Luke Willson goes off on the CFL..

Sir Blue and Gold · July 08, 2025, 09:30:35 PM

Luke is the best, most amazing TSN personality and he should be commended for his work particularly around fanbase ranking. We also agree that Rider fans are simple, especially the selfie taking ones.

blueandgoldguy · July 09, 2025, 02:23:52 AM

ha. I like his take about Hamilton fans. It's so true. For years, many of their fans would claim online that the reason the stands were half-empty despite announcing attendance of 22-24,000 seemingly every game is that people were watching from the concourse. Uh, yeah..if there were 10,000 people on the concourses it would be wall to wall people from end-to-end. In fact, you might not be able to fit that many people on the concourse to begin with.

The fact is there are many no-shows for Ti-Cat games. It's been that way for years. I also read comments from a couple of ti-cat fans on their forum that the team is giving away more tickets to boost attendance...some of which are going unused.

GOLDMEMBER · July 09, 2025, 12:37:08 PM

Saskatchewan is to high.
They can barely half fill there glorious new stadium, while the team is always competitive and they get number 2? Pffft, nope!

theaardvark · July 10, 2025, 03:49:17 PM

Much of the Bombers financial success comes from the on field success.

Its much easier to be a booster of a winning team. When your bandwagon sells seasons tickets and has a waiting list, you know things are good.

Other teams see blips of fan base surge when they have some success, and huge drops when they struggle. EDM's dynasty kept that huge stadium full, and now they have to give tickets away.

New ownership in some cities is making an impact, for sure, and getting rich corporate owners in places like TO and CGY to invest more in promoting the teams would go a long way to making a difference.

TecnoGenius · July 12, 2025, 01:37:09 AM

Quote from: The Zipp on July 05, 2025, 11:22:48 PMLuke calling out the ticats fans for not travelling the 45 mins to toronto to watch their team.

Haha, considering the TOR fans don't travel the 35 mins to get to their own stadium! LOL. If I lived in any of those cities I'd go to all HAM, TOR, OTT and MTL games. I love driving.

TecnoGenius · July 12, 2025, 01:42:41 AM

Quote from: The Zipp on July 08, 2025, 07:30:33 PM9) Hamilton Ticats - there seem to be a few awesome fans but overall what a fraudulent gong show

HAM is a split base. There's tons of "normal" fans like you'd see in WPG, who sit and love watching. Tons of passion. Tons of pain from not winning those 2 GCs. But they are great fans.

Then there are the rowdy rough drunks, who, a TOR friend of mine who goes sometimes tells me, give the fan base a bad name.

HAM, once always full (probably 3rd place in attendance), suffered from the same effect as SSK and EDM the last few years: perpetually losing and showing no respect to the fans by trying to improve caused tons of STH to quit for good. None of those 3 teams have been able to get those fans back. They'll need to generate new fans.

Luke is right about CGY: very fairweather. And they all show up late, like really late. With the "real" tailgates, CGY may be the true "it's a big party" rather than a football game.

TecnoGenius · July 12, 2025, 01:45:57 AM

Quote from: theaardvark on July 10, 2025, 03:49:17 PMMuch of the Bombers financial success comes from the on field success.

Its much easier to be a booster of a winning team.

Ya, but then I'll once again mention, as I always do, that WPG was selling tons of tickets, even some sell-outs, when they stunk rocks in '13-'15.

As long as the team and org shows respect for the fans, and shows continued efforts to improve, I think WPG fans will remain loyal even if we lose badly for 3 years. The Can Mafia may have taken a looong time to "get there", but they always showed effort and respect.

Jesse · July 12, 2025, 02:03:14 AM

Quote from: TecnoGenius on July 12, 2025, 01:45:57 AMYa, but then I'll once again mention, as I always do, that WPG was selling tons of tickets, even some sell-outs, when they stunk rocks in '13-'15.

As long as the team and org shows respect for the fans, and shows continued efforts to improve, I think WPG fans will remain loyal even if we lose badly for 3 years. The Can Mafia may have taken a looong time to "get there", but they always showed effort and respect.

We've also had season where the number of people in the stands were counted in the hundreds, not thousands.

Those years after the stadium were built were kind of inflated. We had a bunch of new season ticket holders due to the promise of being able to pick seats in the new stadium and those boosted numbers held strongish during those tough years. Thankfully, the team started turning it around or it would have gotten rough.

TecnoGenius · July 12, 2025, 02:20:20 AM

Quote from: Jesse on July 12, 2025, 02:03:14 AMThose years after the stadium were built were kind of inflated.

Then what's New Mosaic's excuse? They have their new "beautiful" stadium too.

RebusRankin · July 12, 2025, 02:51:35 AM

Quote from: Jesse on July 12, 2025, 02:03:14 AMWe've also had season where the number of people in the stands were counted in the hundreds, not thousands.

Those years after the stadium were built were kind of inflated. We had a bunch of new season ticket holders due to the promise of being able to pick seats in the new stadium and those boosted numbers held strongish during those tough years. Thankfully, the team started turning it around or it would have gotten rough.

100s? I'll call BS.
We've been averaging 24000+ since around 2000.

Jesse · July 12, 2025, 04:42:13 AM

Quote from: RebusRankin on July 12, 2025, 02:51:35 AM100s? I'll call BS.
We've been averaging 24000+ since around 2000.

I would call BS in that average in a few of those years, but I was talking about the late 90s. You could count the number of people in the stands.

No reason to pretend we haven't had some lean seasons. It happens to every team.

gobombersgo · July 12, 2025, 08:44:55 AM

Make sure everyone gives Luke a nice warm welcome to Winnipeg next Friday. lol

Ridermania · July 12, 2025, 01:40:18 PM

Luke was in Regina last night at the game and walked around the concourse visiting fans. He's one tall dude.

GOLDMEMBER · July 12, 2025, 02:00:13 PM

Quote from: Jesse on July 12, 2025, 04:42:13 AMI would call BS in that average in a few of those years, but I was talking about the late 90s. You could count the number of people in the stands.

No reason to pretend we haven't had some lean seasons. It happens to every team.

incorrect. Even the Tim Burke or Mike Kelly years the club would still get 22,000-25,000 consistently.

Throw Long Bannatyne · July 12, 2025, 04:28:44 PM

Quote from: Jesse on July 12, 2025, 04:42:13 AMI would call BS in that average in a few of those years, but I was talking about the late 90s. You could count the number of people in the stands.

No reason to pretend we haven't had some lean seasons. It happens to every team.

Don't agree, can't recall ever seeing Wpg. stadium more than half empty like some other stadiums have been the last few years. The lowest season ticket sales would still have been 12-15k during the lean years.