Low attendance?????

[Argoscflguy]

Like most of you I'm really disssapointed in the attendance, 19000 for yesterday's game, 15000 for the roughrider game, what the hell is going on? People just don't have any interest in this team unless its playing in an American League!! Me and the wife were grabbing some eats the other day wearing our Argo gear when a lady jokingly asked "you like the Argos they suck and so does the cfl" both our bloods were both boiling,my wife replied we support our game and our city!! Couldn't say much didn't want to start a argument in public. What does toronto need to do?

[294life]

actually it was 18-19,000 for the ssk game. the important thing is you have a solid core of fans and a winning team. keep building on that.

[gilthethrill]

Like most of you I'm really disssapointed in the attendance, 19000 for yesterday's game, 15000 for the roughrider game, what the hell is going on? People just don't have any interest in this team unless its playing in an American League!! Me and the wife were grabbing some eats the other day wearing our Argo gear when a lady jokingly asked "you like the Argos they suck and so does the cfl" both our bloods were both boiling,my wife replied we support our game and our city!! Couldn't say much didn't want to start a argument in public. What does toronto need to do?

Those comments from that lady would not have gone over well with me. I was shocked at all the empty seats I saw last night as well. I fully expect a great crowd Friday night however. Perception of the CFL in Ontario is poor to say the least. How does that get corrected?

[dmont]

This is another example of Rogers Centre screwing over the team. A Sunday evening is a pretty lousy date and time to hold a game. Everyone's gotta get up early for work and/or get the kids in bed in time for school.

[Will]

Uh...it's August 18...school is not in session yet.

[Skinny G]

Doug Smith comments a bit about this - bad schedule and dates given to the Argos in his blog today: http://thestar.blogs.com/raptors/

Though he's only recently taken on reporting on the Argos recently, he at least doesn't trash them like many others do, especially at the The Star. I read his blog and articles on the Raps, and I feel that he's probably the best sports reporter at The Star... by far!

I think we should encourage a reporter like him... to keep the positivity for the Argos.

[Ticats85]

The hatred for the CFL isn't just a Toronto thing it's a Ontario thing, Hamilton gets a bit better attendance (when there playing in Hamilton) but there not exactly on the level of a Roughrider's fan base. Lets face it people in Ontario will never accept the CFL in large numbers both teams have there hardcore fans and if that's enough to keep the teams alive than so be it. You can't force people to like the league I'm done trying to convince people that it's worth watching or going to games.

[dmont]

Uh...it's August 18...school is not in session yet.

Hahah forgot about that. I'm writing from Atlanta, where school actually HAS started. I stand by the rest of my post.

[Rocket]

The hatred for the CFL isn't just a Toronto thing it's a Ontario thing, Hamilton gets a bit better attendance (when there playing in Hamilton) but there not exactly on the level of a Roughrider's fan base. Lets face it people in Ontario will never accept the CFL in large numbers both teams have there hardcore fans and if that's enough to keep the teams alive than so be it. You can't force people to like the league I'm done trying to convince people that it's worth watching or going to games.

The hardcore fans that support these teams right now are not getting any younger. Which could be a big problem later on. They need people working with these organizations to try to market there teams in a more aggresive way. The crowds this season has been very sad except for the home opener.

[Gill The Thrill]

Like most of you I'm really disssapointed in the attendance, 19000 for yesterday's game, 15000 for the roughrider game, what the hell is going on? People just don't have any interest in this team unless its playing in an American League!! Me and the wife were grabbing some eats the other day wearing our Argo gear when a lady jokingly asked "you like the Argos they suck and so does the cfl" both our bloods were both boiling,my wife replied we support our game and our city!! Couldn't say much didn't want to start a argument in public. What does toronto need to do?

Just curious if this was in the burbs, or in downtown? I ask because I just want to get a general feel of the type of person that would go out of their way to tell you that without even knowing you. Although I could be accused of stereotyping, I get the impression this is information she probably got from a hubby, father, boyfriend throughout the years.

What really bothers me is that this same person feels compelled to voice her displeasure about seeing you in Argos gear, or supporting what to them is the 2nd rate CFL, yet they may be great fans of Toronto FC. A member of that "world class" Major League Soccer, which sees their teams in the middle of the season lose to European teams in the first week of training camp by 3 goals. Should we even talk about that debacle of a baseball team which if Pittsburgh and KC make the playoffs this year, will be the only team to not ever make the playoffs since the Wild Card was put in.

Ask her about what she thinks of other Toronto teams, next time, or if she tells people wearing TFC, or Rock jerseys that their league sucks? These are the same hypocrites that cry about Bettman making the NHL more American, yet they refuse to accept the CFL because it's Canadian. It makes you wonder.

The hatred for the CFL isn't just a Toronto thing it's a Ontario thing, Hamilton gets a bit better attendance (when there playing in Hamilton) but there not exactly on the level of a Roughrider's fan base. Lets face it people in Ontario will never accept the CFL in large numbers both teams have there hardcore fans and if that's enough to keep the teams alive than so be it. You can't force people to like the league I'm done trying to convince people that it's worth watching or going to games.

The GTA and specifically the "beorgeosie" of the downtown is the epicentre of this sentiment, so it is, quite frankly a Toronto phenomenom that has culturally diffused to other parts of Ontario. From the major corporations to the beer companies who chose to hitch their wagon on spending a lot of money to advertise for the other league in the last quarter century, it's fermented that perception from Toronto outwards.

As long as the Argos are viewed as a tennant in another team's stadium, this perception will be hard to break.

[Argo57]

Just curious if this was in the burbs, or in downtown? I ask because I just want to get a general feel of the type of person that would go out of their way to tell you that without even knowing you. Although I could be accused of stereotyping, I get the impression this is information she probably got from a hubby, father, boyfriend throughout the years.

What really bothers me is that this same person feels compelled to voice her displeasure about seeing you in Argos gear, or supporting what to them is the 2nd rate CFL, yet they may be great fans of Toronto FC. A member of that "world class" Major League Soccer, which sees their teams in the middle of the season lose to European teams in the first week of training camp by 3 goals. Should we even talk about that debacle of a baseball team which if Pittsburgh and KC make the playoffs this year, will be the only team to not ever make the playoffs since the Wild Card was put in.

Ask her about what she thinks of other Toronto teams, next time, or if she tells people wearing TFC, or Rock jerseys that their league sucks? These are the same hypocrites that cry about Bettman making the NHL more American, yet they refuse to accept the CFL because it's Canadian. It makes you wonder.

Or you could simply smile-nod and tell them to f**k off!!!

[Will]

It's not just downtown though. I live in Thornhill and when I went through elementary school and high school I could count the amount of CFL fans on both my hands. The curtain started to be broken a little bit in 2004 when the team won the Grey Cup and attendance trended upward, but nothing significant.

The problem as I tried to explain to a friend who I gave the free tickets (from the survey) to for the BC game is that there are plenty of people like him. He has an interest in the league, but not nearly enough to turn him into a die-hard. I realize not everyone is going to become a die-hard, but even casuals going to a couple games a year would help things.

[LLB997]

The hardcore fans that support these teams right now are not getting any younger. Which could be a big problem later on. They need people working with these organizations to try to market there teams in a more aggresive way. The crowds this season has been very sad except for the home opener.

I agree somewhat, but the reality is that people were saying the same "fans are not getting any younger "thing in the 90's.The CFL is kind of a league you age into as i know it was for me. I always respected the CFL but I was never going to or watching games when I was in my early 20's. You can bet these young goofballs with their tilted Yankees caps won't be rocking that "style" when they are 48 with 2 kids and liking what the kids like is going to be a little embarrassing. As for the Troll Argoscflguy had to put up with, wow, that's shocking! I always wear Argos swag when in TO and have NEVER had anyone say anything negative to me. In fact its been a conversation starter many times and rest assured I have had people say that they love the CFL just from interacting w/me. Sorry you had to go through that.

[ArgoGabe22]

The kick off time doesn't help but as the GTA continues to grow I think a major problem is public transportation. The futhur people move away, the less likely they are willing to travel. I think most people would love to watch the game for 3 hrs but don't want to spend an additional 2 hours going to and leaving downtown. Doesn't solve the older generation but there must some who just don't see the trip to the game worth it anymore.

[paulwoods13]

The kick off time doesn't help but as the GTA continues to grow I think a major problem is public transportation. The futhur people move away, the less likely they are willing to travel. I think most people would love to watch the game for 3 hrs but don't want to spend an additional 2 hours going to and leaving downtown. Doesn't solve the older generation but there must some who just don't see the trip to the game worth it anymore.

No matter where a stadium is placed, many fans will have to travel a long distance to it. Downtown at least is roughly equally accessible from north, west and east. But there's no question the sheer size of this metropolis, and the number of other things happening that contribute to traffic, makes it challenging to get to games. The traffic leaving last night's game was unreal. Can't have all been Ex-related, I don't think.

[AaronInToronto]

At the park last week with my daughter, who was excitedly talking about Jr. Cheer, and had one guy actually say to me - "The Argos are playing right now? Doesn't the season start in October?" Eesh! Another person commented "CFL is crap, I went to a game back in university and it was like watching high school girls soccer". When pressed, he said he last went in 2001. Me to him "you should come down for a game. You'd be surprised now at the skill levels" His response - "Ya, keep dreamin buddy!"

I just shake it off and keep trying to reach out to one person at a time.

[Will]

"CFL is crap, I went to a game back in university and it was like watching high school girls soccer".

See, that's the attitude some people hold. Their reasons for disliking the CFL are irrational. I bet his argument wouldn't hold water if you kept asking "why, why."

[Deerkeeper]

This is another example of Rogers Centre screwing over the team. A Sunday evening is a pretty lousy date and time to hold a game. Everyone's gotta get up early for work and/or get the kids in bed in time for school.

I don't think you can blame Rogers for the start time. This is all TSN. For what ever reason, they though cars driving fast in a circle was a more important sporting event for a summer Sunday afternoon than their primary sports property. On TSN2 they had the equally important Aussie rules. Had it been an afternoon game, I likely would have been there, but for a 7PM start, I was not about to tackle that southbound summer Sunday afternoon traffic on the 400.

[ArgoRavi]

The CFL seems to threaten a lot of people which is why we hear of some of these hate-filled responses. Why does the CFL threaten some people? I think that one reason is that some believe that the CFL is what is keeping the NFL out of Canada but I think that it is more than that. I would suggest that most of us have grown up with the notion that anything that is Canadian is automatically inferior and that includes the CFL. However, even the CFL-haters who aren't totally ignorant see that the CFL still draws 50k+ for its championship game (where there are enough seats), around 28k on average on a regular basis and can draw up to a million viewers for some games and "minor leagues" are not supposed to be able to do that. I think that makes them uncomfortable and even more defensive when it comes to the CFL as they can't explain its popularity.

[LLB997]

I must say that the people who interact with people and their anti league sentiment are a classy lot. Not sure I would be so kind as you all. I remember during the last US election CTV cameras were on the street asking why Canadians are so interested in US politics and not so much Canuck politics. They asked this one guy who had to be well into his 70's and I couldn't believe what he said... he goes "Its the show, Canadian politics is small time, its like watching the CFL yadayadayada. I turned to my wife and said, look at this loser, I am more than half his age and dropped the "Hype" nonsense 10 years ago. This guy should just be thankful he wakes up every morning and stop worrying about "The Show". On a positive note, when they went back to the studio, Seamus Oreagan immediately defended the CFL as praised its greatness.