2011 Western Final Ticket Count

[MikeAK]

I am so excited for tomorrow!! I'm on the 8:45am boat heading over and plan to have a great day.

[Buonosjanet69]

Hey all,

On the noon news today (I think it was CTV, but it might have been Global) it was reported that ticket sales are just over 38,ooo, and so a crowd in the low 40k range is expected.

Cheers,

James

disappointing but this is the Lions chance to advertise its product for few hours on Sat and hopefully a few more next weekend, when everyone will be tuning in. I think having an MLS team has impacted the Lions a bit too.. when the old NASL folded did our attendance go up then? Some of those fans are cross over fans like I was back in the day.

We make it to the Final and get off to a good start next year, our attendance should reach 35K on average if this team is competitive again.

[B.C.FAN]

According to Lowell Ullrich's blog, Wally Buono defended the local football market Saturday in the face of negative publicity surrounding ticket sales.

The last question had been answered but the microphone was still hot and Wally Buono had something to say. The man rarely disappoints, especially if you’re a paying customer of his football team.
The thank-you shoutout he had for the ticket-buying public might have been expected but his wholesale defence of Vancouver as a football market might have caught some of the visitors in town for the West Division final by surprise.
Buono’s point was that he had been hearing some criticism over the fact the game Sunday will not be a sellout and as such was a condemnation of the city as a football market.
“Look at the playoff attendance over the last few years, not counting the Grey Cup, and B.C.’s only second to Montreal. Where else have they had more for a game this season? We had the biggest regular season crowd. Football is very much alive, and if that’s me being critical of the media so be it.”

He has a point. Whether there are 40,000 or 45,000 in attendance Sunday, it will be the largest crowd of the postseason and will be larger than the crowd of 37,337 that attended the last West Final before a B.C. Place Grey Cup in 2005. And next week's Grey Cup sold out in record time. That's a great accomplishment.

[MikeAK]

According to Lowell Ullrich's blog, Wally Buono defended the local football market Saturday in the face of negative publicity surrounding ticket sales.

The last question had been answered but the microphone was still hot and Wally Buono had something to say. The man rarely disappoints, especially if you’re a paying customer of his football team.
The thank-you shoutout he had for the ticket-buying public might have been expected but his wholesale defence of Vancouver as a football market might have caught some of the visitors in town for the West Division final by surprise.
Buono’s point was that he had been hearing some criticism over the fact the game Sunday will not be a sellout and as such was a condemnation of the city as a football market.
“Look at the playoff attendance over the last few years, not counting the Grey Cup, and B.C.’s only second to Montreal. Where else have they had more for a game this season? We had the biggest regular season crowd. Football is very much alive, and if that’s me being critical of the media so be it.”

He has a point. Whether there are 40,000 or 45,000 in attendance Sunday, it will be the largest crowd of the postseason and will be larger than the crowd of 37,337 that attended the last West Final before a B.C. Place Grey Cup in 2005. And next week's Grey Cup sold out in record time. That's a great accomplishment.

Agreed! I think the lack of a sell out has more to do with people just running out of play money. Not everyone has an unlimited entertainment budget and a lot of footballers are normal people living paycheck to paycheck. Football is very much strong in this Province

[CatsEyes]

Judging by what I've seen on the ferry this morning, there is a decent island contingent coming over. There's probably 50 on this sailing and I bet a few more on the 9

[Ravi]

For the record, the attendance today was 41,313.

[Lionheart]

That's an awesome crowd!

Way to go Vancouverites!

[Belize City Lion]

Judging by what I've seen on the ferry this morning, there is a decent island contingent coming over. There's probably 50 on this sailing and I bet a few more on the 9

should be a hell of a lot more coming over to cheer on Andrew Harris

[TheLionKing]

For the record, the attendance today was 41,313.

And they made their presence known by the noise. I could barely hear what my niece was saying at the game.

[sj-roc]

David already pointed out the lack of marketing effort that the Lions put forth on this one, so taken in that light I was happy with the 40k+ crowd; it was a loud and supportive one. For anyone who might lament/criticise the number of empty seats running into five figures, consider that some cracks are beginning to appear even in the mighty NFL facade, where league attendance is on a four year downward trend. In the following article that appeared on Business Insider last week, one sports business analyst identified eight reasons — several of which we have hashed through on here — why he believes their attendance problems will worsen before they improve:

The NFL Is Heading Towards An Attendance Crisis And Here's Why

[David]

Was anyone else at the game shocked by so few Eskimo fans? I can honestly say I only saw two(!) Eskimo fans the entire afternoon - that's sitting in the Kingston Taphouse for 2 hours pregame, walking from the pub to the Gate, walking the concourse to my Section, walking around at half-time, and looking over the crowd during the game. Two. That's it. It was literally a sea of orange and black; a little different than the last couple of West Finals.


DH

[TheLionKing]

Now that you mentioned, you're right. They were noticeable by their absence.

[sj-roc]

Was anyone else at the game shocked by so few Eskimo fans?

David, I noticed the same thing too! But I initially just put it down to taking a different route to and from the stadium than I usually do.

In fact, in all my 16 seasons of attending Lions games, I don't think I've ever seen so FEW fans in visiting colours at ANY game as I did today. Whatever section I've sat in, I'd always spot a good handful of such fans milling about the concourse during pre-game, halftime and/or as everyone files out at the end. That had always been the case in varying degrees for every team, even relatively weak-drawing eastern opponents.

Edm has usually been a very close second to Ssk in this category — they were very visible for the two regular season games on Sep 30 and Oct 29 — but for whatever reason(s), much like you, I just didn't notice the usual Eskimo fan presence today. That's not to knock them for not appearing, it's just simply a (somewhat surprising) observation compared to what I'd seen before.

FWIW, I have complete confidence their presence will be abundant next week.

[MikeAK]

Was anyone else at the game shocked by so few Eskimo fans? I can honestly say I only saw two(!) Eskimo fans the entire afternoon - that's sitting in the Kingston Taphouse for 2 hours pregame, walking from the pub to the Gate, walking the concourse to my Section, walking around at half-time, and looking over the crowd during the game. Two. That's it. It was literally a sea of orange and black; a little different than the last couple of West Finals.


DH

Yes, me and my brother also noticed this. We only saw one Edm fan the whole night.