Bill Manning Named New Argos President

[ArgoGabe22]

Since when was BMO a big stadium? I get that the Argos don't sell out but its no where near the size of Commonwealth. Comment also shows lack of faith/progress. I would hope games could get similar numbers to East Final.

[Mightygoose]

Reading the article again. It looks like 'new configuration for 2018' is an interpretation from the Sun. So a new seating configuration appears to be for 2019.

In hindsight, it makes sense why the team left the seating map alone for this season after discussions about it last year. By the time the renewal process started, the wheels were in motion for an ownership and management change were already in motion so it's best to leave it to the new regime.

Still, I know it's early in the Manning era. But talking about tarping doesn't sound like a plan to grow the fan base. They're not going sell tickets via TFC or other MLSE brands so what is the plan so should there really be a plan right now under him.

Good ownership and management need to see the whole operation including reaching out to exsisting customers before they execute.

We seem to be in another 'year one'.

[Neely2005]

Reading the article again. It looks like 'new configuration for 2018' is an interpretation from the Sun. So a new seating configuration appears to be for 2019.

In hindsight, it makes sense why the team left the seating map alone for this season after discussions about it last year. By the time the renewal process started, the wheels were in motion for an ownership and management change were already in motion so it's best to leave it to the new regime.

Still, I know it's early in the Manning era. But talking about tarping doesn't sound like a plan to grow the fan base. They're not going sell tickets via TFC or other MLSE brands so what is the plan so should there really be a plan right now under him.

Good ownership and management need to see the whole operation including reaching out to exsisting customers before they execute.

We seem to be in another 'year one'.

Year One, Part 3: This time it's personal!
:-)

[rdavies]

With Toronto FC booming, top boss Bill Manning looks to improve embattled Argos situation
Kurtis W. Larson Toronto Sun January 24, 2018

TORONTO — If sports juggernaut MLSE can’t right the Argos’ ship, nobody can.

President Bill Manning says the embattled CFL team will have equal footing under his guidance.

The Leafs are the Leafs. The Raptors have exploded. Toronto FC, he said, is shattering records.

“Our plan is to make the Argos just as important,” Manning, who also oversees MLS Cup champs Toronto FC, told the Toronto Sun during an evening sit-down at TFC’s BMO Training Ground. “The Argos are going to be a priority in a lot of ways.”

Manning’s vision for the Argos is to replicate what he has helped establish with the Reds.

“Can we get to the point where we’re selling 25,000 tickets a game and the team is competing for (Grey Cups) year in, year out? That’s my vision,” he said. “How long does it take? I don’t know.”

Manning referred to the Argos’ rebirth as a “long play” – a process that’s certain to take far more time than it took to build Toronto FC into one of the most successful franchises in Canada.

“We’ve gotten to a point where our demand has surpassed our supply – which is a good spot to be in,” Manning said of TFC, adding the club’s season ticket base will balloon to 24,500 this year.

“I say this humbly,” Manning continued, “TFC is hitting on all cylinders, across the board.”

So much so that TFC intends to keep the extra north-end seats it added for last year’s playoffs.

Additionally, Manning said he’s looking at options to expand BMO by as many as 5,000 seats.

“The atmosphere at BMO has just become so electric that it became a really hot ticket,” he said.

Manning explained that an 84% show rate – up from 72% in 2015 – prevented TFC from announcing what would have been considered sellouts in terms of tickets-sold from July through the end of last season.

“You’ll always see empty seats,” Manning said. “That doesn’t mean the seat wasn’t paid for.”

This year, he said, could be even better following TFC’s playoff run. Between season tickets and group sales, MLSE expects every TFC match to sell out within 60 days of every fixture.

“I don’t think we’re going to have many single-game sells at all,” Manning suggested.

The club’s 98.5% season-ticket renewal rate, he said, “is approaching Maple Leafs territory.”

“It’s real money,” he continued. “You look at the gates we’re generating. You can do the math.”

With an average ticket price of $45, TFC brings in nearly $1.2 million in single-game ticket sales.

Toronto FC revenue is up 30% since 2015. TV viewership is up almost 200%, Manning said.

“If you have a good product, everything goes up,” he added. “Same thing with the Argos. Every decision we make is about what we need to do to win, and leveraging that to build our business.”

After averaging 16,380 fans per game in 2016, the Argos lost 38% of their existing season-seat holders before last season. The storied franchise’s renewal rate this off-season improved to 82%, Manning said.

“The one thing I keep challenging myself with is that this is a market with six million people,” Manning said. “Can I find 25,000 people a game, eight times a year, who will come?”

Furthermore, can MLSE convince at least some of the 400,000 TV viewers to get off the couch?

“How do we convince those people to come out to the game?” Manning asked. “What I do know, though, is that the folks at 50 Bay St. are really good. I have a lot of faith in that group.”

The Argos have never had what TFC has: “Arguably one of the most successful sports organizations in the world … saying, ‘We think (the Argos) have legs.’ We’re going to give it the attention it needs and the resources it needs,” Manning explained.

While MLSE doesn’t intend to cross-sell the CFL and MLS, the league’s newest executive expounded on the benefits of bringing the Argos beneath the company’s umbrella.

“We have 100 people who at any given time can shift attention to the Argos or TFC,” Manning said, a benefit of being owned by a company with a database of 13 million prospective fans.

While Manning’s fairly involved in player personnel at TFC, he admits he’s going to leave most football decisions up to GM Jim Popp and coach Marc Trestman.

“I joked with Jim and said, ‘I’m not going to be telling you which wide receiver to sign. I’m going to lean on your expertise and how we can support you,’” Manning said.

Unlike with Toronto FC, Manning doesn’t need to help build a winner in the CFL.

Yet his challenge with the Argos is likely to prove far more difficult.

“How do you continue being a contender and build some buzz in the marketplace so people want to come out and spend some money and buy tickets?” Manning said. “That’s the challenge.”

A DIFFERENT CFL CONFIGURATION AT BMO FIELD?

BMO Field could have a distinctly different look for CFL games in 2018.

New top boss Bill Manning told the Toronto Sun this week he’s considering tarping off the upper deck at BMO to consolidate Toronto Argonauts crowds into the lower bowl.

“We’re going to do what soccer teams do (in football stadiums), when they tarp off the upper decks,” Manning said. “We’re going to do the same thing. It’s going to be a lower bowl. Let’s fill the lower bowl first and then worry about filling the upper deck.”

This after the Argos attracted fewer than 14,000 fans per game last season.

The lower bowl at BMO Field fits roughly 15,000 people.

“Can we add 2,500 or 5,000 paid people this year?” Manning asked. “If we can do that we start building each year.”

[R.J]

Figured this would happen eventually. If MLSE can't get this team figured out in Toronto, no one will.

[rdavies]

Where I've seen parts of this article posted I've only seen synopses of what the accomplishments of TFC are and very little of what the positive things for the Argos that I highlighted. And I think a few of those things that I highlighted are very significant.

And again we have to ask ourselves why did those greedy SOBs at Rogers do an about face and get involved. Have they found God and see the light of what's fair and right, or more likely do they smell money in this someway, somehow. And money, in my books, may mean more than the profitability of the Argos, there are likely other factors involved.

[doubleblue]

They need more night games in the summer months if they expect fans to sit on the Lower East side when its 80 + degrees.

[Neely2005]

They need more night games in the summer months if they expect fans to sit on the Lower East side when its 80 + degrees.

TFC fans seem to be able to do it though.

[rdavies]

With Toronto FC booming, top boss Bill Manning looks to improve embattled Argos situation
Kurtis W. Larson Toronto Sun January 24, 2018

“We have 100 people who at any given time can shift attention to the Argos or TFC,” Manning said, a benefit of being owned by a company with a database of 13 million prospective fans.

Would anyone like to hazard a guess as to WTH that might mean? I just looked up the population of Ontario and it was 13.6 million, is that it?

[rdavies]

TFC fans seem to be able to do it though.

They've had more than their share of empty seats, be they sold or unsold.

[R.J]

They need more night games in the summer months if they expect fans to sit on the Lower East side when its 80 + degrees.

They need more fans.

[DoubleBlue_Red]

They need more fans.

There are lots of fans - they are just stapled to the couch, watching Safeway commercials.

[R.J]

There are lots of fans - they are just stapled to the couch, watching Safeway commercials.

I don't buy that excuse anymore. Very difficult to find Argo fans throughout Toronto, the fanbase has to be rebuilt, and that's going to take some time.
Too many excuses over the years - The dome was a "problem" and yet the team is still selling about the same at BMO. The team wasn't marketed enough, and yet in the last 2 years the team has been marketed more than at any point in the 2000's, and we saw a decrease in attendance year to year. The lack of media and/or negative media attention, which is true, but it's a chicken vs the egg thing, as we need to be perceived as "popular" to get said media attention (TFC doesn't get much media attention and they sell tickets). Etc.

[Rich]

“The one thing I keep challenging myself with is that this is a market with six million people,” Manning said. “Can I find 25,000 people a game, eight times a year, who will come?”

Maybe the guy just misspoke, but i get the feeling that the Argonauts new president is an American guy who really doesn't know very much about the CFL, and doesn't really understand all the quirky ins and outs about the League and its place in Canadian culture. If he did he would recognize that the Copeland regime laid a lot of groundwork for the huge turnaround in the perception of the Argos in the last half of 2017. Instead the guy comes in like some kind of saviour bent on re-inventing the wheel all over again.

[RB957]

Maybe the guy just misspoke, but i get the feeling that the Argonauts new president is an American guy who really doesn't know very much about the CFL, and doesn't really understand all the quirky ins and outs about the League and its place in Canadian culture. If he did he would recognize that the Copeland regime laid a lot of groundwork for the huge turnaround in the perception of the Argos in the last half of 2017. Instead the guy comes in like some kind of saviour bent on re-inventing the wheel all over again.

Agreed.

[Argofan_1000]

Where I've seen parts of this article posted I've only seen synopses of what the accomplishments of TFC are and very little of what the positive things for the Argos that I highlighted. And I think a few of those things that I highlighted are very significant.

And again we have to ask ourselves why did those greedy SOBs at Rogers do an about face and get involved. Have they found God and see the light of what's fair and right, or more likely do they smell money in this someway, somehow. And money, in my books, may mean more than the profitability of the Argos, there are likely other factors involved.

article reads like a Bill Manning resume. Yes TFC is wonderful and its the best entertainment in the whole wide world and everything else will never measure up. The boat people love it and the whole wide world is watching Toronto because of it. Did I mention it's better then anything else in the world. Love watching small white men play this game. Love the way they fall down and play dead. Love the scoring and everything else. I believe everything corporate Canada says about it. Oh yea, thanks for ripping up those seats at BMO, there was something wrong with them anyways. Now that's the kind of fans we need at the Argo games.
Thank God the CFL game is exciting and the players are very good
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjp1Zrvn8VQ

[DoubleBlue_Red]

article reads like a Bill Manning resume. Yes TFC is wonderful and its the best entertainment in the whole wide world and everything else will never measure up. The boat people love it and the whole wide world is watching Toronto because of it. Did I mention it's better then anything else in the world. Love watching small white men play this game. Love the way they fall down and play dead. Love the scoring and everything else. I believe everything corporate Canada says about it. Oh yea, thanks for ripping up those seats at BMO, there was something wrong with them anyways. Now that's the kind of fans we need at the Argo games.
Thank God the CFL game is exciting and the players are very good
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjp1Zrvn8VQ

See: Jozy Altidore.

[RB957]

article reads like a Bill Manning resume. Yes TFC is wonderful and its the best entertainment in the whole wide world and everything else will never measure up. The boat people love it and the whole wide world is watching Toronto because of it. Did I mention it's better then anything else in the world. Love watching small white men play this game. Love the way they fall down and play dead. Love the scoring and everything else. I believe everything corporate Canada says about it. Oh yea, thanks for ripping up those seats at BMO, there was something wrong with them anyways. Now that's the kind of fans we need at the Argo games.
Thank God the CFL game is exciting and the players are very good
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjp1Zrvn8VQ

Absolutely LOVED this post!

[AngeloV]

article reads like a Bill Manning resume. Yes TFC is wonderful and its the best entertainment in the whole wide world and everything else will never measure up. The boat people love it and the whole wide world is watching Toronto because of it. Did I mention it's better then anything else in the world. Love watching small white men play this game. Love the way they fall down and play dead. Love the scoring and everything else. I believe everything corporate Canada says about it. Oh yea, thanks for ripping up those seats at BMO, there was something wrong with them anyways. Now that's the kind of fans we need at the Argo games.
Thank God the CFL game is exciting and the players are very good
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjp1Zrvn8VQ

All the Manning write ups in the Sun have come from TFC beat guy Kurt Lawson. I'm really hoping Manning is only telling him things that he perceives will keep the TFC fans happy. Suggesting the Argos can't sell more than 20k per game, would definitely keep them happy.

[BATKINSON001]

All the Manning write ups in the Sun have come from TFC beat guy Kurt Lawson. I'm really hoping Manning is only telling him things that he perceives will keep the TFC fans happy. Suggesting the Argos can't sell more than 20k per game, would definitely keep them happy.

if only we could actually get to 20k sold per game. That would be great.