Where to find 1/2 Stadium of Fans

[Neely2005]

Quick response --- you raise two good points - I will use TFC as a comparison as I think it is the best comparison in terms of stadium location (same) and minor league mentality (same).....

1) I agree with the first point about having to explain the game being problematic and not easy for newcomers to understand sometimes, although TFC has a huge advantage here as even though it is also perceived as minor league it is a sport that almost everyone understands (its played the "same way" as in other countries, and simply just played in way more countries) and is frankly a much more "global" game that attracts lots of interest from people of all different types of backgrounds in this city.....unfortunately CFL style football (or even US Style NFL football) doesn't share a similar sporting pedigree around the world like soccer obviously does, so greater efforts have to be made here to educate the public on our unique brand of football (or football period)....

2) As for point number two --- the stadium was pretty full for a soccer game on a Tuesday night this past week, and lots of TFC fans are 905ers too -- the point is that while traffic is a huge problem, it can (and will) be overcome by fans if people perceive this as an "event" that must be attended, if its "the place to be", and that they need to be in that stadium and not on their couch....most events are a pain in the ass in this city to get to for most of us outside the downtown core, and people still manage to attend if the perceived value and buzz is there (I am a STH of both teams and hauled my ass down on Tuesday and was rewarded with an awesome game that was filled with excitement (and any newcomer to that product would of course go back again), and not on Friday for this very reason (where any newcomer would look around and say why bother coming back?) - sorry if that is blasphemy on these boards), as I said before, people need to be motivated to get off their ass in this day and age and the Argos simply aren't creating enough motivation for most to do so, and if I am a sporting fan of multiple teams in this market like many CFL fans are (Jays, TFC, Argos, Leafs, Raptors etc.) are the Argos going to be the one most people leave behind these days if having to make a choice based on the amount of time people will want to traverse the city, and available dollars spent on entertainment, my guess is yes...........time to try some new ideas......

The difference is that the higher levels of soccer aren't played just across the boarder with many games available on TV in the same time zone like the NFL is.

My point is that the other teams have a higher percentage of their fans living in the 416 than the Argonauts do. And on top of that they also have a bigger fanbase so they have more to draw from in the 416 than we do.

[Argo57]

The difference is that the higher levels of soccer aren't played just across the boarder with many games available on TV in the same time zone like the NFL is.

My point is that the other teams have a higher percentage of their fans living in the 416 than the Argonauts do. And on top of that they also have a bigger fanbase so they have more to draw from in the 416 than we do.

That's a good point Neely, the other thing is most of the MLS teams are American which to many means a "major" league.

[Argos1983]

That's a good point Neely, the other thing is most of the MLS teams are American which to many means a "major" league.

Agreed - good point on the US teams participation (in cities like NY/Chicago/LA) which improves the perception making it appear more "major league" to the average fan -- not sure if there are necessarily more fans in the 416 for all of the other teams.....I don't have those numbers in front of me.....anecdotally I know of lots of TFC fans (and Leafs and Raptors) who are outside of the 416 (in fact most of them don't live within the traditional city confines), but again I have no hard data either way.....