![]() |
Quote:
But an increase in both the Grey Cup and Super Bowl could be indicative of there being some interest in football. |
Quote:
I read somewhere that more than 80% of people in GTA and Hamilton watched the Raptor's Champ win last year. Even if it were to increase and 90% of people in Toronto and Hamilton were to watch the next NBA Final, I doubt it would beat this last weekend's Superbowl Canadian Audience. Of course the Canadian audience blip up with Quebec audience watching Superbowl with that province's first NFL player ever to win from Quebec helped. It makes sense, In 2013, the American audience reached it's highest ratings in history up to that point, plus I wouldn't doubt if the ratings in Saskatchewan were at a historic highs for that Superbowl as well, with Regina's Jon Ryan securing his Superbowl Championship ring that year, plus making first-time in NFL league history plays the next year... |
Israel Idonijie from Winnipeg played in the 2007 Super Bowl and I remember watching snippets of the game to see him, but I don't remember there being any big buzz in town about that. I'd be pretty surprised if the ratings needle moved much in Winnipeg because of him.
Personally I'd be a lot more excited if the Arizona Cardinals made it to the Super Bowl with Chris Streveler on the team... :) |
Quote:
You can ignore the Super Bowl pretty easily, but not the World Cup (unless you're in North America). Whole countries shut down for matches. I mean, people create stop-motion Lego recreations of goals. One billion people watched the France-Croatia final in 2018 as compared to 114 million TV viewers of the most watched Super Bowl in 2015, according to this link: https://the18.com/soccer-news/world-...nue-tv-ratings |
^ Well yeah, I meant here in North America. I guess in some ways the Super Bowl is North America's World Cup.
|
Quote:
In 2006 Jean-Philippe Darche (brother of NHLer Mathieu Darche) played in the Super Bowl with the Seattle Seahawks. Seattle did not win but even before the game there wasn't nearly as much hype as there was for LDT this year. (Interestingly enough, like LDT Darche is now a doctor and was part of the Chiefs' staff this year.) But LDT gets more attention I guess because he's a larger than life character: he went to med school and got his MD as an active NFL player (the first player ever to become a doctor), plus he does all sorts of endearing things like working part-time serving customers in his parents' bakery in Mont-St-Hilaire (south shore Montreal) during the off-season. |
Quote:
As a comparison, the game where the Raptors clinched the title drew 330,000 viewers in Quebec. (An all-time record audience for basketball in Quebec.) Bianca Andreescu's win over Serena Williams at the US Open drew 750,000. |
Quote:
|
Quote:
|
The Toronto Arrows rugby team will be on TSN (TSN2 and TSN Direct) this year, after being on Game TV last year. Should be a big improvement in visibility for them.
http://www.americasrugbynews.com/202...adcast-on-tsn/ First game is this Sunday 8pm against Austin. |
Quote:
Raptors had consistently large TV audiences for a number of games over a number of weeks - Super Bowl gets eyeballs for a few hours in February. And the Raptors had viewing parties in multiple cities. Quote:
Quote:
TSN also picked up XFL for this spring as well. |
Quote:
And hockey is far more culturally iconic in Canada than soccer. There is no public fandom to speak of associated with the MNT in soccer at this point, though I guess it's not impossible that media and marketing hype could potentially whip people up into a frenzy given the right conditions and moment. |
Quote:
That's not to say the World Cup won't be a big deal in Canada for a long time to come, but as in the past it will be driven more by fans cheering for their favourite powerhouse countries than because of anything that Canada manages to accomplish at that level. |
Quote:
|
Quote:
|
We consistently lose to Honduras like 7-1, goal-less would almost be a certainty today.
That's why these MLS development camps are so important and seeing these guys make a splash in the international transfer market gives me some hope for the future. |
Quote:
Quote:
Quote:
I agree that we need to do better against Central American teams but we're not losing every game by five goals. |
Quote:
Now if Canada went on some crazy winning streak then yes, it could take off as the team kept rolling along... or if maybe there was a big game on a Sunday afternoon the way the 2010 Olympic men's hockey gold medal game was scheduled, then maybe. But I'd be pretty surprised if cities shut down to watch Canada vs. Ghana at noon on a Tuesday or whatever. |
Quote:
In other countries that have a shallow soccer culture like Canada but who have been more successful than us at the WC (USA, Australia), fans like these haven't generally jumped en masse on the bandwagon for the national team of the country they're living in, and the old country's team generally remains first in their hearts and minds. And the WC has enough teams in it (and the USA and Oz haven't gotten that far in the tourney) that they haven't generally had to make a tough choice between cheering for their country of residence/citizenship against the old country if they play each other. |
Quote:
|
All times are GMT. The time now is 11:59 PM. |
Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.7
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.