Anybody coming to Ottawa on Friday ?

[OV Argo]

Arrrrrrrrrrrrgoooooooos !!! - I will be chanting this at Lansdowne anyways.

[Jon Gonzo]

I'll be at the game

[Johno27]

I'll be there, too. It is my third time for an Argo/Redblack game in Ottawa and the second time this year. The Argos have won every time! Here's hoping that streak continues.

[Shipyard]

yep, section bb

[Mulder]

I'll be there, not sure which Jersey I'll wear tho :P

[ArgoGabe22]

They won the last time I was there but no, not this time.

[argofandave]

I'll be there in Section J.

[torontois]

Moi aussi, section R. On the train now. Can we pick up and move Lansdowne Park to Toronto?

[Jon Gonzo]

They City of Ottawa got Lansdowne Park done right. It's a great, easy, fun experience; and the City already loves their Redblacks. Game day is the talk of the town.

[Argo57]

They City of Ottawa got Lansdowne Park done right. It's a great, easy, fun experience; and the City already loves their Redblacks. Game day is the talk of the town.

Nice to see football thriving in Ottawa, stadium looks great on TV!!
Marcel Desjardins and his staff have done a great job in putting together an entertaining and competitive team on the field in a relatively short period of time.
Maybe the Argonauts should start taking notice on how to build a team??

[1971GreyCup]

Nice to see football thriving in Ottawa, stadium looks great on TV!!
Marcel Desjardins and his staff have done a great job in putting together an entertaining and competitive team on the field in a relatively short period of time.
Maybe the Argonauts should start taking notice on how to build a team??

Enthusiasm and airtime for the CFL and in Ottawa. Definitely proof that all is not lost in Toronto.

[OV Argo]

Anybody who wanted to maybe be able to chat with CFL Commish Orridge and give him some advice had a chance last night at Lansdowne; saw him walking around (by himself or with others) a few times last night on the Southside concourse, and late in the game he was still there, chatting with some fans/ getting photos taken.


Once again - the new stadium design (and the entire Landowne re-do) is very, very nice IMO. Mostly room to move around - you can walk the entire perimiter of the stadium and get different vantage points with relative ease; so much more & better food & drink concessions compared to the old days. Nice big replay screen in the West end-zone, PLUS loads of TV screens all throughout under the stands; added access thru the Civic Centre arena - with more concessions and screens there, is nice too.

Good atmosphere at the game; and Ottawa fans sport just TONS of RedBlacks gear - I continue to be impressed by that and how they have marketed the team. My only complaint would be they did not make enough seats for that stadium - SRO is just over 25K and they achieve this often; could easily be getting 30K plus at some games and growing towards selling that many seats regularly in the future - but no room for growth (could maybe set up some sort of seating or picnic type area in the East end-zone though). I hear the CFL thinking that they should aim so much lower now with smaller, "quaint" atmosphere stadiums, and that empty seats are bad optics; but, I don't buy that thinking - myopic and small minded, IMO.

[Neely2005]

It's better to go a bit lower on capacity and make the tickets harder to get IMO. It creates real value for the tickets and the league.

[OV Argo]

It's better to go a bit lower on capacity and make the tickets harder to get IMO. It creates real value for the tickets and the league.

As I said - I've heard that notion lots, and just don't buy it; sorry, just IMO as well. Rather have the potential for hosting much larger crowds and be able to work towards that, The old Ottawa Rough Riders at times (not often though) in days of some good, entertaining teams drew crowds of 35K range to Lansdowne when there were that many seats; and the demographic of Ottawa then was way smaller than now where there is a million range population to draw from in the area. Being satisfied with 24 K range seating in the main stadium for a city with a million population is OK i guess; still myopic and small minded to me.

[doubleblue]

I was there and just about froze. Well behaved crowd, but then the Argos were no threat so that probably helped.

[Neely2005]

As I said - I've heard that notion lots, and just don't buy it; sorry, just IMO as well. Rather have the potential for hosting much larger crowds and be able to work towards that, The old Ottawa Rough Riders at times (not often though) in days of some good, entertaining teams drew crowds of 35K range to Lansdowne when there were that many seats; and the demographic of Ottawa then was way smaller than now where there is a million range population to draw from in the area. Being satisfied with 24 K range seating in the main stadium for a city with a million population is OK i guess; still myopic and small minded to me.

It's a balancing act between capacity and availability. Edmonton, Calgary and BC all have big stadiums that they rarely sell out. Toronto and Montreal used to have big stadiums that they rarely sold out.

[paulwoods13]

Als used to draw 60k at times in late 1970s. Argos used to draw 50k plus in late 1970s. Eskimos drew 60k in early 1980s. None of those markets has come anywhere near that for decades, and all are now in smaller and more intimate stadiums (Commonwealth's seating capacity has been substantially reduced from peak). I don't disagree that it might be possible to eventually sell 35k or so in markets like Ott, but IMO it's smarter to make demand outstrip supply. And it's pretty clear that the economics of the CFL work just fine at 25k.

[dsiemier]

Wish I could say the same about the crowd. My sister and brother in law live in Ottawa and a bunch of friends come up, 16 of us were at the July 31st, and a few of us decided to take the day off work and go to this game. all of us are in our mid 50s and one of my buddies suffers from MS. He went by himself, wearing his Argos jersey to the bridge area and engaged in a friendly conversation with a few guys. Well the conversation went south, one individual stole his beer and another told him to leave otherwise thy were going to beat him senseless. And no one around him did or said a thing. When he came back, he was pretty embarrassed and would not point them out to me, in fear that I would have done something and been ejected or possibly arrested. My question is, and have been to games at Rogers Centre, and BMO and Tim Horton's Field and in Montreal and in Calgary and you see a police and security presence I don't see it at TD Place ever

[AngeloV]

Wish I could say the same about the crowd. My sister and brother in law live in Ottawa and a bunch of friends come up, 16 of us were at the July 31st, and a few of us decided to take the day off work and go to this game. all of us are in our mid 50s and one of my buddies suffers from MS. He went by himself, wearing his Argos jersey to the bridge area and engaged in a friendly conversation with a few guys. Well the conversation went south, one individual stole his beer and another told him to leave otherwise thy were going to beat him senseless. And no one around him did or said a thing. When he came back, he was pretty embarrassed and would not point them out to me, in fear that I would have done something and been ejected or possibly arrested. My question is, and have been to games at Rogers Centre, and BMO and Tim Horton's Field and in Montreal and in Calgary and you see a police and security presence I don't see it at TD Place ever

That is an absolutely awful story. A bunch of bullies picking on him because he can't defend himself due to his condition. What the hell is going on with people these days?

[Argo57]

That is an absolutely awful story. A bunch of bullies picking on him because he can't defend himself due to his condition. What the hell is going on with people these days?

Stories like this are sickening and indicitive of today's society, no decency or respect shown in more and more cases.