CFL 2024

[Tobias Kahun]

What does that even mean?

He keeps repeating that because he thinks its funny to shit on albertans.

 

[Barrsy]

What does that even mean?

I’m not sure.
Thoughts

He keeps repeating that because he thinks its funny to shit on albertans.

Yeah. That’s it.
Good thinking.

 

[BIeucheeseWithWings]

I’m not sure.

Thoughts

Yeah. That’s it.
Good thinking.

Why can't you explain yourself? Don't be a coward.

 

[rboomercat90]

When did they get rid of the fire truck?

 

[TB12]

I’m not sure.
Thoughts

Yeah. That’s it.
Good thinking.

Alaberta? Really my dude?

Trolling or just being a dick?

 

[PositiveCashFlow]

When did they get rid of the fire truck?

I think it was after they squared the endzones, couldn't drive it all the way around anymore (as Larry demonstrated )

 

[Valhallis]

I really hope next year's name reveal is Larry running down an Elk in a firetruck.

 

[MoontoScott]

Alaberta? Really my dude?

Trolling or just being a dick?

It's all rather "odd." Where have I read that before on these threads? Wait, now I remember--it was those other 19 handles.

 

[Stoneman89]

I’m not sure.
Thoughts

Yeah. That’s it.
Good thinking.

The Elks jerseys are now selling at half price. I would suggest you move quickly to get one, as I think they'll be some sort of infamous collectible after this year.

And...go Esks and Larry and his relatively hot wife!

 

[AM]

What does that even mean?

I think he is disparaging Albertans.

I really hope next year's name reveal is Larry running down an Elk in a firetruck.

Or using the mating call for hunting season.

 

[OfCorsiDid]

It's also going to take massive improvement to not only the on-field product but the in-game experience to bring the fans back.

Even in the 2015 Grey Cup run when they ran the table, they were already down to about a 28,000-32,000 average. The Western Final in November only got 34,000 or so.

That's why things like the fire truck are so crucial right now. Thinking of the biggest Esk crowds I saw back in the day (40,000-60,000), it was the down-to-earth community feel that made the games special. I got way more out of the fire truck and Nanook and Punter than I ever got out of the Tom Cochrane concert they had to open the 2016 season back in the day.

It’ll be interesting to see what they do to attempt to attract crowds.

Personally I think looking to the past might be a mistake. To grow the crowd again, you need to convince the younger generations (millenials, zoomers etc) to come to games. I’m not sure that changing the name back or bringing back the fire truck will register with the younger audience.

Also (and I’m sure this is gonna go over well) there’s a significantly larger immigrant population compared to 10 years ago. What can be done to encourage their attendance? Recently I saw a ad for the Blue Jays where they are attempting to encourage cricket fans to come to the ballpark since it’s a similar spot in a roundabout way.

I wouldn’t mind a return to the old, but I’m on the back end of millennials which remember the 90s and 00s EE fondly so I can’t speak to how those moves will register with demographics I don’t belong to.

 

[timekeep]

3
Yeah that’s it.
Shit team had nothing to do with it.
Yes, I fondly remember when Oilers attendance went to shit because their name went to…..
Oilers
Only in Alaberta
My lord.

Are you all there, reread my second sentence. The BOD was taking advantage of the fans well before the name change.

 

[K1984]

It’ll be interesting to see what they do to attempt to attract crowds.

Personally I think looking to the past might be a mistake. To grow the crowd again, you need to convince the younger generations (millenials, zoomers etc) to come to games. I’m not sure that changing the name back or bringing back the fire truck will register with the younger audience.

Also (and I’m sure this is gonna go over well) there’s a significantly larger immigrant population compared to 10 years ago. What can be done to encourage their attendance? Recently I saw a ad for the Blue Jays where they are attempting to encourage cricket fans to come to the ballpark since it’s a similar spot in a roundabout way.

I wouldn’t mind a return to the old, but I’m on the back end of millennials which remember the 90s and 00s EE fondly so I can’t speak to how those moves will register with demographics I don’t belong to.

Things like the fire truck are integral to building an entertainment product that people want to go to. When I was a small kid half of the reason I liked going to games was to try and catch a mini football when there was a TD. I still have some of them in my man cave today, a few signed by the likes of Jim Sandusky and Willie Pless. They scrapped that a long time ago for no reason, but it was back last week.

The theory of wholesale changes to attract a new audience is half the reason they’re in this mess. They need to get back the real fans that they lost before they even think about attracting a random, but undefined group of “new” fans that have no inclination whatsoever to give a shit.

 

[Gunnersaurus Rex]

Things like the fire truck are integral to building an entertainment product that people want to go to. When I was a small kid half of the reason I liked going to games was to try and catch a mini football when there was a TD. I still have some of them in my man cave today, a few signed by the likes of Jim Sandusky and Willie Pless. They scrapped that a long time ago for no reason, but it was back last week.

The theory of wholesale changes to attract a new audience is half the reason they’re in this mess. They need to get back the real fans that they lost before they even think about attracting a random, but undefined group of “new” fans that have no inclination whatsoever to give a shit.

What was scrapped that was back last week?

 

[OfCorsiDid]

Things like the fire truck are integral to building an entertainment product that people want to go to. When I was a small kid half of the reason I liked going to games was to try and catch a mini football when there was a TD. I still have some of them in my man cave today, a few signed by the likes of Jim Sandusky and Willie Pless. They scrapped that a long time ago for no reason, but it was back last week.

The theory of wholesale changes to attract a new audience is half the reason they’re in this mess. They need to get back the real fans that they lost before they even think about attracting a random, but undefined group of “new” fans that have no inclination whatsoever to give a shit.

Uh ok now you've lost me. They definitely still did this, even before Larry. I went to a game last year in July and this year in June and they were still throwing free footballs to the crowd, from a vehicle of some sort in both games. My buddy actually got his first one ever after he began following the team last year.

As for the second note, I don't think any of the changes have actually done anything to get rid of fans or prevent people from going. People online like to talk a big game, but as studies prove it often surmounts to no action at all. The only reason why the EE have had such terrible attendance is because of their on-field product. The team has been absolute ASS for the better part of 10 years. If the team was 13-0 I don't think we'd be having the same discussions. If you build a good team, people will want to watch, regardless of off-field decisions.

What was scrapped that was back last week?

Free foam footballs thrown to the crowd after TDs.

He's full of it though, every game I've gone to in the last 2 years have had them.

 

[K1984]

Uh ok now you've lost me. They definitely still did this, even before Larry. I went to a game last year in July and this year in June and they were still throwing free footballs to the crowd, from a vehicle of some sort in both games. My buddy actually got his first one ever after he began following the team last year.

As for the second note, I don't think any of the changes have actually done anything to get rid of fans or prevent people from going. People online like to talk a big game, but as studies prove it often surmounts to no action at all. The only reason why the EE have had such terrible attendance is because of their on-field product. The team has been absolute ASS for the better part of 10 years. If the team was 13-0 I don't think we'd be having the same discussions. If you build a good team, people will want to watch, regardless of off-field decisions.



Free foam footballs thrown to the crowd after TDs.

He's full of it though, every game I've gone to in the last 2 years have had them.

Which studies? I’m sorry, but pretending that the name change had no impact on attendance or fan engagement is just as, if not more absurd as saying that the name is the entire reason attendance dropped. Logically it would make sense to target these fans to bring back as they will be easiest to re-engage.

Last game was the first I’ve been to over the last two years, but there was a significant amount of time that the foam footballs stopped, so I’m not “full of it.” I’m one of the people you think don’t exist that disengaged a lot after the name change, but for years prior they stopped throwing them. Remember it being discussed as something exciting to bring back during one of the recent CEO deck chair shuffles.

 

[bone]

It must of been around that 32k if that is what the capacity for the bottom bowl is. There was not much empty seats and as I was looking for tickets earlier that day pickings were pretty slim. As far as the upper bowl being opened up, it is a discussion that needs to be had by people much smarter than me. I'm torn, having that bottom bowl packed does bring something to the experience. It also does force people to actually commit to buying tickets earlier. Also 32k seems almost perfect in terms of the concourse being functional at the game. At half time I was able to go to washroom and get concessions before the beginning of the 3rd.

But I do see the other side of it too. There are lots of primo view seats in the upper deck that are much better than those endzone seats. They are in a tough spot because I'm sure a lot to season ticket holders lost their upper deck seats and would be pissed if they opened them up again not even a year later. One of those things were no matter what you do they are going to piss people off.

Last point, transit was a bit of a let down. Not for me but for others. So they removed the Davies Park N Ride and are telling people to take the Valley Line then transfer to the Capital Line. But this is literally impossible. The Capital Line trains are full. I was on the train coming from Southgate and looking out the window with entire families with their hands up going "wtf" and then having to wait for the next trains that was 15 minutes away and probably full too. There were many families trying to get to the game on time that simply couldn't and I'm sure that turned some off from going to another game.

Unlike Rhodes when he shut down portions up top then opened them up to Riders fans for a busy game, the team this time did the right and contacted those who had seats up top that renewed down below to ask them if they'd prefer their old seats or the new seats if the upper deck was opened for any games, so hopefully that settles the one issue.

I was concerned the city would fail the LRT assignments as they've gotten pretty lazy since we started getting smaller crowds and don't even alter their schedule. Hopefully enough people comment about this and they get back to at least 10 minute cycles for game time as 15 is terrible.

Love this photo and love that the fire truck is back. Hope Larry gets rid of the “Elks” name though

https://x.com/i/web/status/1832613242780447128

that kid has an arm. He was delivering those balls up 35 rows into the stands.

 

[bone]

Re: the lower bowl, I think the next focus needs to be on removing the tarped sections in the north endzone first. Make those like the cheap Sobeys seats and then maybe you can think about reopening the upper bowl after that part gets filled.

Those weren't tarped this weekend. They were packed with people.

 

[bone]

When did they get rid of the fire truck?

When they squared out the end zones, there was no room anymore for the original fire truck so they stopped driving it and only displayed it by the kids zone.

They brought back a mini version of it at Chris Presson's first game as president. At first most just mocked it since it was so tiny, but the mockery seems to have faded over time.

The one LT was driving was the mini version not the original.

 

[bone]

What was scrapped that was back last week?

I haven't seen as many mini footballs as I did this last weekend since likely before Rhodes.

They had much more contests/giveaways during the TV timeouts minimizing the downtime of just poor jumbotron graphics.

They had a lot more combining of vintage with new footage of players and games than usual.

They actually used the word Eskimo on the jumbotron.

In game fireworks.

Otherwise it was more of the same, but it was definitely executed much better and the music was way better with good variety of genres and eras. No DJ Mellow putting the crowd to sleep with his extended House Dance mixes during every break.

Uh ok now you've lost me. They definitely still did this, even before Larry. I went to a game last year in July and this year in June and they were still throwing free footballs to the crowd, from a vehicle of some sort in both games. My buddy actually got his first one ever after he began following the team last year.

As for the second note, I don't think any of the changes have actually done anything to get rid of fans or prevent people from going. People online like to talk a big game, but as studies prove it often surmounts to no action at all. The only reason why the EE have had such terrible attendance is because of their on-field product. The team has been absolute ASS for the better part of 10 years. If the team was 13-0 I don't think we'd be having the same discussions. If you build a good team, people will want to watch, regardless of off-field decisions.



Free foam footballs thrown to the crowd after TDs.

He's full of it though, every game I've gone to in the last 2 years have had them.

They were never discontinued outright (though there was a time where they changed them to smaller balls that you couldn't really throw), but there were way more of them thrown out this weekend than what feels like anytime in the last 10 years.

 

[Gunnersaurus Rex]

They never stopped throwing out mini-footballs at any game. When the team doesn't score, there aren't as many opportunities to throw them out. At some of the games, they just threw them out without a scoring play as the team was so bad they probably felt sorry for the fans.

Fireworks in game have always been there. Mini fire truck has been there every game since the change over.

Most of the in game promotions this past Saturday have been there all season. The only new one I noticed was the Lotto balls football catch.

The team has been recognizing the history each game as well with video montages and recognition of all-decade teams. Seems like they have been trying to acknowledge the past teams and players more this year.

 

[K1984]

They never stopped throwing out mini-footballs at any game. When the team doesn't score, there aren't as many opportunities to throw them out. At some of the games, they just threw them out without a scoring play as the team was so bad they probably felt sorry for the fans.

Fireworks in game have always been there. Mini fire truck has been there every game since the change over.

Most of the in game promotions this past Saturday have been there all season. The only new one I noticed was the Lotto balls football catch.

The team has been recognizing the history each game as well with video montages and recognition of all-decade teams. Seems like they have been trying to acknowledge the past teams and players more this year.

This just isn't true, at least in the second deck where I sat for decades.

 

[Gunnersaurus Rex]

This just isn't true, at least in the second deck where I sat for decades.

They may have stopped in the second deck but they never stopped in the lower deck.

 

[bone]

They may have stopped in the second deck but they never stopped in the lower deck.

I can confirm on both accounts. But you have to admit they were way more generous than usual this weekend with them. We caught multiple and were passing them along to anyone we could see that appeared to be under 10.

We hadn't caught one previously in years. (Granted I was up top until this year)

 

[joestevens29]

It’ll be interesting to see what they do to attempt to attract crowds.

Personally I think looking to the past might be a mistake. To grow the crowd again, you need to convince the younger generations (millenials, zoomers etc) to come to games. I’m not sure that changing the name back or bringing back the fire truck will register with the younger audience.

Also (and I’m sure this is gonna go over well) there’s a significantly larger immigrant population compared to 10 years ago. What can be done to encourage their attendance? Recently I saw a ad for the Blue Jays where they are attempting to encourage cricket fans to come to the ballpark since it’s a similar spot in a roundabout way.

I wouldn’t mind a return to the old, but I’m on the back end of millennials which remember the 90s and 00s EE fondly so I can’t speak to how those moves will register with demographics I don’t belong to.

Gregor was saying that his son loves when that they had fans on field. MBT was apparently briefly there too, but he suggested it would be smart to throw a couple guys out there to sign autographs after each game.

That's what they really need long-term, getting more kids into the league

Giving those free student tickets out will help too.