The Great Canadian Sports Attendance, Marketing and TV Ratings Thread

[esquire]

Originally Posted by Andy6

CJOB used to broadcast the finals of the MCA bonspiel live. I believe it was with Bob Irving doing the play by play.

That is mind blowing. I wonder if it wasn't CJOB's curling expert Bob Picken, though?

Speaking of the late great Picken, until recently he was a regular at the well known Ukrainian Sportsmen's Dinner in Winnipeg. He would always have the room full of men howling with his perfectly delivered off-colour jokes that always sounded funnier coming from his recognizable and authoritative voice. That guy was a legend.

[elly63]

Originally Posted by Acajack

That said in spite of the "eeww" label on curling I've seen way more people pay attention to televised curling in bars than I have to skiing.

Curling changed once it became an Olympic sport. Younger, fitter (read sexier) players entered the picture. I've quoted here where curling is one of the most viewed Olympic sports, believe it or not Kevin Martin commenting for NBC asked how much curling coverage they were providing. I think it was 50% of their total airtime.

[Denscity]

Just under 75000 people took in World Rugby 7s in Vancouver this past weekend with Canada winning a bronze!
Vancouver has become one of the most anticipated stops for the players in this interational tournament.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by elly63

Curling changed once it became an Olympic sport. Younger, fitter (read sexier) players entered the picture. I've quoted here where curling is one of the most viewed Olympic sports, believe it or not Kevin Martin commenting for NBC asked how much curling coverage they were providing. I think it was 50% of their total airtime.

I know but it seems like lots of Canadians (and their media overlords) still haven't got the memo yet.

Perhaps if the Americans continue to take a greater interest in curling, 21st century Canadians will start taking it more seriously as well?

Perhaps we could open up the Brier to teams from U.S. states?

I think we can all look forward to the 2030 Brier pitting Alabama against New Mexico, held in Branson, Missouri?

[esquire]

Originally Posted by Acajack

I know but it seems like lots of Canadians (and their media overlords) still haven't got the memo yet.

Perhaps if the Americans continue to take a greater interest in curling, 21st century Canadians will start taking it more seriously as well?

Perhaps we could open up the Brier to teams from U.S. states?

I think we can all look forward to the 2030 Brier pitting Alabama against New Mexico, held in Branson, Missouri?

You may be interested to know that the Grand Slam of Curling (i.e. Sportsnet's pro curling circuit) holds a big event in Las Vegas each year. Although I suspect the fact that it's a fun, warm place that you can get to cheaply from just about any Canadian city has a lot to do with it

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by Andy6

Sportscasters want tape of themselves gushing over US sports since their dream job is to get hired by ESPN or some other American network. Covering curling makes them look like weird foreigners.

Never though of that. Really good point.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by esquire

You may be interested to know that the Grand Slam of Curling (i.e. Sportsnet's pro curling circuit) holds a big event in Las Vegas each year. Although I suspect the fact that it's a fun, warm place that you can get to cheaply from just about any Canadian city has a lot to do with it

Oh yeah, now that you mention it I saw that once!

[OldDartmouthMark]

Originally Posted by Acajack

I know but it seems like lots of Canadians (and their media overlords) still haven't got the memo yet.

Perhaps if the Americans continue to take a greater interest in curling, 21st century Canadians will start taking it more seriously as well?

Perhaps we could open up the Brier to teams from U.S. states?

I think we can all look forward to the 2030 Brier pitting Alabama against New Mexico, held in Branson, Missouri?

Oooohhh... that would be sacrilege. Seriously! The Brier is a Canadian tradition that started in 1927 and has traditionally included all Canadian provinces and territories. There was a bit of a shakeup a few years ago when they wanted to let the previous years' champions return as Team Canada (as had been done with the Scotties), which necessitated lower-ranked teams to play games before the start to qualify to compete. This resulted in some provinces/territories not being able to compete in the round robin and was not well accepted.

So they revised it a couple of years ago to let all teams play in an initial round robin tournament, split up into two groups with a wild card game the Friday night before for competitive teams who didn't win their provincial playdowns. They also split up the territories to add teams to make the format work. Then, after the initial round robin, the top teams play in a playoff round robin, and the top teams from this enter into playoff matches, which this year also included tiebreaker games from the playoff round robin added on to the schedule.

Confused yet?

Anyhow... there are tournaments throughout the year that allow teams from other countries to compete, but the Brier and Scotties must be only Canadian... for tradition, but also the winners of these tournaments represent Canada in the World Championships as well. Having a US state represent Canada in the WC would not be a good thing...

I feel the sport has a fairly strong fan base, but is not widely accepted among all sports fans as being an option (usually by those who want their sports to be fast and action packed). As far as golf vs curling goes... curling all the way as I find golf kind of a snooze fest.

[elly63]

Originally Posted by Denscity

Just under 75000 people took in World Rugby 7s in Vancouver this past weekend with Canada winning a bronze!

Great showing by the 10th ranked Canadian team. They beat the number 2, 3, 4, 14 and 15th ranked teams and missed making the final (vs #6) by one inch.

That good showing moved them up to #8 in the point total seedings. The Canadian women are tied with Australia (#2) for points but somehow are seeded third.

[elly63]

Originally Posted by elly63

Kodi is open source (legal) software, it is the addons which can circumvent copyright. The Kodi developer site itself will not allow illegal addons, they want to distance themselves from that. All Kodi is, is a media player/conglomerator

beIN Sports Xtra is Now Available on XUMO in Canada
Tmera Hepburn cordcuttersnews.com March 9, 2020

Today beIN Sports announced its ad-supported Live Sports streaming channel beIN Sports Xtra is now available in Canada. With this new access to the channel, Canadian viewers will be able to watch sports like soccer via The Roku Channel and Comcast-owned XUMO (free through Kodi with Xumo addon - elly).

“It’s easier than ever to catch [soccer] action in real-time,” Antonio Briceño, deputy managing director for beIN Sports in North America, said in a statement.

beIN Sports will feature commentary and analysis from Kaylyn Kyle, an Olympic medalist and five-time recipient of Saskatchewan Soccer Association’s Player of the Year. beIN features more than just soccer, other sports include wrestling, MMA, skiing and handball.

Here is how the new beIN Sports Xtra Channel is described:

beIN SPORTS XTRA – A free, 24/7 English language LIVE sports, news, analysis and highlights network that brings everyone closer to the game. XTRA will provide LIVE and exclusive access to XTRA soccer matches, XTRA combat sports, XTRA adventure sports, XTRA original studio productions, and a robust library of classic sporting events… all at no XTRA cost!

beIN Sports Xtra is alr4eady available in Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, Dallas – Fort Worth, Houston, San Jose – San Francisco – Oakland, Atlanta, Miami – Fort Lauderdale, San Diego, Salt Lake City, Hartford, Columbus, Las Vegas, and Austin, among others. HC2 Broadcasting has 195 operational stations in over 130 U.S. markets, including 34 of the top 35 markets across the United States.

[esquire]

^ Nice touch.

I wonder if the current situation has the potential to unleash carnage on the North American sports world? No matter what I'd expect the big 4 leagues to remain intact along with a handful of the other top tier organizations with big fanbases like the PGA, ATP, F1 etc. But I think a lot of teams and potentially entire leagues could be wiped out as many of them won't be able to absorb the kinds of losses that this is going to lead to if it wipes out entire seasons.

Looking at the CPL, numerous minor pro/junior hockey franchises, even the CFL.

[elly63]

Originally Posted by elly63

Remember, you can legally share Netflix and Amazon (at least they haven't made it illegal)

More on this at link above starting at 1:48

[thurmas]

Originally Posted by esquire

^ Nice touch.

I wonder if the current situation has the potential to unleash carnage on the North American sports world? No matter what I'd expect the big 4 leagues to remain intact along with a handful of the other top tier organizations with big fanbases like the PGA, ATP, F1 etc. But I think a lot of teams and potentially entire leagues could be wiped out as many of them won't be able to absorb the kinds of losses that this is going to lead to if it wipes out entire seasons.

Looking at the CPL, numerous minor pro/junior hockey franchises, even the CFL.

CFL will be fine if they don't have to pay players if the season gets cancelled. If by July the situation is resolved I could see the CFL even having a bump in ratings and attendance due to pent up demand for sports with no NHL or NBA

[esquire]

Originally Posted by thurmas

CFL will be fine if they don't have to pay players if the season gets cancelled. If by July the situation is resolved I could see the CFL even having a bump in ratings and attendance due to pent up demand for sports with no NHL or NBA

Yeah, it's possible that the NFL season could be unscathed and even the CFL could get by with minimal disruption. But even still the economic hit will be severe. For instance, the 2008 global economic crisis basically killed Arena Football... it lived on for a while in a different format but it was never the same again as it was before.

[thurmas]

CFL could probably move their season back 1 month start mid or late july and still have a grey cup

[elly63]

Originally Posted by thurmas

I could see the CFL even having a bump in ratings and attendance due to pent up demand for sports with no NHL or NBA

I was wondering about that as well. Given the timing of if things get better or worse, it could be a feast or famine season. The CFL might be the only league to get a full or reasonably full season in depending on what goes down. Edit: Oops, forgot the NFL.

[esquire]

Realistically I think sports are off the table until June at the earliest. Maybe July. It will be so deep into baseball and soccer seasons that it's hard to imagine how MLB/MLS/CPL could manage to fit a season in, but maybe they could do the kind of abridged season we've seen in the past when there have been labour disruptions.

For the CFL, it doesn't help that this season was going to be one of the earlier starting ones, but I think they can run a season nonetheless even though it could mean cutting training camp and the preseason short, and maybe cutting out bye weeks. Might even lose a couple of regular season games depending on how it goes.

The NFL is better off since they really don't get going with training camps until late July IIRC, at which point the crisis should have blown over. They will probably barely feel it with regard to scheduling.

And then of course the NBA and NHL should be able to resume in the fall after having this season cancelled.

[isaidso]

Originally Posted by Acajack

Perhaps if the Americans continue to take a greater interest in curling, 21st century Canadians will start taking it more seriously as well?

Don't we already devote an absurd amount of airtime to curling?

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by isaidso

Don't we already devote an absurd amount of airtime to curling?

Yes but as we have discussed before it's stand-alone coverage that conveniently fills in airtime with CanCon for the networks and often it also almost feels like an "old time's sake" type of thing. Out of loyalty and duty as opposed to true enthusiasm.

Hence even the networks who broadcast it afford it very little coverage in their newscasts and even less (zilch) in their magazine/talk shows.

TV ratings and Brier attendance seem to be on a slow but steady decline so it's unclear to me whether fairly extensive TV coverage of curling will still be the case in the years to come.

I mean, is it any wonder when NCAA March Madness gets infinitely more peripheral sports media coverage and talk show coverage in Canada than curling does.

[esquire]

^ I never thought of curling as a charity case or anything like that... it's a relatively low cost source of programming that seems to draw respectable numbers.

Total guess here, but I'd wager that the lack of SC coverage probably has more to do with the fact that curling demographics probably don't overlap much with Sportscentre demographics.