottawa/Montreal game that wasn't rated all that well but it didn't include RDS which could have approached the TSN number thus doubling it. All conjecture of course.

RDS ratings for Alouettes regular season games are pretty consistently in the 200-250 k range.

So when the Redblacks are the Als' opponent there is definitely that boost, though RDS ratings for Reblacks-Argos, Redblacks-Elks are obviously considerably lower.

RDS CFL ratings are in another league when the Alouettes are playing, compared with any other CFL games they show.

Even Grey-Cup-with-Alouettes vs. Grey-Cup-without-Alouettes is a ten-fold difference.

Think 1 to 1.5 million vs. 150,000.

Even in Winnipeg there was a fair bit of interest in the US Open. I wouldn't say it was Jets playoff game levels of chatter but definitely way more interest than any other tennis event in recent times.

It is interesting to me how many people come out of the woodwork for these types of major tennis events given that I only know of a few people who play regularly and only one couple who are dedicated tennis fans to the extent that they travel to watch the major tournaments around the world, etc.

It's actually a pretty compelling sport to watch.

There is just something about a hard-fought one-on-one duel. (And one that is less barbaric than boxing or UFC.)

It's one of those under-the-radar sports that definitely has a bigger audience than many think. Same with something like F1...lots of fans floating around, they just don't make themselves as known as other sports because there's fewer events in general.

Tennis has a couple of good events throughout Canada aside from the Rogers Cup in Montreal and Toronto. I think there are good level tennis Challenger events in Vancouver and Gatineau each year among others. Looking forward to having the Davis and Fed Cups again given our national strength at this stage.

I would have to count myself on the bandwagon jumper group. Even though I was a big tennis player as a young kid and played a fair amount in university, aside from a period as a kid I never really followed it closely. Does the name Tom Okker ring a bell to anyone? Tennis was on TV a fair amount in the 70s

I guess later I only followed the big name, big game events. Borg/MacEnroe at Wimbledon, Jimmy Connors etc.

Now, the only tennis I'll watch is if a Canadian makes it to a final and I didn't even bother to watch Fernandez this time.

All this got me to thinkin'. I always wanted a pair of classic Stan Smiths and they have somehow eluded me, time to pay Amazon a visit.

ATP and WTA tennis (similarly to F1) also has an international jet set aura about it that appeals to a lot of people.

I've seen 'Stan Smiths' at an Adidas outlet store. Wow..that takes me back.

I find the ratio of people who follow NFL/CFL versus those who actually play to be quite a huge gap. Lots of armchair/beer drinking chair types who watch it and very few actually play other than throwing the ball in the park. It is a sport with lots and lots of expensive equipment.

I mean you’re not going to find many 30-40 year olds playing tackle football no matter what because it’s way too unforgiving on the body so you’re definitely right about that. Hell many people in high school just watch it rather then play because they don’t want to get injured. Tennis doesn’t have that problem which is why participation numbers are much higher. Flag football is an alternative but man it’s missing the key elements that football fans love and ironically is why we don’t play it which is physicality.

Of the sports played by the big 4 American leagues yeah I would say the biggest gap is in the NFL when it comes to the average fan playing or having played the game.

Even the NHL probably has a more significant % of its fan base that has at least played pick up hockey (or street or ball hockey) at some point.

Of course a big part of that is that the NFL is such a cultural and entertainment behemoth that it scoops up millions of fans that previously had no personal relationship to the game. Including many female fans of course.

The barriers to entry for football are fairly high... if you want to play a game for real, then you need a team of 40+ players, coaches, a shitload of equipment... and then you get into the sheer physical challenge of playing for anyone over 30. I played when I was younger but the thought of playing at my age now would be daunting. An injury would be pretty much guaranteed if I tried to play a game at my old offensive guard position. As I recall Jeff Reinebold once saying at a dinner I attended... football is pretty unique among sports in that once you take the pads off, that's it. There really isn't any kind of old-timers league or beer league.

A better basis of comparison for tennis is something like golf. You don't need much to play, with tennis you need you only need one other person (golf can be played solo), and you can play it at least on some level well into your later years. And unlike golf, there are often neighbourhood courts for tennis where you can play for free. Among the people I know who follow pro golf to at least some extent, virtually everyone plays. Among the people I know who follow pro tennis, few do. I find that kind of interesting. I sometimes to go to a neighbourhood court to play with my kid and most of the time if there's anyone else there, it's usually older people (not necessarily seniors, say the 50+ crowd) playing pickleball.

For sure. Golf has a bit of that international glam factor too.

I know football orgs try to push flag football to varying degrees in co-ed sports leagues or just on their own. It's a less intensive version that doesn't require the equipment. Sort of takes away the point, though, IMO.

I grew up watching a lot of tennis but never played it as a youth. Didn't pick it up until well into my 20s, and now I enjoy going out to a court a few times a year to hit a ball around with a friend. Any time I ever venture by a court here they're always being used. The baseball diamonds next to them, however.. :uhh:

I'm in my early 40s and I can think of a few guys around my age who play (I don't personally). Although among the ones who do, injuries are becoming more common, I hear stories of torn/pulled this and that increasingly often as we get older.

But yeah, flag football is a much different game than regular tackle football. I would think guys over 40 who play tackle football at any level, whether they are Tom Brady genetic freaks in the pros or guys who are hanging on with a local amateur team must be very, very rare.

Jays attendance is capped at 15,000. They've had a slew of games before Monday fall in the high 14Ks or thereabouts. Similar to TFC and CMNT, they've raised ticket prices to offset fewer people in the stands. Single tickets for the Yankees series start at $80/ea. I think other series start at $40/ea.

Hand-wringing over attendances in 2021 is likely a waste of time. Far too many variables at play to really draw any sort of conclusion one way or another.

I've noticed attendance is down in Winnipeg at sports events... Valour FC and the Goldeyes have been playing in front of crowds half the size they would normally get. Even the Bombers have been drawing less than I'd have expected... for the sheer amount of hype the home opener got around here, it wasn't quite sold out. And the two games that followed had fairly low attendance by recent Bomber standards. The Banjo Bowl did sell out, though.

My theory is that it's a combination of uncertainty leading up to the season which made it harder for account executives to sell tickets, probably many people took a hiatus from their season tickets/corporate packages, etc. Some people are also probably uncomfortable with being in crowds, and then of course are the non-vaccinated people who aren't allowed in. It will be interesting to see how the hockey teams do when their seasons start up.

For the sake of adding onto this, the Jays attendance on Monday may have been their lowest of the year, but their TV audience was the highest: 1.11M on SN.

Raiders/Ravens had 637K split b/w TSN & CTV2.

I was initially going to comment that I've heard extremely little about the NFL this year, but then I thought about it, and I think's actually the death of TSN Hamilton that makes me feel like pretty much no sports are getting much attention. I don't really watch the news, and tend to go straight to MLR and CFL websites/subreddits for the two main team I follow, rather than the TSN website. Back when I listened to TSN every morning on the way to work I'd have been hearing about the tennis success, NFL preseason news, way more Olympic coverage, etc.

For once I'm finally blissfully unware of what the Blue Jays are up to, but am really missing the rest of the sports news that came across my ears.

Once again, shame on Bell.

I'm not sure what's going on in Toronto but now TFC is apparently drawing flies. In a smaller city the sports teams are a bit of a cultural rallying point... is it possible that except for the Leafs and maybe to some extent the Jays, this is no longer the case in Toronto?

Here's a scene from last night's match vs Inter Miami from @EmptySeatsPics

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/E_SLmRdW...jpg&name=large

Sidenote: What the hell are all those people doing at the top of the upper deck when there are so many empty seats lower down?

I think the Raptors are probably pretty safe as well.

Weird, as the Jays have been on a streak lately and are in the wild card hunt.

Generally people are stoked to actually go to a game when there's something at stake.

TFC interest ebs and flows. Like most markets where the sport isn't really engrained in the culture, a winning product draws crowds. Sport attendance in general is still in a weird place given the Covid reopening plan.

I'm going to hazard a guess that you're going to see empty seats at hockey games as well. I got season tickets this year (my own set after sharing with another group) and I was at position 1825 at the end of the last regular season. That should tell you how many season tickets have been forfeited. TNSE is running all types of small season tickets specials to get people into the seats.

I would agree, I think between health concerns and economic difficulties for some, we will see empty seats to varying degrees in all Canadian markets except possibly Toronto. Now that will mean very different things depending on the city... maybe in Montreal it might be a couple hundred unsold seats, in Vancouver it might mean a couple thousand unsold seats, while the Sens might be playing in front of 8,000.

Jays were back up to 13K out of a cap of 15K last night. Still lower than their usual threshold from August.

There doesn't seem to be much correlation because the Jays are having one of the best Septembers in the history of MLB and TFC are having one of their worst seasons in recent memory and neither are doing incredibly hot at the gate. NHL teams in Canada weren't exactly selling out every game prior to COVID so there'll definitely be empty seats floating around come October.

CHL on CBC:

https://cdn.ontariohockeyleague.com/...-2-730x411.jpg

https://ontariohockeyleague.com/arti...-cbc-this-fall

Nice to see CBC TV getting back into sports. (Assuming this is the main broadcast network.)

In the article...

Nice to see, but why only 6 games at the start of the season? Seems like a bit of a tease. Although I am curious to see what the TSN CHL schedule will look like... even though the team is amazing, I can pretty much guarantee that they won't be doing any Winnipeg ICE home games due to the shortcomings of our sad little arena.

EDIT: I didn't realize or just forgot that CBC will be streaming a game a week after the initial six game spread as JHikka posted. At least that's something. Isn't TSN doing a game a week too? If so, that's a decent amount of CHL coverage.

This is arguably the kind of thing that CBC should be picking up when it comes to sports. The major pro leagues already get a lot of coverage on TSN/SN, but there are other leagues of interest to Canadians which barely get any national coverage at all. The CHL is probably at the top of that list. University sports should probably be up there too, in addition to the other stuff that CBC is already doing.

Keen eyes will note that each of the hosting arenas for the CBC games are suitable enough to get broadcast cameras into. Not all CHL arenas are equipped for this, including presumably the Winnipeg arena.

Presumably, although it remains to be seen. One would think they would show games in the leadup to the U20s at Christmas to build players and brand recognition (SN didn't start with CHL games until the new year in past seasons to avoid buffering TSN's U20 coverage).

If I were to guess i'd say TSN would aim for a midweek game. TSN has NFL on Sundays throughout the fall and they'd be going head-to-head against the NHL on SN on Wednesdays and Saturdays. So maybe Thursdays for CHL on TSN. The CBC games are Saturday afternoons, so that window is likely out for TSN, too.

Meanwhile I believe the CBC's French network has ZERO sports with no plans AFAIK to put any more on the air.

They do run pretty good Olympic coverage just like the English CBC does. So they will be doing that next winter.

Though I do wonder what all those people are doing in between Olympics.

Zero BC content. Are the Vancouver and Victoria markets too small? Are Kelowna and Kamloops no longer rivals?

Ontario still hasn't approved anything higher than 1000, and I think Montreal already said they were going to be at 7500 or 8500 or something like that, to start off anyway.

Well... it's only two games so somebody had to get the shaft. If it's any consolation, neither of the Manitoba teams are being featured on CBC either.

The selection of WHL teams is not surprising... Connor Bedard of the Regina Pats is the best known WHL player so you knew his team would be included, the other game has one of the biggest WHL markets, Calgary.

Aside from what esquire pointed out, these are only the first six games of their slate. Pitchforks down, etc.

"Following an unprecedented span of 867 days between live matches in Toronto, the Toronto Arrows are pleased to announce that the long wait for live, in-person Arrows rugby in the club’s home city will soon be coming to an end.

On Oct. 16, 2021, the Arrows will host the club’s inaugural Rugby Rally event at York Lions Stadium, marking the team’s first match in Toronto since defeating Rugby United New York on June 2, 2019 … "

https://torontoarrows.com/news/rugby...-announcement/

I am SO excited for this. Even if we're missing some of the overseas guys, it's just been WAY too damn long since we got to se them. Already planning the tailgate :cheers: