Quote:
Originally Posted by esquire
It's funny that they had a near-sellout for the preseason game involving the Riders but drew flies for the actual regular season game.
Maybe two neutral site games charging top dollar in a small city is a bit much... I'm sure in hindsight they would have just held the game at Varsity, but what led the Argo braintrust to believe that a second game in Ft Mac was a good idea? Even Halifax would have likely made more sense. Hell, they could have held it in Baltimore and probably drawn at least 20K, a salute to the 20th Grey Cup anniversary for that city 
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Yeah, Rider fans travel better than any other fanbase in the country and there are probably a decent number of former Saskatchewan residents living in central and northern Alberta as opposed to few, if any, from southern Ontario.
I think that Pre-season game was planned for well over a year while the regular season game featuring the Argos and the Eskies was only planned this off season. That helps with ticket sales.
Another factor that you stated were the high prices for tickets to 2 events in a city of 70,000, many of which are transient and working or sleeping while the game is happening.
I'm thinking the primary reason for the game in Fort Mac was money. I'm sure Braley was offered a substantial sum of money to bring this game to Fort Mac - something that could not or would not be matched by organizers in cities like London, Guelph, Halifax and who knows who else. I wonder if the Fort Mac taxpayers are on the hook for what has to be big losses from this event?
Regardless, I doubt we ever see a regular season game in Fort Mac in our lifetime again. Hey, where is ISaidSo? Remember when he told us Fort Mac was a future CFl expansion city in 10 - 20 years.