22,000 sold for home opener

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dupsdell1
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Just heard on cknw around 22,000 sold for the home opener they are still expecting 26,000 close to a sell out lower bowl.

I do not know about that I say at the most 24,000 there is no buzz at all around the city .
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SammyGreene
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Given how last season finished and the dip in season tickets, I would be very happy with 24,000. Early season crowds at BC Place have always been underwhelming.

Look no further than the 2012 home opener — defending Grey Cup champions in a rematch with the Bombers and Geroy about to be the league's all-time leading receiver. It drew 29,000.

Disappointed the Lions don't seem to be going with a discounted family section this year. Maybe I'm getting old but $44 (with TM fees included) seems steep as an entry point for a CFL game. Whitecaps is $34 with all fees in.

Another idea for the home opener that is no longer done was the PNE early morning drive thru promotion where a special price got a pair of tickets to the game, PNE tickets and a couple of other things. The Global Morning News and 1040 used to be live on location too hyping the game.
Qman
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They only have a 1000 or so left on ticketmaster. A few cheap seats and club seats left
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Sir Purrcival
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What is the capacity of the lower bowl anyways?
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DanoT
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For a team that did so poorly at home last year and then blown out in the playoff game in Montreal, and loosing last week to Ottawa, anything close to a full lower bowl is a pleasant surprise, IMO.
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Rammer
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DanoT wrote:For a team that did so poorly at home last year and then blown out in the playoff game in Montreal, and loosing last week to Ottawa, anything close to a full lower bowl is a pleasant surprise, IMO.
With the Riders in town? I wonder what the lowest ticket count has been on a Rider game over the last decade or so? I suspect if the Lions are having difficulty selling this one out, given the couple thousand Rider tickets sold for a summer game, the rest of the games are going to be much lighter in attendance unless the Lions find themselves with more W's than I expect.
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David
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Sir Purrcival wrote:What is the capacity of the lower bowl anyways?
27,500.


DH :cool:
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Qman
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Taking out the lows and highs and winning and losing over the years, this market is a 25k in summer and 30k in fall market. Ham/ott lowest draws And ssk the highest
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Toppy Vann
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Qman wrote:Taking out the lows and highs and winning and losing over the years, this market is a 25k in summer and 30k in fall market. Ham/ott lowest draws And ssk the highest
Dupsdell is spot on and they are very lucky crowd-wise they're getting the Riders for the first game.

Quite frankly the Lions on the marketing side are drifting downward with the worst interpretation of their President and his data on how high income his fan base is ( I don't believe those numbers are more than just the top income earners but they believe them) is that he is going to simply duplicate the Whitecaps model and sell out the lower bowl and balance the rise in ticket prices to make sure they can still draw.

This conjecture also fulfills the talk of fans of wanting atmosphere and a game day experience. No doubt they've talked to Whitecaps who simply hold to this view - lower bowl only for regular games.

There is little sign in the CFL they want to grow the game. It's the same old thinking.

HNIC ran a great competition for their theme song and it created a buzz. CFL try anything like that?

Lions could do so much to get marketing ideas from fans, young entrants, etc as well as reach out to the ethnic and other groups who have money.

I see the NHL has it's first draft pick out of Beijing. MTL Canadiens will be in Beijing this summer to market. Different game but when the Chinese grab on to your product they buy hats, jerseys, etc but this comes after they feel the love. European and UK football teams travel Asia for the same reason.

OTT was a bad draw as there was not a good team last year.

Historically HAM has had a bad team and it doesnt inspire other than hard core fans.
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3 more days for Skulsky to declare "guarantee win" night.
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Hambone
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SammyGreene wrote:Disappointed the Lions don't seem to be going with a discounted family section this year. Maybe I'm getting old but $44 (with TM fees included) seems steep as an entry point for a CFL game. Whitecaps is $34 with all fees in.

Just checked that out. $35 goes to the Lions $6 goes to Ticketmaster and $3 goes to Pavco in the form of a facility fee. The Lions website indicates single game price for those endzone seats is $38 including GST and facilty fee, Ticketmaster fees extra. So the GST portion must be part of the $35 the Lions collect. Quick math says $10.67 or 24.25% of those $44 tickets goes into pockets other than those of the Lions.
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Hambone
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As an aside I have an extra ticket for Friday night. Section 242 Row O seat 6. 45 yard line 15 rows back of the BC bench. PM me.
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dupsdell1
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Qman wrote:They only have a 1000 or so left on ticketmaster. A few cheap seats and club seats left


what source did you get that from
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Ravi
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Things aren't going to improve in B.C. until Braley sells that team. He has no vision or long-term plan for the Lions and, while you can blame Skulsky all you want, the buck ultimately stops with Braley. The future looks much brighter in Toronto without Braley. A sale of the Lions is what is needed to re-energize and reinvigorate the Vancouver market. Sorry, but a home opener against the Riders in recent years would have drawn much more than the 22k or 24k or 26k that will be on hand this week.
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aklawitter
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I disagree. Braley has always said that he is a hands-off caretaker. I would rather not have a meddling owner interfering with Operations (see Feterik/Fateri).

That being said, he really should not be happy with the way both of his teams are being run into the ground.
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