Except for country music in Vancouver of course.

Esks announce 51,000 Grey Cup tickets sold
CFL.ca Staff

EDMONTON — After just four days, tickets sales for the 106th Grey Cup presented by Shaw have reached 51,000 sold to date.

Tickets went on sale to the general public at 4 p.m. ET on Friday, June 1.

With 51,000 tickets sold, that leaves 4,819 remaining seats in The Brick Field at Commonwealth Stadium that are still available for fans to purchase. Of those seats, most are well positioned with great sightlines in the upper bowl, with some 200 single seats still available in the lower bowl.

“51,000 tickets sold is a major milestone for an event taking place more than five months from today,” said Len Rhodes, President and CEO of the Edmonton Eskimos and Co-Chair of the Grey Cup Festival. “The response we’ve received from fans across Canada has been incredible, not to mention the support from our corporate and media partners, who have been instrumental in the success of this ticket launch,” he said.

“We couldn’t be happier with the demand from fans so far,” said Brad Sparrow, Co-Chair of the Grey Cup Festival. “The atmosphere both inside Commonwealth Stadium for the game, and on the streets of Edmonton for the Festival, will be unmatched come November,” he said. “It will be a celebration not to be missed, and so we urge fans from across the country to secure their seats and join us to be a part of it all.”

Tickets are still available through Ticketmaster at ticketmaster.ca/greycup or by phone at 1-855-985-5000.

Local fans can purchase their Grey Cup tickets in-person at the Eskimos Team Store located inside Commonwealth Stadium (11000 Stadium Rd).

Fans can visit greycupfestival.ca for more information

Yes and no.

The unknown rapper from Toronto is what the Eskimo fans have been waiting for since shaggy performed last year.

I too thought that was strange.

Maybe the battle for football fans' hearts in Edmonton is already won? :)

TSN finally launches live streaming, means you can watch the CFL without cable
Drew Edwards 3downnation June 7, 2018

They’ve done it without much fanfare, but TSN has finally launched an online streaming service that should allow CFL fans to watch the games without a cable subscription.

There’s been no official announcement from either the league or the broadcaster – that I can find anyway – and there is precious little information available on the site as to the new initiative. But if you go to login to watch live video at TSN.ca, there’s is now a “TSN Direct” option. And you can sign up here. Looks like it’s available through the TSN GO app on iOS as well.

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

It looks like plans are $24.99 a month, matching the price for SportsNet Now, which was launched more than two years ago. The timing of the launch likely has more to do with the upcoming World Cup of Soccer – hence the pic of Ronaldo and Messi in the promo – than the CFL. But whatever, it’s here.

Fans have been clamouring for a streaming service for years but the CFL has been at the mercy of TSN, which has been slow to adopt a streaming-only option. But with cord-cutting forcing a seismic shift on the industry – this story says 1 in 4 Canadians are now going without cable – Bell has finally gotten on board.

The Raptors had the 4th best attendance in the league for the 2017/2018 regular season this year:

41 Home games
Season total 813,431
Average game attendance 19,839
Average percent of seats filled 100.2%

Raptors average attendance, per season:
2017-2018: 19,839
2016-2017: 19,830
2015-2016: 19,825
2014-2015: 19,751
2013-2014: 18,252

Some pretty good capacity consistency the past few seasons for the Raps.

A lot more suits in the crowd deadening the atmosphere.

As it should be - I think TSNs $40 million/year contract that started in 2014 is what makes the CFL financially viable. The CFL has come a long way since 2003s "Bankruptcy Bowl" and the Tim Horton's bailout of grey cup 1996.

- each team gets a C$4.4 million per year infusion in a sport that has a C$5.1 million team salary cap for 56 players. -

The question is...is TSN really making any money off the CFL broadcasts? Maybe it is a loss leader just because they did not get the NHL (Canadian) broadcast rights and needed something to fill the void - and maybe over bid somewhat??

Still, the CFL has recently approved cost-cutting measures (spending cap) for team operations - so there is still some concern for league financial viability...plus further cost-cutting is being proposed. It could all be draped in "it's just good business practice' but it is what it is. (CFL operation costs are already very low for Pro sports).

https://www.tsn.ca/cfl-approves-cap-...ason-1.1104128

If TSN doesn't make money off of the CFL I'm not sure what they make money off of for the majority of the year. It is on average their biggest audience draw.

I agree with you although it's also likely the programming they spend the most money on in terms of production.

Stuff like the NFL is almost certainly cheaper in terms of the actual cost to TSN, and brings in ratings that might not be as high as the CFL, but are definitely comparable.

So it might actually be that on the balance sheet they make more money off NFL games and other stuff they just buy off U.S. networks.

^ NFL must be a super-hot TV commodity because the ratings are solid but unlike with hockey or the CFL, there is no production required, the Americans already do it all. So almost no overhead, really. You can just ride the coattails of the American networks.

There isn't much stuff on ESPN or the other American sports channels that you can just buy and broadcast in Canada that will draw the kinds of ratings that the NFL does. Most of the other big TV sports draws in the US (NBA, NCAA, MLB not involving the Blue Jays) are fairly marginal in Canada... something like a Bucks-Nets game is basically filler.

:koko: This is not true at all. Anybody who goes to a Raptors game knows your statement is 100% false, even players on other teams respect how into the game and sport Toronto fans are.

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I think you're probably right and that that was a bit unfair.

"Suits" in the good seats at sporting events in Canada are mostly an NHL thing, and especially in Toronto and Montreal.

When it comes to TV at least, the Americans generally make more than enough money in their domestic market for their entertainment products, which allows them to flood the global market with them at super cheap prices.

I don't have any anecdotes from sports broadcasting, but back when I was younger and more involved in media, Quebec TV producers would tell me that it cost them about 1 million dollars to produce one hour of fictional programming (drama or comedy), whereas networks here could buy a plug and play episode of any popular U.S. show for 100k or less.

So I suspect that TSN, Sportsnet or whomever in Canada gets a pretty good deal from them on NFL, and also NCAA, etc.

The Raptors obviosly have "suits" as well though they are not the same breed that attend Leafs games. You probably couldn't tell them apart from those in the nosebleeds. They are there because they love the franchise and the sport.

There was a great doc at TIFF last year called "The carter Effect" that shows how the raptors started off as a joke in the league nobody wanted to play for until Vince Carter gave us an edge and inspired a whole new generation of basketball fans that hadn't existed in this nation before. I was never a Carter fan but after watching this film I now have total respect for him and his time in Toronto.

It also highlight's one of the "suits" Nav Bhatia that has never missed a home game, and has become a celebraty in his own right at the ACC.

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source: https://i.pinimg.com
https://i.pinimg.com/736x/7e/b9/41/7...-game--tia.jpg

I couldn't find the numbers, but based on the photos it seems that attendance at the Impact's game last night was very low. I know it was a rainy night though.

I just checked the attendance numbers by team in the MLS and it seems that they are not doing bad this year with an average of 19,564. It also seems that with the exception of a handful of teams, every single team in the league has seen a decrease YOY.

15,621 was the official number. Toronto was low last night as well (23,011) but, as you said, rainstorms were moving through the region.

MLS attendance usually picks up in the summer when the weather gets better. A team like Columbus, averaging between 10K-12K/match due to relocation rumours and infighting, is dragging down the league attendance a bit. DC United haven't played an actual home game yet this season either, as their new stadium opens this month.