TV Blackouts ?

[paulwoods13]

But the facts are the Argos have voluntarily lifted the blackouts in Toronto for the past 25 years. The Argos also have the smallest season ticket base by far, less than half of the next lowest CFL team. So either lifting the blackouts has resulted in many Argo fans choosing to watch home games on TV...or Toronto has the worst football fans in Canada by a wide margin.

I'd go with the former, that lifting home blackouts with plenty of good seats available, has resulted in many fans not bothering to buy seasons tickets. Instead they'll buy single-game tickets for the games they want to see and watch the remaining home games on TV.

This is borne out by the fact the Argos have the strongest walkup crowd in the league, by a huge margin. Nearly 2/3rds of Argo fans attending home games are walkup fans who don't buy seasons tickets.

A fan is a fan, but having a strong season ticket base is important in football. Teams can't always win. When the team or the season go into the tank, those season tickets have already been sold and paid for, so the fans will still come out to watch a losing team and the team earns that revenue. With a walkup based crowd, fans are more apt to pass on buying tickets when their team flounders.

So by lifting the home blackouts for 25 years, the Argos have cultivated a fan-base of TV fans and walkup fans. Nothing wrong with that except the Argo coffers have taken a beating. The doubling of the new TV contract will help allay this somewhat, but CFL teams will still earn twice as much from ticket sales as from TV.

I'd like to know the source of some of your claims (number of season-ticket holders, less than half of other teams, strongest walkup crowds in the league), but to the specific point of this thread, if lifting blackouts caused crowds to dwindle in such a cause-and-effect way, how do you explain attendance declining steadily and steeply between 1982 and 1988, when home games were still being blacked out, and rising sharply in 1991 and 2005 (to give a couple of examples), when there were no blackouts? I don't think there is any one cause for Argo attendance issues, and as I said above I believe the negative impact from reinstituting blackouts would more than offset any attendance gain.

[Invader]

I'd like to know the source of some of your claims (number of season-ticket holders, less than half of other teams, strongest walkup crowds in the league), but to the specific point of this thread, if lifting blackouts caused crowds to dwindle in such a cause-and-effect way, how do you explain attendance declining steadily and steeply between 1982 and 1988, when home games were still being blacked out, and rising sharply in 1991 and 2005 (to give a couple of examples), when there were no blackouts? I don't think there is any one cause for Argo attendance issues, and as I said above I believe the negative impact from reinstituting blackouts would more than offset any attendance gain.

It was reported a couple weeks ago that the Argos were trending to 8,000 season tickets. The RedBlacks reported 16,000 a couple weeks ago (with their home opener already soldout) and the Ticats intimated they were at 15,000 ST, with club and premium seating soldout for the season. The Lions prez said last week the Lions were at the 15,000 ST mark. It was also reported the Stamps have over 20,000 ST-holders and the Esks were at 26,500. The Riders said they capped ST sales at 26,000. The Bombers said they were down 3,000 from the 25,000 ST they sold last year (22,000).

So that's were I derived at the Argos season ticket sales being half the next nearest team, assuming the 8,000 target of the Argos was correct.

Using simple arithmetic, if the Argos averaged over 22,000 fans last year but had only 10,000 ST-holders, for example, that would make their walkup crowds the largest in the CFL (as most teams sell the majority of their tickets to ST-holders, not walkups).

In 2005, the Argos had an exciting team which had just won the Grey Cup, so that may account for their uptick in attendance...along with the reported papering of the crowd in the early Cynamon & Sokolowski regime.

I believe the Argos lifting their home blackouts for 25 years, while plenty of good seats were still available, has hurt their ability to sell seasons tickets. That wasn't the only factor on the decline of the Argo ST-base, but it was a contributing factor.

Another factor in the diminished Argo fan support was obviously the ascension of the BJ's. Baseball gave fans another sporting option in the summer and when the BJ's really started to click, there is no denying they stole the hearts of TO sports fans...including many Argo fans. More recently the Raptors and TFC have also stolen some Argo headlines and fan support. There is only so many disposable dollars available for sports tickets and there is more competition today, than in the 70's or 80's.

[ArgoRavi]

Another factor in the diminished Argo fan support was obviously the ascension of the BJ's. Baseball gave fans another sporting option in the summer and when the BJ's really started to click, there is no denying they stole the hearts of TO sports fans...including many Argo fans. More recently the Raptors and TFC have also stolen some Argo headlines and fan support. There is only so many disposable dollars available for sports tickets and there is more competition today, than in the 70's or 80's.

Interestingly enough, none of those other teams black out their home games or ever have. In fact, one of the reasons given for the ascension of the Jays over the Argos was that the Jays used television as a promotional vehicle by not blacking out their home games while the Argos were difficult to find on TV.

[paulwoods13]

It was reported a couple weeks ago that the Argos were trending to 8,000 season tickets.

Reported by whom? And what does "trending to" mean?