Bill Manning laid out his business plan on the Fan590 PrimeTime show last night.
http://www.sportsnet.ca/590/prime-ti...-mlse-machine/
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Bill Manning laid out his business plan on the Fan590 PrimeTime show last night.
http://www.sportsnet.ca/590/prime-ti...-mlse-machine/
I like the banners. They close in the end zone with that ridiculously high roof. They just need tied down, during higher winds. I can’t see why this isn’t possible. As far as signage, there could be little touches, that some may not even notice though. They do a pretty good job for game days, aside from the red seats.
There was an informative article in the Toronto Sun by Kurtis Larson today. In an interview with Bill Manning an interesting little thing came out which may affect a great deal of us as STH.
A DIFFERENT CFL CONFIGURATION AT BMO FIELD?
BMO Field could have a distinctly different look for CFL games in 2018.
New top boss Bill Manning told the Toronto Sun this week he’s considering tarping off the upper deck at BMO to consolidate Toronto Argonauts crowds into the lower bowl.
“We’re going to do what soccer teams do (in football stadiums), when they tarp off the upper decks,” Manning said. “We’re going to do the same thing. It’s going to be a lower bowl. Let’s fill the lower bowl first and then worry about filling the upper deck.”
I don't know about the rest of you but if they push my seats down into the lower bowl I am out as a STH, the view is way worse from down there as watching football "low down" is not the way to to best see plays develop in my opinion. Its the same thing as them taking away the 500L in the Dome which were frankly the best seats in that place to watch the game (512 row 1!). I had seasons in the 500L and once they took that part of the stadium away I rarely, if ever went back as the view is awful from down low. I know they want to make it "look full", but for the actual enjoyment of watching football, you'd be very hard pressed to convince me that a seat in row 1 in midfield in the upper west side in 223 is not a way better "football viewing" seat than row 1 in Section 123 where you can barely see over the players heads on the sidelines. My seats are in 220, I would not want seats in 120 as you simply cannot see the whole field at that height and have no depth perspective of whether a runner goes 15 yards or 5 yards.....again, its the little things that drive me nuts with this team; I really hope that others feel as I do about potentially being moved down in to the lower bowl, and let the team know that this is not the way to go.....they will definitely lose me as a STH if this is done, as I am there to actually "see" the game, not just be close to the field for "Atmosphere" sake.....
I don't see how they can make this kind of change with 5 months before the season starts and season ticket sales for 2018 have been going on for months.
They already decided to keep the configuration the same after contemplating it before. If they want to make changes to the seating map in 2019 then go for it, but Mr. Manning should check to see what happened in BC when they closed off the upper deck.
From the article, the lower bowl seats about 15K. The ones paying 199.00/season are not going to pay more to move down. I've never actually sat in the upper west side. Don't they use the same concessions as the ones in the lower bowl west? There would be little to no savings to shut that down completely.
I do consider those comments rather concerning.
They should keep the east upper stands, as the seats when priced right like last year, and heavily promoted, can sell very well. reduce the pricing in the lower bowl, and people will sit there.
He is probably talking about the EAST SIDE, I don't think seats in the East side upper deck are for sale at this point. It may make sense not to sell the upper deck east side, I don't know why they have to "tarp them off" what difference does that make, except maybe to stop people sitting up there. If you watch on TV you know that people are not sitting there, tarped or not.
I can't see why the west side would be closed off, I bought a package there last year. You did have to go down quite a few rows to get to the concessions lower down.
I believe that the East side upper deck added 8k seats, if you close that off then there is something like 18k available to sell. If he's talking about the upper West side too then that would be another 4k or so???? or 14k available?
I have always sat in the upper deck on the west side and expect to again this season. Really enjoy the view from up there, great atmosphere. Curious comments about the tarps though.
Time to dust of the old tarps from the Skydome..:(
Let's wait and see what actually happens. Maybe he has an actual plan, maybe he's just pondering options (although it did sound fairly definitive), maybe he's already thinking about 2019. I know someone who has season's seats in the upper east stands (in the handful of rows at the front that are separated from the bulk of that stand), so if the entire upper east side were to be closed, they'd be affected.
My parents sit in row 1 of the upper east side with their Skydome seat mates.
WTF? Your team just won a championship. How about sell seats. How embarrassing is it to tarp over a 25,000 seat stadium? Why go there, and even if you are thinking it why say that publicly. You would think there are other things to muse about with regards to the Argonauts. I hope this guy isn't Copeland 2.0.
Don't forget the last game the Argos played in at BMO drew about 25,000. Let's not set the bar so low for your first go around Bill.
I enjoy sitting in the 200 level and agree they are better seats as my seasons in year one in the 100 level.
Yep assumed it's the east side upper level. I get it, reduce supply and increase demand. Unfortunately that's the side that's on tv. Perhaps tarp the top 2/3rds.
I sit on the west upper level during the season. But sat on the upper east side for the final.
Link: http://torontosun.com/sports/soccer/...rgos-situation
Lots of other Argonauts information in the article such as season ticket renewal numbers.
Not so sure I'm that impressed with Manning's initial idea. He talks about doing what soccer teams do by tarping off the top on the stands. Soccer fans I know, love to be as close to field level as possible but most football fans usually prefer to be higher to see the plays develop. It looks as if he is looking at this from a soccer perspective--hope that will change.
I'm also somewhat disappointed that his first strategy regarding the attendance, is to camouflage the problem, rather initiating ways of increasing the attendance. Perhaps, I'm being too hard on Manning but as I have stated I did expect better.