With the Bombers Grey Cup win and the new Rapid Transit line to IG Field opening this spring I think the Bombers should draw 3000-5000 more fans per game this upcoming season.

'We're not competitors': Edmonton pro sports teams partner up with 4-game pass

"EDMONTON -- The Edmonton Eskimos, FC Edmonton, Stingers and Prospects are teaming up in 2020.

For $79, Edmonton sports fans will be able to go to one pre-season or regular season game for each of the four teams.

Officials from all four teams expressed excitement about the partnership and stressed they have never been competitors.

"I think there's an opportunity for us to work together than there is to be a competitor in any sense," said Stingers President Brett Fraser.

"We're partners. The better those three teams do, the better we do," said Eskimos President and CEO Chris Presson."

https://edmonton.ctvnews.ca/we-re-no...pass-1.4711891

That is amazing and something MLSE and the Argos need to do ASAP!

^ Would never work in Toronto. People on the prairies tend to root for all the home teams... for whatever reason, Toronto's fans are a lot more tribal.

MLSE already does a number of promotions for Argos tickets, the most obvious being the agreement with the CNE. MLSE has no incentive to do this for any of its teams because they're all under pretty high demand (except for the Argos). It's a different case in Edmonton where all of the participating teams need to improve their crowds.

I think Leaf fans might have some closet argo fans if the argos could win consistently in the regular season which they have not done since the Damon Allen years.

Not Leafs fans that pay face value for tickets. That's a crowd that likes status. I respect other cities that value the sport itself.

American ratings for Grey Cup:

"Sixers games are averaging a 3.7 rating on NBC Sports Philadelphia (+19%), on pace to rank as the network’s highest on record (dating back to 2008). … Last Friday’s Iowa-Nebraska college football game drew 1.43 million viewers on BTN, its second-largest audience of the season. … The Grambling-Southern Bayou Classic pulled 206,000 viewers on NBCSN, down 13% from last year (236K) but up 6% from 2017 (194K). … The Club América-Tigres Liga MX quarterfinal averaged 1.8 million viewers on Univision and TUDN, the best for a quarterfinal in three years. … The November 24 Grey Cup had a 0.1 rating and 109,000 on ESPN2."

https://www.sportsmediawatch.com/201...hl-sixers-btn/

Emphasis added mine.

^ Thanks for that.

Obviously not a major TV attraction down south, but still not too bad considering that a NHL game on another cable channel (NBCSN) averaged 313,000 viewers last season, and that's usually with two (but sometimes only one) US markets involved in each game.

I am often surprised at how low TV ratings for certain things are in the U.S. Though I realize there is lots of competition down there for sports on TV.

But still, that Bayou Classic is something I am familiar with (don't ask why) and the ratings for something that's as hyped as it is aren't any better than a regular season Alouettes game on RDS.

This is for something that packs the Superdome, and that people travel hundreds of km to attend, spending the weekend in New Orleans and filling most of the city's hotels.

What i've been able to scratch together is this:

Grey Cup
2013: 65K (NBCSN)
2014: 189K (ESPN2)
2015: 130K (ESPN2)
2019: 109K (ESPN2)

2014 season average: 181K (ESPN) / 160K (ESPN2)
2017 season average: ~130K (ESPN2)
2018 season average: 163K (ESPN2)

Most-watched single game ever on ESPN was 406K in 2018 for Manziel - 130K more viewers than any other CFL broadcast on ESPN that season.

https://www.macleans.ca/culture/netf...ew-this-month/
https://www.sportsvideo.org/2019/01/...-on-espn-espn/
https://3downnation.com/2018/08/07/j...-espn-in-2018/

NBCSN's reach is much smaller than that of ESPN's, which explains the jump in the CFL's Grey Cup number in 2014 and the NHL's pedestrian number. An example of this would be the NHL averaging 1.3M on broadcast NBC (12 games) versus 313K on cable NBCSN (100 games), both figures for the 2018-2019 season. Thing with NHL viewers on NBCSN is that since the NHL began with NBCSN in 05-06 the viewers have doubled whilst they've also doubled the number of games being shown, so they're increasing their audience at the same time they're increasing the total games being shown.

http://nbcsportsgrouppressbox.com/20...all-platforms/

:previous:

I wonder how many of those are Canadian ex-pats.........

I'd imagine that the viewership is a good mix of Canadian expats, Americans with some emotional connection to the game due to players from their city/school or having been to Canada, and Americans who are simply curious about seeing a different kind of football.

New Calgary arena deal anyone?

In the 90s I remember it having a higher profile, especially since legendary Eddie Robinson was the coach. Although they pack a lot of people into the game I think it's more akin to the Ottawa game. Big locally, but doesn't really register on a national scale.

Both teams are in the 2nd division and are HBCUs (Historically Black Colleges and Universities) and have way less talent than the big 1st division teams.

Cool rivalry and fanfare down there, but I think few people without connections to the school want to watch something where they know it's on the lower end of the sport.

You mean like the Panda Game?

Yes.

@JLew1050
Nearly 3.2 million unique viewers and an average audience of nearly 1 million viewers tuned into Kawhi's return on @TSN_Sports last night, making it the most-watched regular season NBA game ever in Canada. The previous record was set on opening night.

For context, Canada's most-watched NBA game ever, including playoffs, was the Raptors championship-clinching win in Game 6 of the Finals last June, also on @TSN_Sports (+ CTV and RDS), with 15.9 million unique viewers and an average audience of 7.7 million.

...

"Live streaming starts for the game were up +61% compared to TSN’s previous highest Raptors game this season. The game also attracted major engagement on TSN’s official social media platforms, with more than 4 million impressions and nearly 400,000 video views on Instagram, and more than 1.5 million video views on Twitter."

https://www.bellmedia.ca/the-lede/pr...game-on-record

Toronto might be the gateway to rugby league riches after Wolfpack breakthrough

https://www.thestar.com/sports/2019/...akthrough.html

"The Toronto Wolfpack didn’t just secure a promotion to RFL’s Super League when they dispatched the Featherstone Rovers 24-6 at Lamport Stadium in October.

They secured new opportunities for the entire sport.

That win kicked off a series of moves that stakeholders hope will reshape their home stadium, their league and RFL’s worldwide business prospects in 2020.

After all, the Wolfpack’s value to the U.K.-based Rugby Football League isn’t just that they’re the circuit’s first North American team. It’s that they’re based in one of the continent’s biggest media markets, and have qualified for Super League as RFL prepares to negotiate broadcast rights for 2021 and beyond.

If the Wolfpack had lost to Featherstone and spent yet another year in the second division, the club could have survived without expensive upgrades to Lamport Stadium’s locker rooms and scoreboards. But with a higher level of competition looming, the Wolfpack will likely invest several million dollars to bring the city-owned stadium up to Super League standards.

And marquee free-agent signing Sonny Bill Williams almost certainly wouldn’t have left New Zealand to join a second-division team in Toronto, but the Wolfpack’s promotion enabled them to offer enough pay and platform to lure the long-time All Black to Canada.

...

“Toronto is the most important brand in our sport right now,” said Alex Simmons, a sports marketing analyst and host of Rugby AM, a rugby league TV show. “We’re heading for a TV deal in 2021, and we need a North American broadcast deal. The only way we can do that is if the Wolfpack lift the Challenge Cup or the Super League trophy.”

...

Still, much of the responsibility for expanding the Wolfpack’s mainstream reach in Toronto, and the RFL’s presence outside northern England, will rest on the broad shoulders of the 34-year-old Williams.

While the RFL’s long-term plans include gaining traction in New York, Boston and Ottawa, McDermott says the league first needs to conquer London, where most sports fans prefer 15-player rugby union over 13-player rugby league. The distinction means little to most North American viewers, but it’s critical to aficionados of either version of rugby, and part of what makes crossover players such as Williams so rare.

“It’s a different sport,” said McDermott, who signed a five-year contract extension in late November. “It’s a bit like comparing pool to snooker. On the surface it looks similar, but they’re very, very different.”

Emphasis added mine.