Okay that is good to hear about the "Shipyard" promotion.
I find this whole experiment interesting. My view is you have to go after kids. Youth football in particular. You build loyal fans when they are young.
The biggest struggle, and this is not just the Argos but the CFL in general, is that you need to get league stars as household names in Canada. In Australia for example the AFL stars are household names. A few downtrodden USA football players are going over there and becoming stars in that league.
You get young kids into Argos football, but once they become teens and open up Snapchat they see JJ Watt and Russell Wilson in Gatorade and Bose Ads and wonder why their favorite Argos player is not doing Gatorade Ads. This is largely where the "inferior" image of the CFL comes from. Many of these guys played in the same programs and schools as the JJ Watts and Russell Wilson's of the world. Both are high caliber players it is just the image that surrounds one league is just so much more prevalent and powerful. The CFL as the #2 sports league in Canada it needs to be the 2nd most prevalent sports image in this country. Period.
CFL should be spamming their top talent with league partners to create notable stars who can be on a TV screen and most folks who are even casual sports fans should be able to recognize.
For example, in Toronto, the most famous Argos player is Chad Owens... who isn't a Argo anymore. You ask any casual sports fan here to name one Argos player and his name comes up (most don't realize he plays for Hamilton now, but he is linked with the Argos in this market). If you get a player to that level he should be on Cheerios cereal boxes and pushing Colgate Whitestrips. Anything to get that name and face out there to the masses. To the point is annoying and tacky.
As long as he isn't doing second rate Oliver the Jeweller Ads then it is all fair game. Put these guys in a Lexus, Scotabank, Remy Martin Ad, etc. The Canadian Marketing/Ad community is very small, they give much smaller people much bigger platforms here from my experience. Local Toronto nobody's getting national spots simply because of who they know. My friend went from sleeping on coaches to being a model for Roots in a national campaign. He still sleeps on coaches now, just nicer ones than before. If that guy can get into a national Ad why can't a CFL player?
Last idea...
CFL should drop loser Reebok/Addidas and go with a proven winner in Nike or a more Rouge company like Under Armor. Under Armor is very aggressive in focusing attention on their small stable of talent and would push the CFL much more aggressively versus Addidas IMO. I like Adidas but they have been slowly getting out of the Jersey game and focus much more on Lifestyle brands such as what they do with Jeremy Scott and Kanye West. If they are not putting CFL Players in Kanye 'Yeezy' boots then really what is the point?!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Oilkountry
I think 22K will be the low of the average myself, for instance in 2013 (when the ownership situation was still decent) the argos were drawing just under 22k. I can't see them drawing under that in BMO with new ownership.
2015-16,966.2 (at rogers centre)
2014-17,790.6
2013-21,926.3
2012- 23,689.7
2011-20,017.6
2010-22,069.2
2009- 26,374.2
2008-29,189.1
2007- 30,931.1
2006-29,677.1
You can't tell me with the move to BMO they will only draw an addition 1000 fans from the Argos worst year in the decade. They managed to draw 17K without a single poster in the city in a lame duck season. I feel like with the new ownership and Stadium that is well suited to them it has to help them a little but yeah? I think 23K will be the average this season. But I guarantee you they sell out tonight
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They may draw more. But how many will be
paid seats?
My opinion is that the Argos market is static. How can it not be from a decade in the dark in the late 90's to a near death experience with Braley?
There is this myth of pent up demand from inflated TV numbers that get peddled out that does not equal reality. It has room to grow of course but my view is that there is maybe 40K Argos fans in the GTA that would want to come to a game. That is it. TFC has similar numbers, maybe 50K, a small but loyal group of supporters. Raptors have a static fan base as well of maybe 100K fans. These fans are deeply loyal and will do whatever is needed to support the team. These Clubs all want to grow that number but it isn't as easy as many think. Only the Jays and Leafs have real traction beyond the tips of the GTA and Southern Ontario.
The one thing you can't trust with Bell/Larry T is that they are using tons of stunts here to give the appearance of traction.
Lots of freebie tickets and papering the house will happen this year. It may be the case that 50% of the tickets are freebies just like the last game. If "22K" show up then that is much worse than the rock bottom averages of last year. At least those 17K fans last year paid for the tickets.
The real test is a random game in October in crap weather with Leafs, Raptors, and possible October baseball for Jays all on the Toronto sports menu. TFC even during those dog days suffers at the gate but still can draw a good 15-18K for those doggy late season games.
For Bell it is good business to make Toronto look healthy as you can go rinse for more Ad money from National partners. "See look how many seats we fill each game". They won't care if the house is 80% papered over. You can spin the gate numbers to look how you want. USA TV is notorious for similar stunts to use it to peddle big time Regional TV money.
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Seriously who the f*ck said anything about TFC? This wasn't a TFC vs Argos subject. It was a "half of the fans buying Argos tickets are from Hamilton" subject and you for some reason dragged TFC numbers in as if more resales of TFC tickets vs argos is somehow impressive. That says nothing about numbers of ticket's sold it just means TFC tickets changed hands more often for 1 particular game. 
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