Now is the Time for the Argos to Recruit New and Old Fans

[jerrym]

In the Toronto Star, Doug Smith emphasizes that the Argos' Grey Cup victory gives them an excellent opportunity to contact every season ticket holder from previous seasons who have not renewed and try to bring them back, with promotions, such as two free tickets etc., if necessary. He also argues this is the time to strike in terms of signing up new sponsors.
https://www.thestar.com/sports/doug_...the-field.html

I agree that the Argos should do this, but they should go well beyond this and try to diversify their fan base. For example, signing up Drake as an ambassador, as the Raptors have done, after he sent a series of Instagrams during the Grey Cup game, would help attract young fans outside the typical Argo fan base. Russell Peters, who had ads running for his new show, The Indian Detective, that included comments on Canadian football during the game, might be another potential connection in linking to new fans. I am sure there are quite a few others. Part of the success in the large increase in the 1991 season came from creating an atmosphere where people saw it as cool to attend Argo games and identify with the celebrities who were there. Both Drake and Peters are from Toronto, so they not only have a natural connection to the city but a large fan base.

The Argos should also build on the League's Diversity in Strength campaign, especially in a market like Toronto with such a diverse population, as well as trying to get more coverage of its anti-bullying and other community programs, featuring the players involved, such as Jamal Campbell, who was inspired to pursue football by the Argos community programs and, in turn, has won the Toronto Urban Hero award for his community work.

Bob Ackles was able to rebuild the BC Lions fan base when he returned to the team in 2002, so this is possible, if done well. The first thing he did was put up pictures and bios of past Lions standouts in the practice facility to give a sense of history and pride to new players. Unfortunately, his death in 2008 was followed by the slow steady decline in Lion attendance when Braley, as in Toronto, did not spend much or well or promoting the team.

There is a small window to do this when the Argos name, thanks to its Grey Cup win, is hot. I am sure many of you have other suggestions on what can be done to recruit new fans as well.

[smokeslet'sgo]

The thing to remember too is that we don't HAVE to capture the hearts of the entire city (though it would be nice), if 0.9% of the Toronto population bought season tickets (not including the outside areas where a lot of fans are) the entire season is sold out.

[rdavies]

I agree that the Argos should do this, but they should go well beyond this and try to diversify their fan base. For example, signing up Drake as an ambassador, as the Raptors have done, after he sent a series of Instagrams during the Grey Cup game, would help attract young fans outside the typical Argo fan base. Russell Peters, who had ads running for his new show, The Indian Detective, that included comments on Canadian football during the game, might be another potential connection in linking to new fans. I am sure there are quite a few others.

Don't think those are the guys because I don't think their heart would be in it. Start with Theismann, Pinball, Flutie, Marner (at the games), cosy up to the Leafs (which seems to be happening already with Marner) find a young influential female celeb, continue promoting the tailgate, and promote the hell out of that kid's game CFL Fan Frenzy and get flag football going in every school. There should be a cool supporters group like the LumberJoes or Box J Boys, and there's a million other things like what Doug Smith touched on. Sounds easy, it isn't, but dogged determination will win the day.

[ArgoGabe22]

But the team shouldn’t be the ones who make a supporters group IMO. That’s up to the fans themselves and Argos do probably have 3 small groups like the Lifers, the Oars, and the Double Blue Order.

I also don’t think the celebritiy factor will help at all or in the long term, especially Peters. Argos have been talking about selling the game, the players and I do agree with their thinking.

[Argos1983]

But the team shouldn’t be the ones who make a supporters group IMO. That’s up to the fans themselves and Argos do probably have 3 small groups like the Lifers, the Oars, and the Double Blue Order.

I also don’t think the celebritiy factor will help at all or in the long term, especially Peters. Argos have been talking about selling the game, the players and I do agree with their thinking.

The celebrity thing can work short term only ---see 1991 for example when we were "Hollywood North" and the Argos game was the place to be (Gretzky, John Candy, McNall, Blues Brothers etc.)......for you younger fans, look it up, we were a big deal in this city at that time....by the time the 1992 Grey Cup rolled around at the Dome and we weren't in it, they were giving tickets away (I was there and $5 could get you in!) and it didn't come back to Toronto for another 15 years as a result....

Sorry if this offends anyone as I am a STH of both the Argos and TFC, but the comments about the supporters groups coming from the fans is really the key to me --- the reason the TFC thing took off was from an ORGANIC supporters culture that evolved from the bottom up and not the top down (ie. the fans made the atmosphere and then MLSE marketed that atmosphere while the team sucked for a lot of years --- the team didn't create the atmosphere in 2007, they "lucked into it" as they say, and then they put their marketing dollars behind it to sell other fans on coming to the game because it was "the best sporting atmosphere in the city")......in addition, they also rewarded long time STH by saying that when they sucked after 5 years or so they reduced pricing to keep the diehards in the stands as they knew that was the key to long-term success, I am still paying less than $20 a seat for my TFC tickets and might not be as anxious if it was closer to $40-$50 a seat and the team was average, I'm sure many others would feel the same way too....discounting season tickets or adding more perks the longer you are a STH would be a great idea to encourage people to stick around through the lean years too -- Montreal has a pretty comprehensive program, and other CFL teams have such programs in place too.....

If you want to develop an organic supporters culture, it has to come from the fans first, and (unfortunately) in this market a "supporters" culture mentality while existing in soccer for many new Canadians from their country of origin (we are a city of immigrants after all), allowed TFC to be for some portion of the population a way to tap into that heritage for their now "local" team (most soccer fans will still tell you they still cheer for their South American/European favourite teams, but that Toronto is their newly adopted team and allows them to engage in the "supporters culture" that they remember from back "home")......unfortunately that football "supporters culture" doesn't really exist in the CFL for new Canadians (the sport is only played in this manner in this country after all), and many new Canadians still have to be introduced to the sport; in addition we have the obstacle of the obvious media comparisons between it and it's more popular version down south (NFL) which we are far more inundated with through mainstream media outlets in this city (there is way more NFL talk here than La Liga or Serie A or Premier League talk to compare brands of the sport and hence the "inferiority complex" is a little more apparent for the CFL/NFL as opposed to how "bad" the soccer is in MLS compared to other leagues which still does exist in some pockets of TFC/MLS haters).....I bet most people who don't know a thing about football and who live in this city could identify Tom Brady (and probably Giovinco/Altidore/Bradley) and not Ricky Ray and that's a problem too.....

The key is trying to tap into new markets -- at my daughters school there was one kid talking about the Grey Cup yesterday which is sad -- their "local team" just won a Championship and there was no "Argos Day" at the school, as no kid would have stuff to wear I'm sure, except for my daughter (ha ha ha) -- when the Jays or Leafs made the playoffs almost all the kids were in jerseys/shirts.....I know the bullying campaign is awesome but a cheaper family pack is the way to go too - family packs for $50 and not $100 is about right - when I was at the Flutie bobblehead game a ton of families were in the 2 for $19.97 seats but not in the family zone for the rest of the year (I asked about other games they were going to or planning on attending - almost all said none) almost all said price was the key.....I'm not saying to "give tickets away" but clearly at the moment there is a correlation between price and attendance for young families (more giveaways?!).....as for gaining millennials there has to be different marketing pushes - maybe the GA ideas from Ottawa/Hamilton where people can float around to different areas of the stadium would work - make it a place to network and have fun in the stadium -- some better wifi (sad but true) and in stadium social media promotion would be cool too --- I know we don't want people looking at their phones but frankly that is the next wave and we need to get the younger generation in the stadium tweeting and texting and taking selfies and telling everyone how awesome it is to be there; I am an old traditionalist too and remember the good old days of the CFL from the 70s but expecting the game to appeal to me the same it would to my daughter who was born after 2000 is foolhardy, the history of the sport (and its "Canadian-ness" means nothing to her (no matter how hard her daddy tries)......time to start thinking outside the box.....

Having said all of that -- I will be a STH for both teams next year and wish others would all get along and support all of the local teams (or at least not be dismissive of them).....my goodness, we have not seen this much sporting "success" in this town all at once since about the early 90s.....enjoy it people!!

[R.J]

Smith is right IMO, the Argos need to take advantage now, while the win and hype is still fresh, Something that Braley and Rudge didn't do after the 100th Grey Cup.

[ToneDeaf]

The celebrity thing can work short term only ---see 1991 for example when we were "Hollywood North" and the Argos game was the place to be (Gretzky, John Candy, McNall, Blues Brothers etc.)......for you younger fans, look it up, we were a big deal in this city at that time....by the time the 1992 Grey Cup rolled around at the Dome and we weren't in it, they were giving tickets away (I was there and $5 could get you in!) and it didn't come back to Toronto for another 15 years as a result....

Sorry if this offends anyone as I am a STH of both the Argos and TFC, but the comments about the supporters groups coming from the fans is really the key to me --- the reason the TFC thing took off was from an ORGANIC supporters culture that evolved from the bottom up and not the top down (ie. the fans made the atmosphere and then MLSE marketed that atmosphere while the team sucked for a lot of years --- the team didn't create the atmosphere in 2007, they "lucked into it" as they say, and then they put their marketing dollars behind it to sell other fans on coming to the game because it was "the best sporting atmosphere in the city")......in addition, they also rewarded long time STH by saying that when they sucked after 5 years or so they reduced pricing to keep the diehards in the stands as they knew that was the key to long-term success, I am still paying less than $20 a seat for my TFC tickets and might not be as anxious if it was closer to $40-$50 a seat and the team was average, I'm sure many others would feel the same way too....discounting season tickets or adding more perks the longer you are a STH would be a great idea to encourage people to stick around through the lean years too -- Montreal has a pretty comprehensive program, and other CFL teams have such programs in place too.....

If you want to develop an organic supporters culture, it has to come from the fans first, and (unfortunately) in this market a "supporters" culture mentality while existing in soccer for many new Canadians from their country of origin (we are a city of immigrants after all), allowed TFC to be for some portion of the population a way to tap into that heritage for their now "local" team (most soccer fans will still tell you they still cheer for their South American/European favourite teams, but that Toronto is their newly adopted team and allows them to engage in the "supporters culture" that they remember from back "home")......unfortunately that football "supporters culture" doesn't really exist in the CFL for new Canadians (the sport is only played in this manner in this country after all), and many new Canadians still have to be introduced to the sport; in addition we have the obstacle of the obvious media comparisons between it and it's more popular version down south (NFL) which we are far more inundated with through mainstream media outlets in this city (there is way more NFL talk here than La Liga or Serie A or Premier League talk to compare brands of the sport and hence the "inferiority complex" is a little more apparent for the CFL/NFL as opposed to how "bad" the soccer is in MLS compared to other leagues which still does exist in some pockets of TFC/MLS haters).....I bet most people who don't know a thing about football and who live in this city could identify Tom Brady (and probably Giovinco/Altidore/Bradley) and not Ricky Ray and that's a problem too.....

The key is trying to tap into new markets -- at my daughters school there was one kid talking about the Grey Cup yesterday which is sad -- their "local team" just won a Championship and there was no "Argos Day" at the school, as no kid would have stuff to wear I'm sure, except for my daughter (ha ha ha) -- when the Jays or Leafs made the playoffs almost all the kids were in jerseys/shirts.....I know the bullying campaign is awesome but a cheaper family pack is the way to go too - family packs for $50 and not $100 is about right - when I was at the Flutie bobblehead game a ton of families were in the 2 for $19.97 seats but not in the family zone for the rest of the year (I asked about other games they were going to or planning on attending - almost all said none) almost all said price was the key.....I'm not saying to "give tickets away" but clearly at the moment there is a correlation between price and attendance for young families (more giveaways?!).....as for gaining millennials there has to be different marketing pushes - maybe the GA ideas from Ottawa/Hamilton where people can float around to different areas of the stadium would work - make it a place to network and have fun in the stadium -- some better wifi (sad but true) and in stadium social media promotion would be cool too --- I know we don't want people looking at their phones but frankly that is the next wave and we need to get the younger generation in the stadium tweeting and texting and taking selfies and telling everyone how awesome it is to be there; I am an old traditionalist too and remember the good old days of the CFL from the 70s but expecting the game to appeal to me the same it would to my daughter who was born after 2000 is foolhardy, the history of the sport (and its "Canadian-ness" means nothing to her (no matter how hard her daddy tries)......time to start thinking outside the box.....

Having said all of that -- I will be a STH for both teams next year and wish others would all get along and support all of the local teams (or at least not be dismissive of them).....my goodness, we have not seen this much sporting "success" in this town all at once since about the early 90s.....enjoy it people!!

Agree with all of that 100%.

[Harpastum]

You bet this is the time to bring in new fans - but this window will slam shut quickly if they don't act smartly.
Lets be honest - Up to now the average Toronto sports fan has had little interest in attending an Argo's game.
But winning the Grey Cup has changed that - not by a huge amount but just enough.
So make tickets easy to buy - cheap as can be - so these casual fans can bring all their friends along.
Hell - I don't care if they have to paper the upper level with next to free seats if that's what it takes for a few seasons.
Just get people there - & then let the game sell itself!