How Toronto Blue Jays Victories Hurt the Toronto Argonauts & the CFL.

[1971GreyCup]

[QUOTE=Rich;68583]Don't forget that Toronto was awarded an NBA franchise in November '93, and the team name was established in the spring of '94, dovetailing nicely with the "major-league" mania in the city at the time.




One team that rose from the ashes was the New York Yankees. The Yankees were a franchise in trouble in 1914 and given notice by Polo Grounds to find a new home, best thing that ever happened to them!

In 1914, the New York Yankees, one of the three New York City baseball teams, were for sale. The state of the franchise - on the edge! They didn't have a single player with talent, generally finished near the bottom of the standings, attracted poor crowds, and didn't even have a home stadium. From 1913-1923 the New York Yankees shared the Polo Grounds with the New York Giants in northern Manhattan. In 1920, the Yankees were asked to find their own home by Giants!

In 1915, Jacob Ruppert, owner of the largest brewery in the USA (located in Manhattan) - purchased the Yankees. Ballpark beers sales were a big part of the synergies for him. Given notice by Giants owner John McGraw, Ruppert decided to proceed with building his own 60,000 seat stadium at considerable financial risk and speculation. The size of this facility was twice the average baseball stadium at the time and was rather risky as the average baseball attendance in the 1900s was around 4,000.

In 1920, The Yankees sole asset was a young baseball slugger named Babe Ruth. With this asset Ruppert decided to proceed with the Yankees Stadium at 60,000 seats. This was very interesting in light of the fact that attendance had dropped by 50% as a result of:


1. World War I;

2. the Spanish flu killing millions an discouraging public gatherings; and

3. the 1919 Black Sox Scandal in which eight Chicago White Sox players were expelled for conspiring with gamblers to fix that year's World Series, & if that wasn't enough competition from the new Federal League!

To make matters more interesting, Congress passed the Volstead Act (Prohibition) causing Jacob Ruppert's brewery business to fail and the loss of a major Yankee Stadium revenue source to dry up.

Many people also felt three baseball teams could not prosper in New York City, but Ruppert was confident the Yankees could outlast the more established Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Giants of the National League. Ruppert would end up footing the bill for construction of the $2.5 million stadium.

The initial crowd on opening day was 70,000 when standing room was factored in. After that, 12,500 was the norm. Rapport was right, with the Dodgers and the Giants leaving NYC for California.

[Will]

We can clone Babe Ruth. He can play fullback or offensive line.

[1971GreyCup]

I guess 40 years of mismanagement has severely damaged our iconic brand. This has happened across the CFL with almost every team. I don't think the duration of mismanagement has been as severe as Toronto. In Saskatchewan the team was certainly on he ropes as they sold Season Tickets door to door and held TV marathons. Now they have one of the most powerful brands in Canada. It can be done. First, the bleeding has to stop!

[Will]

Hamilton was also on the ropes on two occasions, once in the 1990's and like the Argos in 2003 and Bob Young and his team have some a great job at re-building that brand. It takes committed ownership and patience. You need to instill some civic pride in the team. We saw that (very much temporarily) in 2012.

[argofandave]

TSN ratings are down, but RDS ratings are up, so it's balancing itself out to a degree, however, there's no question the CFL ratings have been on the downturn since Mid September 2013.
I wonder how much higher the Argonauts - Ticats game would have been had the game been available on Southern Ontario's TSN4.

The Labour Day game in Hamilton was on TSN4. All 7 of the other games during the last 2 weeks were not including the rematch in Toronto. I never received a reply from TSN, the CFL, or Jeffery Orridge when I complained by email and twitter about these games not being on TSN4.

[AngeloV]

TSN ratings are down, but RDS ratings are up, so it's balancing itself out to a degree, however, there's no question the CFL ratings have been on the downturn since Mid September 2013.
I wonder how much higher the Argonauts - Ticats game would have been had the game been available on Southern Ontario's TSN4.

Yeah, that was a definite blunder on TSN's part. If you are going to take it off one of the local market channels, how in the world do you take it off in the local market of both teams playing?

Of course, the conspiracy theory in me says it was at the request of you know who, hoping to get more ticket sales...more or less it worked like something he believes in...local blackout.

[Argocister]

Okay one says the tsn ratings are down..... But can they qualify that as many now don't have access to all TSN channels and have to go elsewhere to watch the games?

[ArgoRavi]

Okay one says the tsn ratings are down..... But can they qualify that as many now don't have access to all TSN channels and have to go elsewhere to watch the games?

Nobody in the media has mentioned this for some reason.

[R.J]

Okay one says the tsn ratings are down..... But can they qualify that as many now don't have access to all TSN channels and have to go elsewhere to watch the games?

Nobody in the media has mentioned this for some reason.

Yeah, I wondered this as well, a friend of mine used to work for BBM/Numeris, however left before TSN went with the regional feeds.
TSN used to be available to 8.8 million homes (beginning of 2014), which in the course of 3 years went down from the previous 9.1 million (beginning of 2012), now with the regional feeds and cord cutters, that number could be even lower.