The Great Canadian Sports Attendance, Marketing and TV Ratings Thread

[thurmas]

Cfl ratings have been solid this year around 550 k or so a week on a medium with massive cable cutting. If they could move Thursday night games to Friday and Saturday would be even stronger.

[jonny24]

Originally Posted by thurmas

Cfl ratings have been solid this year around 550 k or so a week on a medium with massive cable cutting. If they could move Thursday night games to Friday and Saturday would be even stronger.

I thought the whole point of Thursday games is that the TV broadcasters wanted them?

[esquire]

I like this arrangement of one CFL game a night. It gives each game a bigger stage.

[blueandgoldguy]

The Banjo Bowl game in Winnipeg is sold out more or less. Just down to single seats at this point.

[HomeInMyShoes]

Originally Posted by esquire

I like this arrangement of one CFL game a night. It gives each game a bigger stage.

I would agree with that. Maybe not so good for the home team's attendance though.

I'm trying to compile some attendance stats. who knows the attendance figure for Saskatchewan Week 6 and Montreal Week 3.

So far outside of the lone Monday game in Toronto it seems to be a push for which day is best for attendance, but Thursday is lower.

thursday 22,045
friday 24,232
saturday 23,673
sunday 22,281
monday 12,473

[thurmas]

Victoria in Australia has dropped hosting the 2026 Commonwealth games as costs have tripled to $ 6 billion putting the 2026 games in peril. The organizers of these events be it Olympics Pan Am or Commonwealth really gotta realize they gotta scale these things back as there is no payback hosting these events anymore to make up for the astronomical costs.

[esquire]

^ Maybe the Olympics could conceivably be worth it depending on the voodoo economics you apply, but there is no way the lesser events like Pan Am Games could justify those prices. $6 billion is a preposterous amount for the Commonwealth Games... I remember when Winnipeg hosted the Pan Am Games it cost something like $140 million and even that seemed like a crazy number for a two week event... that's probably just the port-a-potty budget now. These events are bloated, out of control and probably deserve to die.

[thurmas]

https://globalnews.ca/news/9839914/a...nwealth-games/

Australia’s decision to pull out of the 2026 Commonwealth Games because of projected costs has some questioning Alberta’s potential bid to host in 2030.


Premier of Australia’s Victoria state Daniel Andrews said Tuesday that his government agreed to host the multi-sports event, “but not at any cost.”

He said his government initially budgeted $2.6 billion AUS to stage the Games in five regional cities, but recent estimates put the potential cost as high as $7 billion.

[Berklon]

7bill to host the Commonwealth Games? That's so worth it!

Remember the last games when it was hosted by that city? What a show that was.
Let's not forget the terrific performance by that one individual who excelled at that one event and won gold. That person's practically a household name now.

Seriously, other than the athletes and their families and the politicians who get a kickback - does anyone really care about these games (or the PanAm games)?

Even the luster of the Olympics seems to be fading.

[thurmas]

Originally Posted by Berklon

7bill to host the Commonwealth Games? That's so worth it!

Remember the last games when it was hosted by that city? What a show that was.
Let's not forget the terrific performance by that one individual who excelled at that one event and won gold. That person's practically a household name now.

Seriously, other than the athletes and their families and the politicians who get a kickback - does anyone really care about these games (or the PanAm games)?

Even the luster of the Olympics seems to be fading.

They are a scam. I can't remember any olympic medalist just from the past Tokyo games.

[UrbanClimate]

Originally Posted by HomeInMyShoes

I would agree with that. Maybe not so good for the home team's attendance though.

I'm trying to compile some attendance stats. who knows the attendance figure for Saskatchewan Week 6 and Montreal Week 3.

So far outside of the lone Monday game in Toronto it seems to be a push for which day is best for attendance, but Thursday is lower.

thursday 22,045
friday 24,232
saturday 23,673
sunday 22,281
monday 12,473

Week 6 attendance for the CFL game in Regina was just shy of 29,000.

[blueandgoldguy]

The one-game per night (mostly) for the CFL appears to be paying off. Ratings are up noticeably from last year.

[thurmas]

https://3downnation.com/2023/07/19/n...-ratings-high/

New heights: Week 6 thrillers help CFL set multi-year regular season TV ratings high

The Canadian Football League has set a new multi-year television ratings mark for a slate of regular season games.

Each matchup in Week 6 averaged 62.5 points with 251 scored combined. Three games featured thrilling finishes in the fourth quarter or overtime. It was the highest-rated week on television dating back to Week 2 of the pandemic-shortened 2021 season.

Argonauts’ quarterback Chad Kelly threw a touchdown pass with less than two minutes left to lift Toronto over Montreal 35-27. Redblacks’ rookie Dustin Crum scored a walk-off touchdown to cap an improbable 19-point fourth-quarter comeback versus Winnipeg 31-28. Veteran kicker Rene Paredes hit a 50-yard field goal on the final play in a 33-31 win at Mosaic Stadium.

The Stampeders last-second win over the Roughriders produced the highest-rated English language broadcast so far in 2023. What was most notable was the game pulled in more people in the 25-54 age demographic (230,900) compared to the Blue Jays (228,700) on the same day.

The Major League Baseball All-Star break made for wide-open Thursday sports viewing and the CFL took advantage with the Tiger-Cats and Elks drew nearly 600,000 eyeballs despite the 9 p.m. eastern time kickoff. The Jays returned to action on Friday night and produced 1,050,700 viewers for Sportsnet. The Argos went head-to-head against Canada’s only MLB team and did reasonably well. The Blue Birds had 859,000 onlookers on Saturday afternoon and that game finished in time for Crum to take centre stage on Canadian television.

The three-down league has seen a 46 percent increase in its average weekly English TV ratings from Week 1 to Week 6 and a 41 percent jump with French included.

2023 Week 6 TV ratings:

Thursday
Hamilton at Edmonton — 578,800

Friday
Toronto at Montreal — TSN 480,200 and RDS 169,900 (650,100 total)

Saturday
Winnipeg at Ottawa — 490,800
Calgary at Saskatchewan — 721,600

Total Week 5 average: 567,850 (French included: 610,325)

[blueandgoldguy]

Winnipeg Sea Bears have sold out their final game of the regular season. There will likely be around 9,000 in attendance. The Sea Bears have broken the CEBL single game attendance record a few times this season.

Given what I've researched about the other teams in the league, I thought they would have done well to draw 3,000 or so each game. Turns out I was a wee bit off! Apparently the game day atmosphere is something else and has generated positive word-of-mouth in Winnipeg leading to ever-increasing crowds throughout the season.

[esquire]

Originally Posted by blueandgoldguy

Winnipeg Sea Bears have sold out their final game of the regular season. There will likely be around 9,000 in attendance. The Sea Bears have broken the CEBL single game attendance record a few times this season.

Given what I've researched about the other teams in the league, I thought they would have done well to draw 3,000 or so each game. Turns out I was a wee bit off! Apparently the game day atmosphere is something else and has generated positive word-of-mouth in Winnipeg leading to ever-increasing crowds throughout the season.

The Sea Bears have far exceeded what I thought they'd pull off too. They deliver a very polished, professional look and feel. I've been to a few games and I've been very impressed.



I think a playoff sellout crowd of 15,000+ at Canada Life Centre is very much a possibility.

[thurmas]

now we just need Chris Jericho getting courtside tickets to be our version of Drake or Spike Lee.

[Coldrsx]

The Edmonton Riverhawks broke the West Coast League’s attendance record this season, with 104,748 fans showing up to cheer the team on over 27 games. The team’s final game of the season on Aug. 6 saw more than 5,400 in attendance for its 3-0 loss to the Victoria HarbourCats. “It’s been an unbelievable year,” said general manager Steve Hogle. “We’re really touched and we just love feeling the vibe.” The Riverhawks failed to make the playoffs with a disappointing 18-36 record.
​-Taproot