It's interesting looking at the replys on that tweet. Argos fans are pulling the TV ratings excuse. It seems to be the only excuse they can pull out of their ass as far as I've observed.
The Toronto team is not about content, they already have plenty of it. It's about the perception that without a beachhead in this market you lack relevance - which may or may not be true.
Does it really or is that just simplified logic to a fault? Sure, you want a tie-in to corporate Canada but that doesn't mean you need a team within the city limits.
If you have a strong market, presence in the primary corporate hub is nice but not must have. See: NASCAR, Curling etc...
Last edited by ag futbol; 07-30-2016 at 03:43 PM.
NASCAR has had events near major cities for years - Watkins Glen for New York, and a speedway near Chicago, Atlanta another one, Dallas as well. Two in California. They have all the big markets covered.
Curling has tried for years to get a foothold for the Brier in Toronto but it never quite works as well as it has out West.
I would disagree. The Argos are one of the oldest franchises in North American sport and I believe Canadian Football was first played here in Toronto back in the 1800's.
It would be a huge PR disaster for the league to have this team fold. Beachhead for historic significance or necessary for the perception of corporate legitimacy? I don't think you can separate the two concepts.
Old things go away al the time. They're already putting lipstick on the pig in the media now - I'm sure they'll have some spin if they decided a move to the burbs is the right idea.
This is the same league that expands into Ottawa once every 3 years. How much more embarrassing could that be? I'm sure they'd still be the "Toronto" Argos and retain some attachment to the area.
Last edited by ag futbol; 07-30-2016 at 06:20 PM.
(Interestingly, Nascar has issues with TV and attendance and has the same demographic issues the CFL has)
Moving the Argos to the 905 along the 407 would allow it to be called Toronto and the advertisers would be happy. Won`t happen as nobody wants to spend the $50 million to build a stadium. (insert World Cup dreams here)
Its been 2 new franchises over 20 years and the current one is doing pretty good with the new stadium.
Regardless, like it or not, national ad providers want a GTA team - without one the price TSN can charge goes down significantly, which would be passed down to the team, who make most of their money off of TV. That`s the reality.
Didn't say the Argos were doing well with the money - they were losing money. The TV money is the main source of income for them and the largest source for most CFL teams.
The concern locally is if people don't show up, the product looks bad on TV and that eventually people locally will stop watching, which will affect ad buys. The numbers are up across the country. Somebody somewhere who makes decisions on ad buys will have the local numbers.
At the Argos game on Monday night I had a free slice of pizza delivered to me by the Argo cheerleaders, can't beat that!
I can't remember who posted it but Toronto is a market that wants to be in the Top leagues in North America so in my honest opinion The only way to revive the Argos it would be to turn them into Canada's first NFl franchise that would and forever will be the only real way to save the Argos because like someone else in this thread said most of the Toronto fan base when it comes to the gridiron we watch nfl not cfl
Ai estes são os Ultras do Benfica Primeiros a nascer
Odiamos os tripeiros Queremos ver o Porto a arder
DIABOS VERMELHOS 1982
I think a suburb team makes a lot of sense and feel the same about TFC. Those arguments surfaced when TFC's attendance was bad too. Events in the area, parking, TTC inconvenience.
At the end of the day, 24k showed up to the home opener. Dropped for game 2 to really small numbers and jumped back up for the Monday game.
I don't think they have more than 10k season ticket holders so many fans there, like me on Monday, are walk ups. Giving it a shot and I assume the plan is to try to convert them to season tickets or flex packs.
Like TFC, for me the decision to not have seasons would be economic in nature. But I can tell you from being on hand for the game, they have a lot of things going in the right direction. Wouldn't be surprised to see them bump their season ticket numbers next year and steadily over the next few, despite MLSE like pricing policies.
They may not ever take off to sweep the city, but I don't see the Argos folding.
Last edited by Pookie; 07-31-2016 at 07:35 AM.
I have to get some tickets, I've heard nothing but good about the games at BMO
I was at the game Monday. Thoroughly enjoyed myself. And I'm not even an American football fan.
for anyone who wants to point to the TV ratings the Argos bring in, lemme just point out that I'm at work right now and all 4 TSN channels are playing the Argos/Ottawa game and all 4 sportsnet channels are playing "top 50 moments" (I know it's on SN360 but we don't get that).
Check out this tweet at [URL]https://twitter.com/RudiSchuller/status/759882958962589696[/URL]
Not sure if you guys can see it but I can see remnants of the gridiron sideline
It is pretty minor.. I turned on the Argo game just to see how many were in the stadium and the pitch.. you could see the boxes fairly clearly. Those side line marks are pretty minor and really if you didn't know you wouldn't notice.
This peeves me off actually.. It isn't part of the normal sports package with my provider you have to buy a special theme back for a minimum of $7.95... and give me a bunch of channels I don't watch. I think it is crappy that Sportsnet puts TFC on 360 exclusively. If MLS Live wasn't so expensive I'd have bought that instead.
“Years have gone by and I’ve finally learned to accept myself for who I am: a beggar for good football.
I go about the world, hand outstretched, and in the stadiums I plead: ‘A pretty move, for the love of God.’
And when good football happens, I give thanks for the miracle and I don’t give a damn which team or country performs it.”
-Eduardo Galeano
Even the 1 team option is more expensive than what I'm paying right now.. buy just a little.. (though I didn't see that option the last time I looked) I looked at it the other day.. it was a toss up on what to do.. I watched 3 MLS games today (which is more than I have ever watched in a single day) between TSN Fox and SN360. The VOD service with my provider actually keeps the last few TSN games on Demand.. so I'm not too worried about the whole thing. I also get TSN Go and Sportsnet Now as part of my Package so it is one of those.. meh.. I'll just do it this way for now.. next year I'll put some thought into how I want to do it.
They had tons of freebies for the home opener and will all the hype douldnt get a sell out, second game shows real numbers for Argos, they only have 7K SSH, well below their 20K goal, and the game you went to had a pokemon go to attract walk ups, plus tsn giving away free tickets, they still wont say how many tickets were give away...even though you walked up the ticket window, BMO Field is not a stadium where walks are the norm.
Unless they give away more freebies (which i suspect they especially for the CNE game) they will not get close to making any money at BMO Field or even breaking the 20K mark. Lets hope they start telling us how many freebies are given out...then we will really know their future.