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Originally Posted by
RB957
My son's friend worked at MLSE and said they tried to interest season's ticket holders for Leafs/Raptors into purchasing Argos tickets, with very little success. I agree with Will that they should be trying to mine the data they have on ticket buyers but to Angelo's point, it is very difficult with limited staff. Bottom line, you have to spend on marketing and I am not sure how committed MLSE is. For me, the focus should be trying to attract people based on the value proposition... where else can you watch high quality live professional sports for less than $50 per ticket AND get $5 beer? Nowhere. And the weird thing is, we have brought numerous people out, including my son's friends who are in the 25 - 30 year demographic, and every single one of them have said they had a great time... BUT they don't take the initiative or have the interest to come back on their own. This I cannot understand. In a region our size, it has to be possible to attract 20,000 people to become Argo "nutcases".
The Argos will never be able to compete with the Leafs, Jays and Raptors which are considered to be the "elite" sports teams. But TFC was able to attract a very passionate and loyal following for its team. Argos have to figure out how to do the same. Look at Ottawa, where the RedBlacks have managed to attract interest in younger people to come out to games. No reason we can't try to copy things that have worked elsewhere. It will take effort and money, which I hope MLSE is willing to commit. And sad thing, having bought tickets to see the Argos in both Montreal and Ottawa, I get way more emails from them then I ever get from the Argos. And that's not right.
In the long-term, assuming MLSE has the willingness to stay in, the economics have to favour the Argos over TFC. TFC's biggest expense is in $U.S. and their salary budget is over 5x what the Argos is but their TV viewership is brutal. As others have said, now that expansion fees are drying up, reality will sink in regarding that league's economics. I don't think it is a lost cause for the Argos, but while the ship hasn't sunk, it is taking on water.
Now that the Ontario government has lifted seat restrictions at sports venues, we may get a glimpse as to how things really are.
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