It is an unknown for sure, but Toronto has shown there is an appetite for rugby in this market with the games at BMO. I am intrigued by it. With them playing in a promotion/relegation European setup, if in 4-5 years they find themselves in the Super League, I think you can pretty much guarantee it them coming knocking at BMO. We shall see.Originally Posted by OgtheDim
Remember The Man, The Legend, The Goal 5-12-07 and All That #9 Left On The Pitch, Thanks For The Memories !!!
-"Our gameday is not commercialized"
-Stops game to sell commercials on TV.
The problem with the sports teams being owned by the media is that no one ever asks the tough questions to call this kind of crap out. He blamed the abysmal crowds on things like the Ex and the Indy. I am pretty sure he even said construction to set up the Ex. Really? And then the guy interviewing him doesn't even bother pointing out that these things have never been a problem for TFC.
I honestly can't tell if it's wilfully ignoring TFC, or the majority of our sports media is made up of idiots. Just today, I heard on TSN radio during Overdrive them say (right before they were going to interview a member of Canada's 2012 4x100 relay team no less), how Canada won a medal yesterday after a screw up by the Japanese team! During the commercial break I seriously thought that Japan got their medal stripped for doping and I had missed it. These are the same guys who spent an entire week talking about whether the Leafs had a shot at signing Vesey. And now that they didn't, spend another week talking about how he wasn't that good anyway.
Is it me, or do our soccer guys like Larson and Molinaro just seem smarter than the rest of these guys?
I've got the same problem with Sportsnet and their Jays coverage. Its getting very hard to find objective opinions and journo's looking to ask hard questions, the relationship between sports media and sports teams these days is murky at best, its hard to not see them all as an extension of the teams PR branch.
Last edited by Richard; 08-22-2016 at 10:42 PM.
Reminds me a lot of when the league had a sit down with MLSE in the lead up to the MLS Cup here.
MLS Cup tickets became free/included (depending on your perspective) with season ticket renewal. Big concern over attendance in the lead up and what came to be one of the lowest rated MLS championship games in history.
If the Argos gave away tickets like TFC did to the championship, it would have been a way to provide value for season ticket purchases.
Last edited by Pookie; 08-23-2016 at 01:39 AM.
No comparison trying to compare the MLS Cup that was held in Toronto to this upcoming Grey Cup. MLS Cup had no history in Canada or even in the US for that matter, Grey Cup had been around since the what early 1900's , MLS Cup what 1996 I think. Media attention for that MLS Cup was like 0, no build up. Therefore, of course it was a hard sell that MLS Cup, the Grey Cup with all it's history and media attention is in another league in Canada it's an institution in Canada, so you can't really compare the two and how that MLS Cup in Toronto went down, sorry. Let's be honest the Argos at BMO has big a big fail so far really big fail , exspecialy with all the hype that was around their move to BMO, TFC remember was suppose to fail big time according to many in the mainstream media.
Grey Cups are not guaranteed sell outs anymore it seems.
But I think it will sell out.
I agree.
The Grey Cup is a nomadic Mardi Gras/Oktoberfest for many canadians.
they go for the parties, etc.
They set the price too high.
but i think it will eventually sell out. (Groupon?)
there is a large contingent of people that will not watch a single CFL game all year but will go to the grey cup to party hard with other Canadians.
there is no way the venue isn't packed. The Partners will give them away..."Test Drive a Vehicle, be entered for a pair of GC tix"
They have a long way to go to sell out:
http://imgur.com/a/rgtmD
Last edited by KGH; 08-23-2016 at 07:36 AM.
I remember that episode as the all time low in the Anselmi regime. IIRC it was Anselmi who bundled the seats, not the league, and you had to pay for MLS Cup seats in order to renew. I had 4 reds, it was $500 or something. It's kind of seared in my memory!
What the world needs is more geniuses with humility; there are so few of us left.
As I wrote a few weeks back (and then defended on The Fan 590), there's an agenda against Toronto FC. You aren't wrong in your assessment.
On-air sports personalities in this city know two things: Leafs and Jays. Many of them struggle with the NBA. Heck, many of them can't talk NFL.
As I wrote, a lot of them pass off Toronto FC because it's a lot easier than taking a few minutes to watch highlights and formulate questions/opinions.
I've been around in the industry for eight years now. Have talked to a lot of columnists. They'll dismiss something before doing a little extra work to promote it.
It's sad. It will change over decades as long as MLSE keeps investing in Toronto FC and the quality keeps improving.
Until then, yes, we have to sit here and stew and deal with our inferiority complexes.
I've been dealing with this since the late 1990s, when the Kansas City Wiz were an afterthought in a city with two bad teams.
I'm not smarter than anyone else. I'm just not a jerk.
I watched a decent amount of Tim and Sid yesterday thinking that maybe Sid would want to talk soccer since he is a big soccer guy. Nope not a word from the parts I saw but i believe but if Aaron Sanchez breaks wind they would have a 20 min discussion on how that changes his bullpen status.
We want more TFC/soccer attention then we better hope that our national team can make it to the HEX. Make canadian soccer a household thing with national team success and the attention will filter down to the leagues those players play in.
The only time you'll hear Sid talk Canadian soccer is if things go bad in Honduras.
The only time you'll hear Sid talk Toronto FC is if they fire a manager and miss the playoffs.
My recent radio spot: http://www.sportsnet.ca/590/jeff-bla...rt-isnt-media/
yet he and many of the sportsnet crew are in the voyageurs section every game at BMO.
Be careful what you wish for.
I like TFC because it is a community, not some metastasized sports-religious-industrial complex.
I won't like it as much if it gets more attention (which it should, no question).
I get all the discussion I need right here. (These boards get toxic as they get bigger, based on my casual observation of the Jays boards.)
What the world needs is more geniuses with humility; there are so few of us left.
It must be a higher up pushing content on their show.
I think Gareth Wheeler is the probably the most main stream radio host now pushing TFC/Canadian soccer content and arguably on a more 'old boy' radio network. He is quite clever on air as I have a hunch half the positions he takes are taking the piss out of shitty ideas; ie supporting the NHL in Vegas and giving the Argos years to rebuild at BMO.
BTW Kurt, thanks for all of the work you have been doing in being our voice. Your article and interview were great. We fans may not always agree with what you say (regarding tactics, player selections, if the sky is falling lol), but I am pretty sure everyone here respects you and your work.
Haha so right! I once tried following the Raptors forum during a game, and by the time you read through an entire page and refresh, there are already 5 new pages! And it's a lot of nonsense.
from what i heard the wolfpack already have 4K SSH and they dont begin play until 2017...what will the argos owners say when a new transatlantic team has more SSH than them....what would the next move for the Argos be? leave the city or try a small venue? how can you pay the rent at BMO when you are not making any money?
The Wolfpack are going to be fun, I am very much looking forward to that first ever Toronto-London match-up when they take on the Skolars.
Remember The Man, The Legend, The Goal 5-12-07 and All That #9 Left On The Pitch, Thanks For The Memories !!!
Ouch. It's Bend Ennis doing the interview. A doughty 5-year man in his knowledge of the game now that he's working for Fox Soccer. They used to run their soccer broadcast sweatshop out of Winnipeg. You want problems in soccer coverage, there's exhibit A.
TSN now employ two of the Winnipeg sweatshop survivors - Derek Taylor and Nabil Karim - and put them on CFL coverage. CFTO's septuagenarian sports geezers mostly snicker at soccer. Sportsnet is in such a perpetual state of bonestroke over the Jays that it's hard to blame them for not covering TFC or MLS better. MLS telecasts, after all, are TSN property.
You're bang on about the willful abuse of soccer in the Canadian media and some of it lies at your corporate doorstep. Your sister paper, the National Post, has largely ignored MLS. I wish I could offer more insight into the Post coverage, but I'm in the same boat as many Canadians - Who actually reads it? Steve Simmons at the Sun gleefully admits to pissing on soccer. It's helping kill his beloved Argos.
The Globe and Mail only offers limp, spotty coverage, quick to highlight the negatives, utterly incapable of offering anything original, positive or insightful unless Neil Davidson of CP (a fine beat writer) provides the copy.
There are good people out in the mainstream talking brightly about the game - Jeff Blair and Steven Brunt are well-enough informed that they can actually talk players and tactics. The default tactic for ignorant commentators or writers is to talk about the overall business aspect of the game.
It'll be fun for TFC fans when they start to do that with the Argonauts.
Last edited by greatwhitenorf; 08-24-2016 at 12:57 AM.
I spent 10 seconds of my holiday during a flip around channels landed upon that Rogers Fan Radio show with the sunglassed one and Damian Cox sitting there laconically going over what sports in the Olympics they care about.
Utter paternalistic old white guy bullshit that if it happened in any other part of journalism would be getting an expose on Canadaland for lacking in diversity and being an old boys network.
That's the problem with sports coverage in this country : Gatekeepers who feel they can tell people what sport is worth watching.
They are not journalists - they are preachers.
And I go back to what I've said before - the choices are made based on what sport fits their moral code developed from following hockey in small towns and cities. So that weird "playing the game the right way" crap that is personified by Don Cherry gets used subconsciously to decide what sport is worth reporting on.
So, no I don't really care old sports dudes (and yes some of you are old while still in your 30's) that your sense of propriety stops you from considering this entertainment beneath your purvey.
Stop trying to be the moral gatekeeper for this country.
I don't care if you don't like soccer or any other sport in this county - if enough people are showing interest, its your job to talk about sports that people are interested in.
And if that's the CFL, then talk about it rather then deflated footballs from a league south of the border that gets less ratings then the CFL.
And if that's MLS, then talk about it rather then going on and on abut which Blue Jay is doing what in Florida.
Last edited by OgtheDim; 08-24-2016 at 08:50 AM.
These sports franchises are owned by media companies that care only about one thing, profits, especially profits made from tv ad revenue. Until TFC/MLS get traction in terms of ratings, they will be largely ignored, other than maybe before a big playoff game. Bell/Rogers own radio/tv and they will promote what they believe people are watching on TV. The Raptors were largely ignored (and still are compared to Leafs/Jays) but things have gotten better as ratings have increased. What Raps/TFC have in common is that they have a young demo which bodes well for future growth.
Also, there's nothing wrong with being part of a cool secret club not a lot of people know about it, especially when there are 30K rocking in BMO. It could be worse. You could be an Argos fan who gloats about TV ratings but nobody cares enough to show up the games which results in a terrible atmosphere at the game and on TV.
Last edited by 105; 08-24-2016 at 07:26 AM.
Sports coverage changed when media companies started buying teams and purchasing expensive broadcast rights. They aren't journalism but promotional pieces, and it's been that way forever.
No wonder Sports Journalism has always been known as the Toy Department in news media.
Maybe we can't get actual media coverage yet but it would be nice if they could get some of the All For One short clips put out as commercials.
Thanks for listening.
In defence of Postmedia, we do have the biggest soccer columnists in each city: Larson at the Sun; Weber at the Vancouver Province; Cowan at the Montreal Gazette. We all travel for soccer. We all cover it 4-5 times a week and it runs in print. We also were the only organization to send a reporter to the Euros for the entire tournament. Personally, I think the Star deserves far more scrutiny.
The National Post doesn't run MLS because it's not considered a "national league". The sports section is also extremely small. I hear what you're saying, though. Will be interested to see if they run our MLS Playoff coverage.
Happy to give you any other observations if you have questions...
Here's a pretty good example of TSN's extreme bias against Major League Soccer and how it pushes a dead franchise.
Have yet to see any kind of tweet like this for Toronto FC or Sebastian Giovinco.
https://twitter.com/SportsCentre/sta...53639841120258
To be fair, if you scroll down the timeline for that twitter account, there are tweets about the results for each of the 3 Canadian MLS teams.
FWIW, the likes for any tweet hockey related are much higher then anything else.
OlympicsX500+
Hockey X 100- 120
Baseball x 30- 80
Soccer x 5 -35
CFL x 5 - 20
Again FWIW
I'm not saying they don't tweet MLS occasionally. But...
Have you seen anything about Giovinco winning Golden Boot race again?
Or, Altidore re-emerging?
Or, Toronto FC hunting down Supporters' Shield?
Last edited by KurtLarSUN; 08-24-2016 at 10:03 AM.
You need to get some of those guys to BMO for Saturday's game Kurt. It's going to be loud and rocking. They won't help but be pulled into it.
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