"If I was Michael Copeland" - Ideas for Argos off-the-field 2017 Thread

[Scooter McCray]

Bob Young is a passionate owner and that filters down from the top. Just as John Candy's love of the Argos permeated throughout the organization. I am very interested in hearing from the owners and mgmt on their thoughts on year one and where we go next. I want to hear commitment and passion from them. The greatest successes always come from the greatest failures.

[Ron]

I expect Argo ownership will be closer to TFC style ownership than CFL style. (what perks do TFC season seat holders get?) They can easily point and say that the "community style" you see in Hammer and elsewhere in the CFL does not work in Toronto. Frankly the number of fans that the extra stuff matters too is very small. The majority just go to the game and could care less about fan days, etc.

[Ron]

Bob Young is a passionate owner and that filters down from the top. Just as John Candy's love of the Argos permeated throughout the organization. I am very interested in hearing from the owners and mgmt on their thoughts on year one and where we go next. I want to hear commitment and passion from them. The greatest successes always come from the greatest failures.

You will hear commitment and passion from them. Just not at the rah rah level you're expecting.

[doubleblue]

I expect Argo ownership will be closer to TFC style ownership than CFL style. (what perks do TFC season seat holders get?) They can easily point and say that the "community style" you see in Hammer and elsewhere in the CFL does not work in Toronto. Frankly the number of fans that the extra stuff matters too is very small. The majority just go to the game and could care less about fan days, etc.

I still value my Argo back pack.

[ArgoGabe22]

I still value my Argo back pack.

My picture frames are still in the living room!

[paulwoods13]

I got Ticat season tickets this year. They do value you as a season ticket holder that much I will say.

How, specifically?

[doubleblue]

My picture frames are still in the living room!

Yes, the 2004 Grey Cup Champion picture and frame, it's hanging in the Man Cave.

[1971GreyCup]

I got Ticat season tickets this year. They do value you as a season ticket holder that much I will say.

To be fair, Bob Young and the Ticats have steadily added value since taking over the team. I am pretty sure there were plenty of lessons learned after year one and the early years had pretty dreadful coaches and on field performance. They had all the mistakes, called experience, in plenty of time to move into Tim Hortons Field.

[paulwoods13]

Again I ask, what specific value do Ticat STHs get? A lot of people here are calling for Argo STHs to get more value, and while I don't disagree with that, I'm sure curious as to what Ticat STHs get that we don't. I'm pretty sure Ticat STHs have complained about the crappy physical tickets they get, but other than that I cannot recall reading anything about any perks they get.

[AngeloV]

Again I ask, what specific value do Ticat STHs get? A lot of people here are calling for Argo STHs to get more value, and while I don't disagree with that, I'm sure curious as to what Ticat STHs get that we don't. I'm pretty sure Ticat STHs have complained about the crappy physical tickets they get, but other than that I cannot recall reading anything about any perks they get.

I don't get it either Paul. I do get that it was a very bad season, but the turning on the team by so many on here is so over the top. Bob Young, as hard as he tried, took at least 5 or 6 years to make an impact over there. What was his big move in year 1? Putting flowers in the women's restrooms at Ivor Wynne and pissing off their "hard core" fans by trying to get them to stop with the Argos suck chant. Wow. If only the Argos had done that, then all would be good. SMH

[R.J]

Again I ask, what specific value do Ticat STHs get? A lot of people here are calling for Argo STHs to get more value, and while I don't disagree with that, I'm sure curious as to what Ticat STHs get that we don't. I'm pretty sure Ticat STHs have complained about the crappy physical tickets they get, but other than that I cannot recall reading anything about any perks they get.

http://ticats.ca/tickets#season-seat-holder-benefits

[argofan81]

A lot of people have been asking what other teams give their STHs as benefits (that we don't get), specifically, Hamilton. I am going to provide links to other teams STH benefits so that you can read for yourselves.

Hamilton - http://ticats.ca/tickets/#season-seat-holder-benefits

Montreal - http://en.montrealalouettes.com/seas...t-memberships/

Ottawa - http://www.ottawaredblacks.com/2016-...cket-benefits/

Winnipeg - http://www.bluebombers.com/season-ti...mber-benefits/

Edmonton - http://www.esks.com/the-perks/

Calgary - http://www.stampeders.com/seasontickets/

BC - http://www.bclions.com/benefits-2/

I couldn't find information for Saskatchewan but I suspect that is due to the fact that they have a wait list for their season tickets not because there aren't any benefits.

Now to compare those benefits to Toronto - http://www.argonauts.ca/2016-season-tickets/ where the "benefits" were a savings of up to 33% (for most this amounted to a free playoff ticket which didn't happen), first right to purchase 104th grey cup tickets and priority access to grey cup events.

With respect to Hamilton, I am not a season ticket holder but I do recall seeing/hearing about several STH events during the season that involved player meet & greets, etc.

[Scooter McCray]

http://ticats.ca/tickets#season-seat-holder-benefits

This would have been real easy to copy here and/or whatever other teams are doing. There are plenty of best practices at the other teams that can be copied for year one. From there the team can fine tune and create new best practices.

[paulwoods13]

Ok, let's look at it.

* Secure your same seats at the best price. Argos clearly do this as well. That's the whole point of STs.
* Exchange seats for games you can't attend using ticket swap program. I don't know if Argos do this, but they should.
* $50 referral bonus for new STHs. Argos should do this but it wouldn't benefit a lot of STHs IMO.
* 10% discount on merch at team shop. Argos don't have a shop but should offer this at concessions. 10% is not a huge discount.
* Playoff game tix included. Argos do this, AND offered refund/credit.
* Presale access to next yr's GC. Argos did it this year, guessing they will do so again next yr.
* New season seat benefits card. No indication of what benefits it includes, maybe some restaurant/shopping discounts? Probably a challenge for Argos to match this.
* Access to exclusive STH events. Argos did not do that this year (and many complained about it). Bet they will next year.
* Manage your tix using account mgr. Argos offer an acct mgr program, and offer nicer physical tickets.

So Argos fell short on exclusive events (whatever that actually means), ticket swap, benefits card (whatever that means) and 10% merch discount. Some of those will be offered next year, if I had to bet.

[R.J]

* Playoff game tix included. Argos do this, AND offered refund/credit.

Every team does this when playoff tickets are included in the package and the team misses the playoffs.

[argofan81]

Ok, let's look at it.

* Secure your same seats at the best price. Argos clearly do this as well. That's the whole point of STs.
* Exchange seats for games you can't attend using ticket swap program. I don't know if Argos do this, but they should.
* $50 referral bonus for new STHs. Argos should do this but it wouldn't benefit a lot of STHs IMO.
* 10% discount on merch at team shop. Argos don't have a shop but should offer this at concessions. 10% is not a huge discount.
* Playoff game tix included. Argos do this, AND offered refund/credit.
* Presale access to next yr's GC. Argos did it this year, guessing they will do so again next yr.
* New season seat benefits card. No indication of what benefits it includes, maybe some restaurant/shopping discounts? Probably a challenge for Argos to match this.
* Access to exclusive STH events. Argos did not do that this year (and many complained about it). Bet they will next year.
* Manage your tix using account mgr. Argos offer an acct mgr program, and offer nicer physical tickets.

So Argos fell short on exclusive events (whatever that actually means), ticket swap, benefits card (whatever that means) and 10% merch discount. Some of those will be offered next year, if I had to bet.

Yes the Argos did fall short on those items and perhaps the point that a lot are trying to make is that we had many of those benefits last season -- how hard would it really have been to maintain them given that they were already in effect? We had ticket swap, we had merchandise discounts and we had fan day (albeit this was never a STH only event). I understand that ownership had a lot going on this year and could forgive them for not adding on to our benefits in the first year but to actually cut them back -- well I think this is why they may lose a lot of STHs next year. I also feel that pricing was a bit of an issue, not much incentive to buy seasons (given that with the schedule, it may not be possible to attend every game anyway) vs. buying individual game tickets. Specifically I saved $40/ticket for my season tickets -- and that $40 was lost due to the game I couldn't attend and wasn't able to sell / swap to another game.

I haven't jumped ship yet with respect to season tickets. I am waiting to see what the renewal package looks like but there is certainly a chance that I may not renew my seasons and just go with a flex pack next year. I would certainly never jump ship to go to the dark side (black and gold).

[ArgoGabe22]

While I don't expect anything, did the Argos do anything during the last game? To me it didn't seem to be much of a fan appreciation game with exception to the Thanksgiving cornucopia. Which may have been more for Thanksgiving.

[Neely2005]

While I don't expect anything, did the Argos do anything during the last game? To me it didn't seem to be much of a fan appreciation game with exception to the Thanksgiving cornucopia. Which may have been more for Thanksgiving.

They didn't have an official Fan Appreciation Game / Event this season.

[paulwoods13]

Yes the Argos did fall short on those items and perhaps the point that a lot are trying to make is that we had many of those benefits last season -- how hard would it really have been to maintain them given that they were already in effect? We had ticket swap, we had merchandise discounts and we had fan day (albeit this was never a STH only event).

If we had ticket swap capabilities last year and not this year, that's news to me but I have never tried to swap. I find it hard to believe we had it in 2015 but it was taken away in 2016, but I guess that's possible. I know we have had merch discounts in the past although I can't remember exactly how they were to be used -- in the Jays store at RC? (Which we obviously didn't have access to this year.) Fan day never had anything to do with season's tickets. It might be a good idea to have a STH fan day but this is not something that was removed from our season's tickets. So at this point the sum total of what got worse from last year to this year seems to be lack of ability to swap tickets (if true) and lack of merch discount (understandable since there is no official store). I'm having a hard time agreeing with the notion I got treated worse as an STH this year than I did last year. This year every game promised to me was played at the time and location promised. That in itself is a huge improvement.

[Will]

With different customers comes different expectations I guess.