Winnipeg | NHL Jets

[Danny D Oh]

Originally Posted by esquire

You can't do multi-year contracts when you have a pile of unsold seats. It only worked when demand vastly exceeded supply, i.e. the first five years. Maybe it still works with premium seats where corporate accounts are comfortable signing on for 4 or 5 years, but I think a lot of people will be hesitant to sign on for multi-year contracts, especially in light of all the tumult of the past few years.

There's no reason why they couldn't. They'd be better off locking people in to buy 80% of the year-by-year cost for 5 years than hope every year they don't lose another 2000 seats. But yeah they'd have to give people a reason to commit in the form of a better deal and/or better perks.

Right now there's hardly a reason to commit to a full season based on the offering aside from avoiding having to fight to pay almost double (and escalating each round) for playoff seats.

[BlackDog204]

The Jets played surprisingly well, considering they rested all their star players, but fell to the Avalanche 4-2. Vegas won, so the Jets will play the Golden Knights in Round 1.

Hellebuyck will have to be lights out, if we are to win the series.

[wags_in_the_peg]

thank goodness we are not playing Oilers, they have been so hot past few months. Jets play like they can, Vegas is beatable

[Biff]

Jets win in 6.

I don't have a lot of faith that they will go far but for some reason I have this feeling they will beat the Knights.

[Winnipeg Grump]

Originally Posted by esquire

I don't even think you have to bring cost into it. Bomber games, at least in recent years, have been straight up more entertaining. I think that the loud leather-lunged fans who were at Jets games for the first five years are all at IG Field now... atmosphere is definitely better there.

Yup. We have 4 x P2's (lower-bowl, around the 25-30 yard line) at $934 each. Includes pre-season AND post-season. Atmosphere is night and day compared to the arena. My biggest peeve is the fact that we aren't getting a full house for every game. I'm not sure what more people expect from Miller et al that would get a couple extra thousand bodies into the seats. It's frankly embarrassing that a club with that record isn't selling out every game.

[optimusREIM]

Originally Posted by Winnipeg Grump

Yup. We have 4 x P2's (lower-bowl, around the 25-30 yard line) at $934 each. Includes pre-season AND post-season. Atmosphere is night and day compared to the arena. My biggest peeve is the fact that we aren't getting a full house for every game. I'm not sure what more people expect from Miller et al that would get a couple extra thousand bodies into the seats. It's frankly embarrassing that a club with that record isn't selling out every game.

Across the board, people are turning more inward for their entertainment and many view the idea that you have to get off your couch as an affront. People go out a lot less than they used to... sad state of affairs. I mean, look at the argos, they are located in Toronto with unlimited people and can't fill seats. Of course I'd rather see IG Field full, but at least it's hoppin on game nights.

As for the Jets, same thing, what's wild to me is that we were able to fill a similar sized rink in the 70s and 80s no problem with a much smaller population. There's more to it than the success of the team on the ice.

[optimusREIM]

Originally Posted by Biff

Jets win in 6.

I don't have a lot of faith that they will go far but for some reason I have this feeling they will beat the Knights.

I have the same feeling weirdly enough!

[esquire]

Originally Posted by optimusREIM

As for the Jets, same thing, what's wild to me is that we were able to fill a similar sized rink in the 70s and 80s no problem with a much smaller population. There's more to it than the success of the team on the ice.

It's not surprising at all. Two main factors: 1) prices were lower... it was never cheap to go to a Jets game, but back in the 80s and 90s you could get cheap seats for roughly the cost of a movie ticket. Even the "good" seats were not exorbitantly expensive like they are now. 2) Hardly any games were televised, so you had to go to the game if you wanted to see the team play.

The teams want the fat TV contracts but they still expect fans to buy tickets at ever increasing premium prices. These days with big-screen 4K TVs and every game on television, you could easily follow the team without ever setting foot inside the arena. I guess some people have come to the conclusion that they can get all the Jets entertainment they want without the $8,000 or whatever annual pricetag for a pair of season tickets.

[BlackDog204]

Originally Posted by Winnipeg Grump

Yup. We have 4 x P2's (lower-bowl, around the 25-30 yard line) at $934 each. Includes pre-season AND post-season. Atmosphere is night and day compared to the arena. My biggest peeve is the fact that we aren't getting a full house for every game. I'm not sure what more people expect from Miller et al that would get a couple extra thousand bodies into the seats. It's frankly embarrassing that a club with that record isn't selling out every game.

Unfortunately it is like that in every city that the CFL is in. Attendance has been on a downward spiral for the past 15 years. BC and Toronto barely draw flies, and even traditionally strong markets like Edmonton are struggling.

[esquire]

Originally Posted by BlackDog204

Unfortunately it is like that in every city that the CFL is in. Attendance has been on a downward spiral for the past 15 years. BC and Toronto barely draw flies, and even traditionally strong markets like Edmonton are struggling.

Maybe in some other places, but attendance is at near all time highs here.

[bomberjet]

Why don't I go to more Bomber games? Because the stadium is in a bad location. I get out to a couple games a year.

Same reason I haven't made it to an ICE game yet.

[drew]

^ same for me.

The stadium is in a really annoying location for me. And after the last game we were at it took a solid 45 minutes to get from the stadium to Pembina Highway...

My biggest gripe with the location is the limitations on traffic in and out.

[CoryB]

The Jets honestly do a better job at making ALL their fans feel seen. The number of times in over 10 years as a Bomber STH where the in house promotion of a free slice of pizza or whatever are in the 200 level seats is near zero compared to the more expensive 100 seats. I think it is even to the point some of the most expensive club seats have more giveways in a single game than my section in the 200s has had in 10+ years and not just any one game for the 100s but almost every game.

At least with the Jets that are actively doing promotional giveaways in the 200 section every game.

[WildCake]

Originally Posted by esquire

Maybe in some other places, but attendance is at near all time highs here.

I mean that's to be expected here after 2 grey cups and a 2nd place finish in the last 3 seasons.

It doesn't speak well for the longevity of the league if the overall trend is decreased attendance since they don't have the hefty TV contracts the bigger leagues in North America can float off.

Likewise, if the two most populous markets in Canada aren't supporting their teams and Edmonton being a more traditional football market is dropping their attendance drastically from poor performance isn't promising.This isn't the NHL where you have 2-3 teams out of 32 (Coyotes and Panthers) that can be propped up by the rest.

[esquire]

Originally Posted by WildCake

I mean that's to be expected here after 2 grey cups and a 2nd place finish in the last 3 seasons.

It doesn't speak well for the longevity of the league if the overall trend is decreased attendance since they don't have the hefty TV contracts the bigger leagues in North America can float off.

Meh. I've been hearing doubts about the longevity of the league for over 30 years and it's still here. If it survived COVID and the lost season then I'm not worried about the CFL.

[BlackDog204]

Originally Posted by bomberjet

Why don't I go to more Bomber games? Because the stadium is in a bad location. I get out to a couple games a year.

Same reason I haven't made it to an ICE game yet.

I've never understood this.

The Blue Bombers play 9 times a year, once per week on average. It is easily accessible to get to from transit, and easy for most people with vehicles. The other location that was discussed was at the Red River Ex grounds near Headingley.

With all due respect, it just sounds like a lazy reason not to attend games. The old stadium location was not great for people near the current location, or places like Windsor Park or Transcona, but that never kept people from attending games.

I can see an argument being made in regards to the Ice, since they play a 70 game schedule, but not for the Bombers.

[BlackDog204]

Originally Posted by drew

^ same for me.

The stadium is in a really annoying location for me. And after the last game we were at it took a solid 45 minutes to get from the stadium to Pembina Highway...

My biggest gripe with the location is the limitations on traffic in and out.

How is that any different than the old stadium, which was a headache navigating through the Polo Park area.

[BlackDog204]

Originally Posted by esquire

Meh. I've been hearing doubts about the longevity of the league for over 30 years and it's still here. If it survived COVID and the lost season then I'm not worried about the CFL.

"This is what average CFL ticket sales look like league-wide over the past fifty years. Things have recently tailed off, though not to the extent they did in the 1990s. Below are the average attendance figures per decade since the 1970s."

1970s 26,689

1980s 27,390

1990s 24,183

2000s 27,050

2010s 25,571

https://3downnation.com/2021/03/25/how-c...rs-with-a-close-look-at-b-c-and-toronto/

---

Since this article was written, BC and especially Toronto have seen their attendance decline substantially in the last two seasons. Otherwise the league is still in relatively good shape, especially when one considers new stadiums have been built in Regina, Winnipeg, Ottawa, and Hamilton.

Big stadiums like BC Place, Skydome, and Olympic Stadium in Montreal have hurt their respective attendances in the long term. The only time the long term viability of the league was in question, was in the immediate aftermath of the failed US experiment, when attendance in Canada was at record lows. The Bombers turned a profit of $5.5 million in 2022.

[drew]

Originally Posted by BlackDog204

How is that any different than the old stadium, which was a headache navigating through the Polo Park area.

There are almost infinitesimal more ways in and out of the Polo Park area (grid system) as compared to the 3 in and out of the current stadium. It's not a close comparison, even comically.

[esquire]

I normally cycle to Bomber games but on the odd occasion that I've had to drive, I haven't found it to be that bad. Yes you have to wait a little bit to get out of the parking lot, but that's going to happen when you have 30,000+ people in one place. It took the stadium parking lots a while to empty out at the old place too.

The only time I ever found it intolerably bad was when I went south of the stadium down Kings Drive after the Banjo Bowl... it took forever to get to Pembina. I wouldn't do that again. Going down Chancellor Matheson or to University Cres you get out much faster.