CFL fan base remains strong: Angus Reid poll

[Robbie]

Had a good time braving the cold at the Grey Cup parade and it was nice for one of the attendees to give me a Telus Lions scarf. I noticed there was a Lionbackers.com entry as well. Saw Brent Johnson and Lui Passaglia represent the Lions alumni. After the parade, went to the Convention Centre West and saw the Cheerleader Extravaganza where all nine teams performed. With all due respect to the Felions fine performance, I'd say the best performance was from the Winnipeg Blue Bomber Cheer Team when the co-ed team did a tossing cheerleaders through a human goalpost routine. Had my picture taken with some Felions and Alouettes cheerleaders. Went back upstairs and received an autographed picture of Brain Ramsay, Jeff Keeping, Josh Bourke, Matt Carter, and Bear Woods. After Lui Passaglia finished his interview segment, approached him and had my picture taken with him before he said to other fans "I'll be right back." Walked around the entrance of Red Truck Tailgate, Lions Den, and Riderville but did not enter. Got some free gifts from the various booths at the TELUS Street Festival and Nissan Family Zone. McDonald's was very generous in offering specialty coffees for free in the cold weather. And by far, the most aggressive booth was that for the MNBA when their pressuring representatives kept asking everyone to sign up for their MasterCard program and get a towel in return.

[sj-roc]

Thanks, sj. Great read.

Toronto is the NFL-envy Capital of the World. It seems that dream is on life support.

Plus they have the Leafs.

Enough self-punishment for a lifetime.

Yeah, there were a handful of comments directed at the TO-centric nature of that august broadsheet — and the writer whom I quoted above was quick to point out the Western Canadian bona fides of both himself and his co-author.

I was downtown earlier this evening mostly along Burrard, and around 8pm there was a lineup of I'd say about 200 for the Spirit of Edmonton party room. That's some "blip", isn't it? I don't know if the dance clubs on Granville get that kind of action on an average weekend. I also came upon a nearby pub and just out of idle curiosity briefly wandered around inside for some visuals on the Grey Cup-ness of the place — no shortage of folks in jerseys, hats, etc. Lots of such people wandering the streets, too.

The whole framing of the TG&M article, that "the city has not been seized by this event" as one of its authors wrote in the comment section, isn't even a particularly germane one in the first place. Does the city truly NEED to be "seized" by the Grey Cup for it to be a success? What exactly does that mean anyway, "seized by the event"? How many events really "seize" this city? Not many come to mind. A Stanley Cup final? Once in nearly a generation or so has been the pattern to this point. Junior hockey championships? A one-off. Olympics? Once in a lifetime. Anything else? Okay, annual summer fireworks. That's probably the biggie. And it's free.

Maybe they have a point. Why don't we just cancel the game tomorrow, tear down BC Place for some more condos, fold the league, and melt down the trophy so we can get some scratch for it at the scrapyard?

On the other hand, maybe the city hasn't been "seized" by TG&M's sports coverage, either.

[Solar Max]

Thanks, sj. Great read.

Toronto is the NFL-envy Capital of the World. It seems that dream is on life support.

Plus they have the Leafs.

Enough self-punishment for a lifetime.

Actually, it's the media in Toronto that has NFL envy, not the populace. The media are why Torontonians love the perennially awful Leafs, no other reason.

Everyone I know in Toronto is aware of the Bills failure in Toronto, as well as how poorly every other sport other than Blue Jays and Raptors are portrayed by Toronto media, especially Rogers Communications.

Toronto is a Leafs media town, Hamilton is a TigerCat town, Ottawa is a Redblacks Senators town. The media shapes these things.

[Coast Mountain Lion]

Just to give some input on the actual G&M coverage (it is not the Toronto Globe & Mail; even back in the old days when it was solely based in Toronto it was The Globe and Mail, and that is what it said on the front page then and still does). I have a copy that I bought here in Vancouver yesterday. There is one full page article in the Focus (OpEd) section and five out of fourteen pages in the Globe BC section are about the Grey Cup (the remainder being other sports, BC news, and obits), and the front page features it prominently. So I think the Globe can be considered to be doing its job (how many pages did the Toronto Star, whose weekend edition is twice the size of the G&M, give it in 2012?) . The article by Sunny Dhillon and David Ebner which is mentioned elsewhere in this thread is honest and frank about the situation but the negative aspect is rather overstated.

[sj-roc]

Just to give some real input on the G&M coverage (it is not the Toronto Globe & Mail; even back in the old days when it was solely based in Toronto it was The Globe and Mail, and that is what it said on the front page then and still does). I have a copy that I bought here in Vancouver yesterday. There is one full page article in the Focus (OpEd) section and five out of fourteen pages in the Globe BC section are about the Grey Cup (the remainder being other sports, BC news, and obits), and the front page features it prominently. So I think the Globe can be considered to be doing its job (how many pages did the Toronto Star, whose weekend edition is twice the size of the G&M, give it in 2012?) . The article by Sunny Dhillon and David Ebner which is mentioned elsewhere in this thread is honest and frank about the situation but the negative aspect is rather overstated.

I'm fully aware of that (in fact I could even tell you the name derives from the merger of two older papers with those two words in their names) but I think you completely missed where I was going on the name. They can call it a rose if they want; I'll still call it the TG&M (aka Toronto's national newspaper). You might as well have said the T in TSN doesn't really stand for Toronto.

The article I brought up is the one from their coverage that was appearing most prominently on google news at the time I posted about it. I didn't go hunting around on their website for it. I didn't have to. It found me.

They could print a 100-page GC extra. In today's world far more people will read only the dire headlines online over any of the hard copy articles. And they know it. BTW, I was on the Burrard Skytrain platform last night waiting for nearly ten minutes. The news videoboard there, which I gather must be somehow sponsored by CTV, was cycling through their headlines and I lost count of how many times I saw the one from the story that Ravi mentioned in the "Grey Cup tickets" thread ("Organisers struggling to sell tickets").

The fact is, the number of empty seats left to sell is probably less than the number that would be unoccupied from a true sellout at any given time during the game as fans make their way to and from concession stands and washrooms. To the naked eye you'd barely miss them.

[dupsdell1]

Was at the festival Yesterday I do remember on 1040 Thursday there was a poll question are you going to attend the festival 94% said no , well I go there at 11 30 am , heard the grey cup parade had 80, a hundread thousand people , at the festival at the convention centre it was packed from noon on , went to most of the party's and all had a line up to get in , extra police presence every were, I say this weekend reminds me so much of the 2005 festival very very successful , in fact too women that were not even planning to go there said this reminds me of the Olympics everyone was having a blast , oh yes anyone who says the grey cup festival is for the older generation , WRONG I saw so many teenagers, 20 year olds , 30 year olds.

Have a great grey cup day

[sj-roc]

Was at the festival Yesterday I do remember on 1040 Thursday there was a poll question are you going to attend the festival 94% said no , well I go there at 11 30 am , heard the grey cup parade had 80, a hundread thousand people , at the festival at the convention centre it was packed from noon on , went to most of the party's and all had a line up to get in , extra police presence every were, I say this weekend reminds me so much of the 2005 festival very very successful , in fact too women that were not even planning to go there said this reminds me of the Olympics everyone was having a blast , oh yes anyone who says the grey cup festival is for the older generation , WRONG I saw so many teenagers, 20 year olds , 30 year olds.

Have a great grey cup day

Yup. But some of the media elites based in Upper Canada would have you believe we were planning a funeral.

And I already commented on the uselessness of those polls: who wastes time or cares about voting in polls when they're busy partying? Imagine if a tv newscast had a field reporter at a polling station on election day. "I've been here all day since the polled opened. Everyone who came in has cast a ballot, which means this area had 100% turnout." Flawed methodology.

[dupsdell1]

Was at the festival Yesterday I do remember on 1040 Thursday there was a poll question are you going to attend the festival 94% said no , well I go there at 11 30 am , heard the grey cup parade had 80, a hundread thousand people , at the festival at the convention centre it was packed from noon on , went to most of the party's and all had a line up to get in , extra police presence every were, I say this weekend reminds me so much of the 2005 festival very very successful , in fact too women that were not even planning to go there said this reminds me of the Olympics everyone was having a blast , oh yes anyone who says the grey cup festival is for the older generation , WRONG I saw so many teenagers, 20 year olds , 30 year olds.

Have a great grey cup day

Yup. But some of the media elites based in Upper Canada would have you believe we were planning a funeral.

And I already commented on the uselessness of those polls: who wastes time or cares about voting in polls when they're busy partying? Imagine if a tv newscast had a field reporter at a polling station on election day. "I've been here all day since the polled opened. Everyone who came in has cast a ballot, which means this area had 100% turnout." Flawed methodology.

I agree , the media are Goofs always have been for every league. I never listen just thought I would comment on them .

[Honour Dewalt]

You also have to take this poll with a grain of salt seeing as how it was done by a former BC Lion player.

[sj-roc]

You also have to take this poll with a grain of salt seeing as how it was done by a former BC Lion player.

I'd say he's had people riffing on his name a million times by now and there's a great comeback for it.

"Heard any good polls lately?"

"Yeah, 100% of me thinks you're an a-hole."