Question re: Winnipeg Stadium

[Ryan]

Hi all. Looking into going to see a road game in Winnipeg this summer. Has anyone here been to IG Field (Now apparently Princess Auto Stadium) and have any tips on seats. I haven’t been able to find where (which side / end) the visitors bench is. Thoughts appreciated.

[don corleone]

Hi all. Looking into going to see a road game in Winnipeg this summer. Has anyone here been to IG Field (Now apparently Princess Auto Stadium) and have any tips on seats. I haven’t been able to find where (which side / end) the visitors bench is. Thoughts appreciated.

I've been to Princess Auto Stadium a few times. Okay stadium in a not very accessible location.

Best way to arrive and depart is the park and ride with city transit buses dropping off at the gate. It was free at one time and an the only way to beat the traffic. Once inside you have access to all the seating areas so you can gamble on a cheap tickets and move up if you like. Sightlines are good from the upper deck.

Winnipeg bench is on the west side. A standing area in the north end zone is sponsored by the Rum Hut. Decent tailgate area outside with food trucks and the like so lots of choices and things to do for a couple of hours pregame.

As they used to say; go early, stay late, be loud, have fun.

[Hambone]

I've only been there for the 2015 Grey Cup. I had a great seat 1st row upper deck close to the midfield stripe. Excellent sight line and only a couple rows from the concourse.

As DC said park n rides would be the way to go especially if you plan on having a few wobbles at the game. There is information on the Bomber website regarding Park n Ride and the routes.

https://www.bluebombers.com/park-and-ride/

Where my opinion differs from his is on the subject of tickets. ThLions were an odd draw last year. In week 3 only 25662 came out making for the smallest crowd of the season. That it was their 2nd home game and an early season Thursday night may have been the reason. But in Week 9 BC drew 30874 or 93.5% of capacity. After back to back years facing each other in the WDF one would think a rivalry is only getting more intense with crowds for BC far more likely to be in the 31K range as opposed to 26K. Planning to buy cheap then move down to something better is unlikely to work out.

Personally I figure if I'm going to the expense of traveling to a road game and all the costs that entails why go cheap on a seat because in the grand scheme of things that is one of the least expensive aspects of my trip. My guess is it's going to cost you at least $1000 per person for the trip itself. Why go cheap on a nosebleed seat when the ticket is such a small part of the overall cost of your trip. My suggestion is find good seats that offer you the sort of location and sight lines you prefer and grab them. It's not like even top seats are outlandishly more expensive than cheap seats in the CFL. A good seat likely doesn't add more than $50 to the overall cost of your trip vs a cheap seat.

[don corleone]

Then again if I was working with Hambone's budget I might consider the club seats.

IMO Bombers are not immune to declining attendance issues any more than other teams. They give away large blocks of tickets on a regular basis to pump up the numbers. Seldom are the upper corners full on games shown on tv which also makes me skeptical of the 23,000 season ticket holders number and the average attendance of over 28,000. Like everywhere else, only when the Riders are playing.

[Ryan]

Thanks for the feedback. Yes transit seems the way to go as we will stay downtown. Ticket price is not a concern so we will get good seats, although am thinking I want to be on the lions side behind the bench, which sounds like the east side. Probably high enough up to have some perspective, and maybe some cover from the elements in case it rains. A trip to the rum hut is definitely in the plans. Hopefully our Leo’s don’t lay an early season egg.

[Ryan]

Oh yeah, am going with my wife on our wedding anniversary weekend . The secret to a happy marriage is to marry a woman who is willing (and wants) to go to Winnipeg for a football game for an anniversary

[DanoT]

Oh yeah, am going with my wife on our wedding anniversary weekend . The secret to a happy marriage is to marry a wife who is willing (and wants) to go to Winnipeg for a football game for an anniversary

Sounds like the wife is a keeper.

[Hambone]

Then again if I was working with Hambone's budget I might consider the club seats.

IMO Bombers are not immune to declining attendance issues any more than other teams. They give away large blocks of tickets on a regular basis to pump up the numbers. Seldom are the upper corners full on games shown on tv which also makes me skeptical of the 23,000 season ticket holders number and the average attendance of over 28,000. Like everywhere else, only when the Riders are playing.

Trust me my budget is not unlimited. I'd never consider club seats because I don't see the value for the price. Similarly I wouldn't go for the cheap seats because I don't see value in them either. The only exception to my cheap seat rule would be if that's all that's available. Typically I look for what I consider good value seats. They are ones that aren't club seats nor are they in the top price tier of regular seats. They usually put me in the area of the 25 to 35 yard line and my prefered 15 to 30 rows up. I might give up a few yards of field position if I can score an aisle seat. That philosophy goes for Grey Cups too. I usually wind up in the 2nd or 3rd price level which still lands me somewhere in the area of the 20 to 30 yard line while not paying top end price or dropping to the cheapest seats. Again it goes to my philosophy that says if I'm paying $2000+ for airfare, 5 nights hotel plus all the other food, drink and entertainment costs that come with going to Grey Cup why should I sell myself short by not at least treating myself to a decently valued, but not most expensive seat, to the game.

I also would never play the "buy cheap seats then try to move to better" game. It's just not in my DNA to do that. My personal philosophy is I'm only entitled to sit in the seat I paid for therefore that's where I should sit. If I wanted more expensive seats I should have paid for them in the first place. It always bugs me to see people plop their butts down in my section before the game then shuffle around multiple times to different seats as the actual ticket holders show up. I don't ever want to be "that guy".

As for Winnipeg I can't seem them needing to paper anything. At the same time though it's not unusual for all CFL teams to provide blocks of tickets to groups such as military groups or minor football organizations as a form of charitable donations. That is much different than back in the day when you could go into Dix a half block from Terry Fox Plaza and the bartender had a stack of freebies the Lions gave them to give away. Attendance was up and down a bit iduring the summer at IGF before rounding out to 30K+ for the final half dozen games. Winnipeg's worst two draws last year were BC in Week 3 (25662) and Edmonton in Week 7 (28512). Those also were both Thursday night games. Surprisingly the season opener was next at 29057 but it was vs Hamilton. Everything else starting with BC's 2nd visit was over 30K. Obviously upper corners are always the toughest to sell regardless of stadium. On those Thursday nights they would have been noticably empty as there were over 7500 and 4500 empty unsold seats for those games. I doubt they was many unsold for the Banjo Bowl.

[Ryan]

Ended up getting presale tickets in the 100 level, on the 35 yard line, row 7 on the east side behind the Lions bench. Everything between the 35 yard lines behind both benches was sold out in the 100 level to season ticket holders.