A Grey Cup has generated a small boost in interest for the Argos in Toronto, but what will it take to produce a love affair? Do you agree with Manning's and Ray's assessments below?

Seven months later, as the Argonauts prepare for their home opener against Calgary on Saturday night, the big question is the same question: They can win, but what will it take for Toronto to love them?
“I think it’s going to be a longer project,” says new Argos team president Bill Manning, who is also the president of Toronto FC. “I think what we’re looking to do and what (ownership) have asked me to do is stabilize the franchise, and then for a lack of a better word, how do we make it cool again? It’s 660,000 viewers for the last game, 175,000 who are in Ontario. How do we get them to come out and how do we get them to enjoy the in-game experience? And I’m conservatively excited, for lack of a better word, about the home opener.”

The home opener is nearly a sellout, but a sellout is closer to 20,000, with the upper east seats covered over this season. Season tickets are up 25 per cent, to about 6,000. Last season, in the friendly and scenic confines of BMO Field, the Argos averaged 13,913 fans per game, about half of capacity, and down from their first year there; the next-lowest number in the CFL was Montreal at 19,521, at 83 per cent of capacity. The average for the non-Toronto CFL teams was almost 26,000. ...


“Yeah, that’s a good question,” says Ray, who has been in Toronto since 2012. “That’s something that, my time in Toronto it’s been a hot topic, just with fan support at the games, and in my opinion I just think there’s been so much negativity around it. You know, people talking about why aren’t people going, people hear that and they don’t want to go to a game because it sounds like it’s a bad experience or something.
“And I think we just need to start talking about what a great experience it can be, to go down and watch a CFL game … it’s a great product, it’s a great stadium, it’s a great atmosphere. If we start talking about the fun that fans can have going to a CFL game rather than always harping on why it’s not happening, I think we can change that perspective of going to a game, and instead of it being uncool, you know, an uncool thing to do, maybe fans will look at it as a really fun thing to do. And we can do our part by winning our home games".


Championships have never solved the problem before. The game experience might. They’re trying stuff like giving out replica championship rings to the first several thousand fans at Stanley Barracks, across from the stadium, which the Argos envision as a pre-game replacement for tailgating, with live music and beer and hotdog deals.
But the most important part is the simplest: More cheap tickets. Gotta get people in the building.

“Now you can get in the game, essentially, for 20 bucks,” says Manning. “Unless you want some of the more premium seats, and that’s any venue, they’re going to be more expensive. But if you just want to come out to the game with your family, in my mind, I want a family to be able to come for four tickets, four hotdogs and four drinks, for $100. That was my goal. And I think we’ve accomplished that. And those aren’t the 50-yard-line seats. But they’re decent seats. It’s a pretty good venue. And once we start selling all the seats in the lower bowl and the west side, then we start selling the upper east side, and that’s when we can really start pushing off. I’m really hoping for incremental growth. Like, if we sell an additional 1,500 tickets this year, I’ll consider that success. Then the year after another 1,000, 1,500. And then all of a sudden you’re looking three years, four years from now, are they averaging 19,000, 20,000 a game. Hey guys, that’s pretty good. That’s how I see it.”
http://3downnation.com/2018/06/23/ar...-love-toronto/