CFL 2024

[ottawarenegader613]

Nice seeing the CFL do well in BC. Take note Toronto.

 

[Oilhawks]

Always pleased when a Calgary team loses

 

[Sra1974]

Nice seeing the CFL do well in BC. Take note Toronto.

Hell take note Edmonton.

 

[rboomercat90]

Does anybody know what the official attendance was for the Allouettes game? I’ve looked for this and I can’t find it anywhere. I guess that’s not included in the box score anymore? None of the places I’ve used before to find such things has that now.

 

[Stoneman89]

Does anybody know what the official attendance was for the Allouettes game? I’ve looked for this and I can’t find it anywhere. I guess that’s not included in the box score anymore? None of the places I’ve used before to find such things has that now.

They don't want you to know.

However, in true CFL form, the attendance figures for the game will likely come out in September, along with the other game stats.

 

[bellagiobob]

Does anybody know what the official attendance was for the Allouettes game? I’ve looked for this and I can’t find it anywhere. I guess that’s not included in the box score anymore? None of the places I’ve used before to find such things has that now.

They said it was just under 21k for the Rider game, so based on that, I won’t believe whatever future numbers they tell us. Unless the new CFL stats package has included multiplication and exponential numbers in their stats variables this year.

 

[rboomercat90]

They said it was just under 21k for the Rider game, so based on that, I won’t believe whatever future numbers they tell us. Unless the new CFL stats package has included multiplication and exponential numbers in their stats variables this year.

I didn’t watch the Riders game so I didn’t see what that crowd looked like. I did watch enough of the Allouettes game though and saw what that crowd looked like and I was curious what that number was. As bad as the crowds have gotten in the last couple years, that one was on another level. I just found it odd that the box score didn’t include the attendance (real or not). I’ve been seeing attendances included in box scores for every sport for 50 years.

 

[Behind Enemy Lines]

Riders!!

Man I love gifting the Riders free W's. Lot of resiliency to hang with Hamilton in their home field and when opportunity bumbles win it with a last second field goal. Harris has minimal arm strength but have to credit his getting the ball out quickly to his receivers. Lots to clean up but a 2-0 road start is alright, alright, alright!

 

[Rejean31]

Does anyone know what is going on with the Elks Forum? Elksherd.ca. Is it down? Haven't been able to access it for four days.

 

[K1984]

They said it was just under 21k for the Rider game, so based on that, I won’t believe whatever future numbers they tell us. Unless the new CFL stats package has included multiplication and exponential numbers in their stats variables this year.

That's funny. The entire lower bowl probably only seats around 35k at the very most, 21k in attendance and you would have more or less full stands between the end zones. It's confusing to me why they do this to be honest. What do you have to gain by announcing tickets distributed instead of attendance (I'm assuming that's what's going on) other than using it to tell yourself its all ok?

I haven't been to the first two games, but has anyone else heard any bellyaching about the move down low? The long term STH's that I sit with all hate it, and from what they tell me they are hearing a lot of the same around them. The kicker is the price for our seats almost doubles next year after the "grandfathered" pricing this year. The people I sit with are textbook examples of the average hardcore CFL fans of today - old, white, and have been going to games for about 50 years. Even they have either not gone to one or both of the games, and even they are contemplating not renewing.

The team needs to be sold fast, because the clown car running the organization now might deep 6 the team in 24 months if they continue down the road of dramatically shooting themselves in the foot.

 

[bone]

Does anyone know what is going on with the Elks Forum? Elksherd.ca. Is it down? Haven't been able to access it for four days.

It's been working fine for me. Not a lot of activity though.

 

[bone]

That's funny. The entire lower bowl probably only seats around 35k at the very most, 21k in attendance and you would have more or less full stands between the end zones. It's confusing to me why they do this to be honest. What do you have to gain by announcing tickets distributed instead of attendance (I'm assuming that's what's going on) other than using it to tell yourself its all ok?

I haven't been to the first two games, but has anyone else heard any bellyaching about the move down low? The long term STH's that I sit with all hate it, and from what they tell me they are hearing a lot of the same around them. The kicker is the price for our seats almost doubles next year after the "grandfathered" pricing this year. The people I sit with are textbook examples of the average hardcore CFL fans of today - old, white, and have been going to games for about 50 years. Even they have either not gone to one or both of the games, and even they are contemplating not renewing.

The team needs to be sold fast, because the clown car running the organization now might deep 6 the team in 24 months if they continue down the road of dramatically shooting themselves in the foot.

I'm one of the ones who moved down. I don't like it at all. Sightlines are taking a lot of getting used to, but I think I'll get the hang of it eventually.

What I'm finding most annoying is the sound. All we hear off the speakers is bass and we can't understand what's being said half the time. I'm not sure if the lack of people in the upper deck messes with the acoustics or whether it always sounded that bad down below, but I'm not a fan.

I certainly won't be interested in paying 4x what I'm paying this year for the same seats (which are in the 2nd cheapest tier).

 

[K1984]

I'm one of the ones who moved down. I don't like it at all. Sightlines are taking a lot of getting used to, but I think I'll get the hang of it eventually.

What I'm finding most annoying is the sound. All we hear off the speakers is bass and we can't understand what's being said half the time. I'm not sure if the lack of people in the upper deck messes with the acoustics or whether it always sounded that bad down below, but I'm not a fan.

I certainly won't be interested in paying 4x what I'm paying this year for the same seats (which are in the 2nd cheapest tier).

It's absurd. For the team to have a hope, ticket pricing probably needs to range from $20-60 per game.

It's likely that the team needs higher pricing simply to stay afloat, but at the same time the market is not going to bear it. At this point the Elks paying fanbase is down to the studs, the only ones left are the true hardcores. When they are priced out there is nothing left, they're actively putting the knife in the only fans they have left. They need to get this team sold before this pending certainty becomes a reality and they have nothing left to sell. Team is already only worth $1 as is IMO.

Been saying this for years now, but the Elks are in the class of the Stingers or Riverhawks (who have probably outdrawn them in attendance thus far) in terms of competition for the fan and that's probably how most of the market sees them - minor/bush league. The faster the organization recognizes this the faster they will have a hope of saving themselves, but they just can't find a way to bring themselves to do it. $30 average ticket price with cheap food/booze and fun promos would probably put thousands more asses in seats, but instead they are hanging on for dear life to the fantasy that people will continue to just drop their pants and pay a premium for tickets and concessions.

 

[bone]

It's absurd. For the team to have a hope, ticket pricing probably needs to range from $20-60 per game.

It's likely that the team needs higher pricing simply to stay afloat, but at the same time the market is not going to bear it. At this point the Elks paying fanbase is down to the studs, the only ones left are the true hardcores. When they are priced out there is nothing left, they're actively putting the knife in the only fans they have left. They need to get this team sold before this pending certainty becomes a reality and they have nothing left to sell. Team is already only worth $1 as is IMO.

Been saying this for years now, but the Elks are in the class of the Stingers or Riverhawks (who have probably outdrawn them in attendance thus far) in terms of competition for the fan and that's probably how most of the market sees them - minor/bush league. The faster the organization recognizes this the faster they will have a hope of saving themselves, but they just can't find a way to bring themselves to do it. $30 average ticket price with cheap food/booze and fun promos would probably put thousands more asses in seats, but instead they are hanging on for dear life to the fantasy that people will continue to just drop their pants and pay a premium for tickets and concessions.

Both the Riverhawks and Stingers are still moreso the 3K-4K type event where the Elks still selling enough tickets to be in the 10K-20K type event and they still draw pretty good ratings on TV (something neither of the other two teams can boast), but the gap is certainly closing really fastly.

 

[K1984]

Both the Riverhawks and Stingers are still moreso the 3K-4K type event where the Elks still selling enough tickets to be in the 10K-20K type event, but the gap is certainly closing really fastly.

For sure, but I'm speaking more to the fans they are trying to draw.

I don't know that there are a ton of folks left that truly actually care whether the Elks win or lose. The Riverhawks and Stingers are an entertainment product primarily as I don't know if anyone really cares if they win or lose either. If you have $20 burning a hole in your pocket, and you don't really care about the game, but want a night out, which one are you going to pick? Objectively, the Elks are probably deep into third place there in terms of entertainment value for the dollar.

20 years ago the inherent pitch of "this is a massive game against BC this week" would have sold some tickets, but no longer. "I can take my family of 4 to the game for $100 all in, concessions have good food for cheap prices, and there's a good atmosphere in the stands" needs to be the value proposition, but they still think this is 2003.

 

[SupremeTeam16]

It's absurd. For the team to have a hope, ticket pricing probably needs to range from $20-60 per game.

It's likely that the team needs higher pricing simply to stay afloat, but at the same time the market is not going to bear it. At this point the Elks paying fanbase is down to the studs, the only ones left are the true hardcores. When they are priced out there is nothing left, they're actively putting the knife in the only fans they have left. They need to get this team sold before this pending certainty becomes a reality and they have nothing left to sell. Team is already only worth $1 as is IMO.

Been saying this for years now, but the Elks are in the class of the Stingers or Riverhawks (who have probably outdrawn them in attendance thus far) in terms of competition for the fan and that's probably how most of the market sees them - minor/bush league. The faster the organization recognizes this the faster they will have a hope of saving themselves, but they just can't find a way to bring themselves to do it. $30 average ticket price with cheap food/booze and fun promos would probably put thousands more asses in seats, but instead they are hanging on for dear life to the fantasy that people will continue to just drop their pants and pay a premium for tickets and concessions.

I went to the Riverhawks game on Sunday, the second one I’ve gone to this summer and both times it was absolutely packed. Considering it’s not the easiest venue to get down to or get into for that matter, they continue to increase their draw, same with the Stingers and it’s completely at the expense of the Elks. I’ve never gone to an Elks game but at the RH game everything from ticket prices to concessions and merchandise didn’t seem to be significantly cheaper from what I remember it was back when I was an Eskimos season ticket holder. People going to Riverhawks games are spending money, concession lines are packed, beer lines are packed and what was most surprising is how many people were wearing Riverhawks gear.

Seems like there always an excuse for why Elks attendance is shit. The Oilers playoffs, the weather, the team isn’t good. Well the Riverhawks (up until the last little stretch) haven’t been very good, they deal with the same Oilers playoffs and weather issues and yet they continue to increase their draw. Walk around town these days and I’d bet you see more RiverHawks gear then Elks gear.

It’s interesting that back in March when they announced a possible sale, they said they’d like to have new ownership in place by mid June and here we are and it’s been complete silence on that front, especially since they made it seem like there was a ton of interested groups. I wonder if some of the preferred buyers have been turned off by initial conversations with the city, who they’ll be dealing with or for some I’m betting they’ve gotten a good look at the books and said thanks but no thanks. What’s left is undesirable groups and those whose financial ability to turn things around is questionable.

 

[K1984]

I went to the Riverhawks game on Sunday, the second one I’ve gone to this summer and both times it was absolutely packed. Considering it’s not the easiest venue to get down to or get into for that matter, they continue to increase their draw, same with the Stingers and it’s completely at the expense of the Elks. I’ve never gone to an Elks game but at the RH game everything from ticket prices to concessions and merchandise didn’t seem to be significantly cheaper from what I remember it was back when I was an Eskimos season ticket holder. People going to Riverhawks games are spending money, concession lines are packed, beer lines are packed and what was most surprising is how many people were wearing Riverhawks gear.

Seems like there always an excuse for why Elks attendance is shit. The Oilers playoffs, the weather, the team isn’t good. Well the Riverhawks (up until the last little stretch) haven’t been very good, they deal with the same Oilers playoffs and weather issues and yet they continue to increase their draw. Walk around town these days and I’d bet you see more RiverHawks gear then Elks gear.

It’s interesting that back in March when they announced a possible sale, they said they’d like to have new ownership in place by mid June and here we are and it’s been complete silence on that front, especially since they made it seem like there was a ton of interested groups. I wonder if some of the preferred buyers have been turned off by initial conversations with the city, who they’ll be dealing with or for some I’m betting they’ve gotten a good look at the books and said thanks but no thanks. What’s left is undesirable groups and those whose financial ability to turn things around is questionable.

Great post, and you summed up the Riverhawks as a competitor perfectly. Also good point on the gear around town, and even seems to have more of a presence in the city than the Elks. My sister, who doesn't give a rip about sports in the slightest was telling me she went to a Riverhawks game the other night and had a great time and would go again. Something you simply do not hear about the Elks, really ever at this point.

From 1000 feel like these are the issues preventing a sale:

- Board laughably decided to make willingness to build a new stadium basically a condition of purchase out of the gate (hope this isn't still the case)

- Board is probably still fighting to get some goodwill value in the sale that objectively doesn't exist beyond a nominal "flag value" amount if being generous

- Buyers are probably looking at the package and truly wondering what the end game is to turn things around. There is really not much to lean on in terms of easy upside that would justify a purchase. Any buyer is basically going in relying on nothing other than instinct that whatever they are going to do to turn a profit will work. The risk here is massive, even if it's a $1 purchase price.

My view? The CFL might be done after the next TV deal they sign expires, think 10 years. Strong TV ratings are the only monetary fuel the CFL has left. Without seeing the data, I can only assume that the demo watching the games on TV is older. As there is naturally attrition among these fans viewership will dive, about two decades of young fans will have been missed that won't fill the gap, and the league will die a slow death. If you're looking to buy the Elks with say a 3-5 year plan to turn the team around from a business perspective, I wonder if the buyer is thinking "ok even if I pull that off, then what."

 

[PositiveCashFlow]

Does anyone know what is going on with the Elks Forum? Elksherd.ca. Is it down? Haven't been able to access it for four days.

Been fine for me Edmonton Elks - elksherd.ca

 

[TopShelfGloveSide]

This team just has such a loser mentality to it. Just fold like a cheap tent every single time they have a chance to win. It’s almost unbelievable.

 

[SupremeTeam16]

Great post, and you summed up the Riverhawks as a competitor perfectly. Also good point on the gear around town, and even seems to have more of a presence in the city than the Elks. My sister, who doesn't give a rip about sports in the slightest was telling me she went to a Riverhawks game the other night and had a great time and would go again. Something you simply do not hear about the Elks, really ever at this point.

From 1000 feel like these are the issues preventing a sale:

- Board laughably decided to make willingness to build a new stadium basically a condition of purchase out of the gate (hope this isn't still the case)

- Board is probably still fighting to get some goodwill value in the sale that objectively doesn't exist beyond a nominal "flag value" amount if being generous

- Buyers are probably looking at the package and truly wondering what the end game is to turn things around. There is really not much to lean on in terms of easy upside that would justify a purchase. Any buyer is basically going in relying on nothing other than instinct that whatever they are going to do to turn a profit will work. The risk here is massive, even if it's a $1 purchase price.

My view? The CFL might be done after the next TV deal they sign expires, think 10 years. Strong TV ratings are the only monetary fuel the CFL has left. Without seeing the data, I can only assume that the demo watching the games on TV is older. As there is naturally attrition among these fans viewership will dive, about two decades of young fans will have been missed that won't fill the gap, and the league will die a slow death.

Who knows what kind of discussions are being had in terms of new stadium build/CW upgrades. I know someone pretty well who was approached 2 years ago to gauge interest if the team was to sell to a private owner. For him a big part of it was questions surrounding the long term viability of the league as a whole. Anyone coming in is going to spend 10+ million over the first few years getting this franchise back on track, maybe tens of millions of we’re talking about improvements to CW to create a better fan experience/more revenue streams. If things don’t improve for the league then you never even have a chance to make any of that money back it’s just down the drain so for him there had to be something else, such as a development component of a purchase where he has the opportunity to offset some of the risk/costs.

 

[K1984]

Who knows what kind of discussions are being had in terms of new stadium build/CW upgrades. I know someone pretty well who was approached 2 years ago to gauge interest if the team was to sell to a private owner. For him a big part of it was questions surrounding the long term viability of the league as a whole. Anyone coming in is going to spend 10+ million over the first few years getting this franchise back on track, maybe tens of millions of we’re talking about improvements to CW to create a better fan experience/more revenue streams. If things don’t improve for the league then you never even have a chance to make any of that money back it’s just down the drain so for him there had to be something else, such as a development component of a purchase where he has the opportunity to offset some of the risk/costs.

You did a better job outlining why it's a shit deal better than I did.

If you have $10M+ to invest there are quite a few places to invest that offer much, much more upside than buying the Elks ever would that includes the bonus of having the principal for the most part protected. What person with any business acumen whatsoever is going to take this risk?

Thinking bigger picture - right now parking $10M in a GIC is probably going to pay you more out of the gate than you would reasonably hope to profit years from now by owning and operating the Elks.

 

[Stoneman89]

Who knows what kind of discussions are being had in terms of new stadium build/CW upgrades. I know someone pretty well who was approached 2 years ago to gauge interest if the team was to sell to a private owner. For him a big part of it was questions surrounding the long term viability of the league as a whole. Anyone coming in is going to spend 10+ million over the first few years getting this franchise back on track, maybe tens of millions of we’re talking about improvements to CW to create a better fan experience/more revenue streams. If things don’t improve for the league then you never even have a chance to make any of that money back it’s just down the drain so for him there had to be something else, such as a development component of a purchase where he has the opportunity to offset some of the risk/costs.

Whoever comes in to purchase the team has to realize it's very likely a losing proposition in present as well as down the road. It will need to be a labour of love for the team and the league. Any accountant is going to tell them they're nuts to spend their money on this, and they should invest in a hundred other things far more viable.

 

[joestevens29]

You did a better job outlining why it's a shit deal better than I did.

If you have $10M+ to invest there are quite a few places to invest that offer much, much more upside than buying the Elks ever would that includes the bonus of having the principal for the most part protected. What person with any business acumen whatsoever is going to take this risk?

Thinking bigger picture - right now parking $10M in a GIC is probably going to pay you more out of the gate than you would reasonably hope to profit years from now by owning and operating the Elks.

Throw in City Council to the mix. You have no idea what those clowns are going to do to day to day, so do you really want to go into a bad investment along with a bad Stadium owner?

 

[brentashton]

Will Ferrell was done 2 years ago. I also have no idea as to why they signed him.

Missed the game yesterday, honestly, didn't even realize we were playing. And I used to make it a point to watch the games, if not go to them. I feel bad about that.


And lots and lots of $$$ to burn.

There was a time that I never missed a game, in person or radio or tv. Went to weddings and other family gatherings and always found a reason to sneak out to catch a score (along with 20 other family members).

Me and the immediate family were what you’d call rabid. I’ve been that way since Clyde Brock was my babysitter in 1965-67. Even when i lived 6 hours from Regina and had season tix for 8 years, we’d always make the trek. It was religion.

Read your post and realized I missed a game on Sunday night too. Still don’t know who won. Haven’t looked at TSN.

CFL has lost me I guess.

I hope they can pull me back in. But not holding hope, leadership of league is shit- sorry Mrs. Ambrosie.

Conract structure and everyone being a free agent each year was the last nail for me.

 

[Heavy Dee]

In the US trying I stream the game. Geo Locked everywhere. What a joke.