Food for thought: The spy who sold out
Forgiving a pretty face
Facebook to agencies: how will people share your story?
Is “The Pitch” an accurate reflection of our industry?
After another Buffalo Bills game in Toronto last Thursday (with more on the way), the National Football League (NFL) is continuing with its efforts to establish more of a presence for itself in Canada. However, the announced attendance at last week’s game was just 39,000 people, easily the lowest of the “Bills in Toronto Series” so far, and well short of the roughly 70,000 usually expected at a game in the U.S.
It makes you wonder, would the NFL in Canada work?
After all, we do already have a little something called the CFL — the Canadian Football League. And despite the league being the butt of the occasional joke south of the border, it’s a very strong brand on its home turf. (Especially in the prairies.)
Canadians are pretty loyal to the CFL, and an NFL team in Toronto could mean the end of our style of football. The fear is that the team would take a lot of the attention away from the CFL, as people would become more interested in seeing a bigger and (arguably) better brand on the field. But would anyone outside of Toronto even root for an NFL team?
The Blue Jays in the MLB and the Raptors in the NBA aren’t exactly thriving, and that’s without competition from other professional baseball and basketball leagues. And let’s not forget the hesitation of American athletes to join a Canadian team, what with our multi-coloured money and colder temperatures.
With a brand allegiance as strong as the CFL’s (seriously, have you ever been to Saskatchewan?), an NFL team in Toronto could be doomed. Not only would it give the rest of Canada yet another reason to despise — and be jealous of — Toronto, but simply being competition to the CFL would be added incentive for football fans to avoid it.
The lower attendance numbers suggest that interest in seeing the Bills play here is already waning. Maybe the NFL has overestimated the appeal of their product outside of the States. Or maybe the NFL and the CFL simply can’t coexist in Canada.
My bet is our brand of football comes out on top, rouges and all.
Curtis Westman
August 23, 2010 @ 10:40 am
Don’t underestimate the blind loyalty of Torontonians. The low attendance numbers might, in part, be caused by the fact that regardless of the Bills playing here, we don’t have any real connection to them whatsoever. If it was a Toronto home team, however…
Jimmy
August 23, 2010 @ 10:42 am
Interesting read and some good points – Not sure if it’s that complicated though. When it comes down to it, people don’t want to pay $300 to sit in the upper deck for a pre-season NFL game.
Doesn’t help that there is a stigma towards the dome and a beer garden with $7 beers doesn’t count as tailgating.
You also can’t discount the power of advertising. It’s not a good sign when people look in the paper the day after the game and say to themselves “the bills played in T.O. last night?”.
Twitted by feartheweekend
August 23, 2010 @ 11:00 am
[...] This post was Twitted by feartheweekend [...]
Martin Cinzar
August 23, 2010 @ 11:18 am
Agreed Curtis. These are just friendlies in the weakest sense. Overpriced. Exhibition games. Lack of promotion. And the venues for promotion are suspect. The medium is the message. There are plenty of reasons to not love these games.
Overcoming brand allegiances is what advertising is all about. Either you’re fortifying your own brand allegiance or trying convert others. So that part would be taken care of a real Toronto NFL team and their advertising effort.
Sort of hard to root for the home team when this isn’t their home.
Ben
August 23, 2010 @ 11:21 am
I’m with Jimmy why would I want to pay 100$ + Beer for Bills tickets when I can drive to Chicago and pay less for tickets during the regular season.
There is definitely interest in the NFL. But they have to price it better.
Ryan
August 23, 2010 @ 11:31 am
As already stated, this was a pre-season game. A meaningless exhibition of mostly practice roster players and a few starters. Not an appealing game to even the most rabid of bills fans. The other problem with Bills games is that the NFL fan-base up here is diverse. I have many friends that are HUGE NFL fans but almost all of them are fans of a different team. I’m a Cowboys fan (Go Cowboys!), I’m not going to spend money on a bills game unless they’re playing the boys!
Travis
August 23, 2010 @ 11:41 am
Are you seriously debating whether or not an NFL team would succeed in Canada’s largest market based on a pre-season (!) game featuring the hapless, superstarless Bills (!!) that’s price gouged (as par usual) by the plundering kings known as Rogers?
Are you seriously debating whether of not an NFL team could compete (!?!) with the CFL north of the border even though the NFL is now an official supporting pillar of the CFL?
Are you seriously suggesting that an Argos home game with the heavily discounted and often comp’d tickets that still only draws 20,000 fans (maybe if they’re playing Hamilton) is a more successful venture than what happened the other night during the pre-season (!).
Where are you from Warren … Saskatchewan?
Seriously.
Warren Haas
August 23, 2010 @ 11:50 am
Many good points made here.
Even though it was a pre-season game, I’m still not convinced that a regular season game with an actual Toronto NFL team would have a consistently big draw.
The initial novelty of it would surely be a big deal, but if the team played anything like, say, the BIlls, then I find it hard to believe people would come out to see any game not against a team such as the Cowboys.
I’m thinking of Blue Jays games against the Baltimore Orioles or Raptors games against the New Jersey Nets. It tends to leave their respective stadiums looking a bit empty.
The draw of an NFL team would be based primarily on the opponent. With the CFL, I feel people more readily embrace the game and league as a whole. It’s a Canadian experience.
Leilah Ambrose
August 23, 2010 @ 11:51 am
This can only be Travis Sellar. There can only be one.
Travis
August 23, 2010 @ 12:14 pm
Oh HAI Leilah. Way to call me out.
Martin Cinzar
August 23, 2010 @ 12:49 pm
The Jays and Raptors just have to win to regain popularity. Going to see a baseball team that has no chance of making the playoffs or a basketball team that is more soap opera than team isn’ going to cut it. Put the Jays or Raps in a playoff race. To the youngsters on the blog. Playoffs are a mythical time of year that used to visit Toronto during the 90’s. I fear global warming has moved it habitat further East to New England.
Ian
August 23, 2010 @ 1:27 pm
NFL? CFL? We need a third option. They should bring back the XFL.
Jeff Collins
August 23, 2010 @ 2:03 pm
You are right, the CFL is a Canadian experience, but one that I don’t think would be effected by an NFL team coming to Toronto. A quick search listed the average Argo attendance at around 29,000 (inflated in my opinion but I guess the internet doesn’t lie…) and I think these people would continue to go to CFL games regardless of an NFL franchise because they are fans of the CFL. CFL fans are loyal as you have pointed out, they believe the product on the field is superior to NFL football and they will continue to support it, perhaps even more so if there was an NFL team in the city.
With a greater area population of over 5million to draw from an NFL team would have no problem selling seats in Toronto without having to dip into that 29,000. Providing that team is called the “Toronto somethings” and they are able to replicate the NFL experience (read: tailgate) properly, a team will be very successful in this city.
As everyone is saying, you can’t allow the attendance to a pre-season Bills game be the barometer here. A) it’s not really our team. B) it’s a bad team. C) it’s an exhibition game where we are lucky to see a star like Manning play more than 2 drives. D) the lowest level of tickets I heard about was $75 which is $2 less than the most expensive seats in Buffalo last regular season.
Cost has been and will be a major issue for the Toronto Bills series. Since day one when Ralph Wilson and Ted Rogers laughed out loud at the press conference as the prices of ticket packages were announced it has been a bone of contention. The arrogance of that moment and the blind faith they put in their ability to gouge Torontonians left a bad taste in a lot of people’s mouths. Then they followed that up with putting the Bills on the field, that in itself is another problem.
The real question is whether or not the NFL wants to put a team in Toronto. I’m sure this experiment was looked at closely as a test by the league and I’m afraid we have failed. Unfortunately it may give them reason to believe that a team won’t work here. It will be very easy for them to say “why should we give you a franchise when we gave you the NFL and you didn’t buy it?” Shame on Rogers if that day comes, they screwed this city out of a chance to join the biggest league in North American sports.
Oh and as far the Raptors go, they had the 14th highest attendance last year. Ahead of teams like the Heat, Suns, Magic, Bucks and Bobcats, all of whom made the playoffs. So if we want to look at Toronto’s ability to support a sole Canadian team in an American league they are somewhat of a success.
The “more soap opera than team” part is a whole other story though.
Warren Haas
August 23, 2010 @ 4:30 pm
@Jeff: Boom goes the dynamite. You make some great points.
One part of the issue I didn’t touch on is that SkyDome / Rogers Centre is also probably not a great NFL venue. It is a baseball stadium, first and foremost. (Or a concrete block.)
It’s possible that a proper football stadium, built for a Toronto team, could also invite greater attendance. The open-air atmosphere certainly works for TFC.
Maybe I’m not a big enough football fan, but I’ve never seen anywhere near the same level of passion and enthusiasm for the NFL in Canada that I’ve seen for the CFL.
Or maybe I’ve been missing out on a lot of sweet tailgating.
Liam Mooney
August 25, 2010 @ 1:28 am
@Warren a couple of observations.
1. Last year’s regular season game between AFC East rivals the Bills and Jets drew 51,567 in attendance and was considered a sell out by the NFL and Rogers Centre.
2. Pre-Season game (we already discussed this here) have little interest from fans, especially as the summer wraps up. The Bills aren’t exactly on the radar.
3. The Raptors and Jays are great examples of Toronto sports fans. With the exception of the Leafs, if a team wins the fans will come. Toronto fans want to support a team that wins, full stop.
As an absolutely avid Jays fan I can tell you that if the Jays are hot or come out of the gates super strong like last year and have some buzz people will come out to the ball park. In Halladay’s last year as a Jay he pitched a game against AJ (his first return since joining the Yankees). The Jays were in first place in the LEAGUE and it was mid may. Result=sell out. The Jays hadn’t sold out a game that wasn’t a Home Opener since 1994.
Anyway, I think Toronto fans are fair weather Argo fans and watch it mainly because it’s the only option, but this is just my opinion. I get this from meeting people from Edmonton, Winnipeg, Montreal etc who all have FANATIC fans, I just don’t get that same vibe here. Even though they are having a good season. Even Hamilton has nutty fans, and they are the classic example of “whathaveyoudoneformelately” but the fans still show.
Something tells me if the Argos lost as often as the Ti-Cats that attendance would the worst in the league despite playing in the largest market.
Anyway, it’s late and I need to sleep. My two or three cents.
Liam