Riders vs. Lions, October 4th - Attendance/Seating

[notahomer]

IT'S GOING TO BE AN AWESOME GAME, IMO. There is no way this weeks version of the Riders shows up to play (hope they do!). IMO, the Riders are going to be the Riders we saw nearly steal a game from the Lions one week ago. Glad I bought my tickets about this time a year ago (when I renewed my season tickets ). Hope to see the Lions of this weeks two games (Riders and then BOmbers). Regardless, it will be a Friday Night smashup. It will be worth seeing at the stadium........

[B.C.FAN]

Ticket sales update from David Braley on Monday morning:

News1130 Sports ‏@News1130Sports 1h #BCLions owner David Braley says 32,000 tickets sold for Friday's huge tilt with Sask. Braley thinks he can get over 40,000 sold.

[sj-roc]

Ticket sales update from David Braley on Monday morning:

News1130 Sports ‏@News1130Sports 1h #BCLions owner David Braley says 32,000 tickets sold for Friday's huge tilt with Sask. Braley thinks he can get over 40,000 sold.

If this is the case then I'm thinking we'll get about 35-36k. As great as 40k would be, I remain skeptical there are even 40k in the available seating and I can't see 8k tickets moving through the next 4-1/2 days. I don't know if we've ever sustained that rate for even a playoff game. Time will tell.

[Rammer]

Ticket sales update from David Braley on Monday morning:

News1130 Sports ‏@News1130Sports 1h #BCLions owner David Braley says 32,000 tickets sold for Friday's huge tilt with Sask. Braley thinks he can get over 40,000 sold.

If this is the case then I'm thinking we'll get about 35-36k. As great as 40k would be, I remain skeptical there are even 40k in the available seating and I can't see 8k tickets moving through the next 4-1/2 days. I don't know if we've ever sustained that rate for even a playoff game. Time will tell.

I didn't want to go there, but I was of similar mind on the numbers that will actually show up you are suggesting. You have to factor in that this game isn't a summer game where Saskatchewanians will migrate to view their team, and then combine that with the Riders recent play and only a couple of hundred Rider fans will grace the BC Place stands IMO. It doesn't lend itself for the intense rivalry that these teams have shared for most of the Wally era as a Lion. Lions had better play up the Geroy return factor to help ticket sales, otherwise they are missing an opportunity that only comes once.

[sj-roc]

[fromNews1130 Sports:] ‏@News1130Sports 1h #BCLions owner David Braley says 32,000 tickets sold for Friday's huge tilt with Sask. Braley thinks he can get over 40,000 sold.

If this is the case then I'm thinking we'll get about 35-36k. As great as 40k would be, I remain skeptical there are even 40k in the available seating and I can't see 8k tickets moving through the next 4-1/2 days. I don't know if we've ever sustained that rate for even a playoff game. Time will tell.

I didn't want to go there, but I was of similar mind on the numbers that will actually show up you are suggesting. You have to factor in that this game isn't a summer game where Saskatchewanians will migrate to view their team, and then combine that with the Riders recent play and only a couple of hundred Rider fans will grace the BC Place stands IMO. It doesn't lend itself for the intense rivalry that these teams have shared for most of the Wally era as a Lion. Lions had better play up the Geroy return factor to help ticket sales, otherwise they are missing an opportunity that only comes once.

I always figured most of the Rider fans who show up to see their team @BCP are folks who moved here to live in the LM and brought their green loyalty with them. At any rate plenty of SK ex-pats live here as a visit to almost any local curling club will attest. FWIW I've never believed that folks in SK travel here by the thousands or even hundreds for Rider games.

[SammyGreene]

I echo sj-roc and Rammer on this one. I think the chance to hit 40,000 went out the window with the Riders' fourth consecutive loss yesterday. The diehard BC Rider fans were coming anyways and Saskatchewan's torrid start to the season likely helped advanced sales. Now the reeling Riders are suddenly not as attractive to perhaps the fence sitting Rider fans that would have helped the final ticket push.

Give the Lions credit thought for marketing the heck out of this game well in advance. I'm sure they are well aware coverage leading up to the game this week will be buried behind the start of the NHL season, especially with the Canucks playing Thursday.

sj-roc has done some excellent research on this but it's hard to believe the Lions can crack the magical 40,000 number for the first time in the Wally era (except for the grand re-opening of BC Place) with a season ticket base of 18,000 when it was never accomplished at 24,000. They might have flirted with it between 2005-07 but never recall more than 38,000.

A Lions win Friday would create a very realistic possibility of the Riders coming back here for the Western Semi-Final unless BC can win next week in Calgary too.

[Rammer]

I didn't want to go there, but I was of similar mind on the numbers that will actually show up you are suggesting. You have to factor in that this game isn't a summer game where Saskatchewanians will migrate to view their team, and then combine that with the Riders recent play and only a couple of hundred Rider fans will grace the BC Place stands IMO. It doesn't lend itself for the intense rivalry that these teams have shared for most of the Wally era as a Lion. Lions had better play up the Geroy return factor to help ticket sales, otherwise they are missing an opportunity that only comes once.

I always figured most of the Rider fans who show up to see their team @BCP are folks who moved here to live in the LM and brought their green loyalty with them. At any rate plenty of SK ex-pats live here as a visit to almost any local curling club will attest. FWIW I've never believed that folks in SK travel here by the thousands or even hundreds for Rider games.

Which makes that much the happier that Vancouver isn't as close to Regina as Calgary is, there isn't any Christmas spirit in McMahon when they hook up with the Riders, it just looks like it. Plus for the most part the Rider fans who do travel are all about the CFL and don't cause issues unlike the close proximity that Calgary offers, nevermind the Saskatchewan ex-pat factor.

[Upper Bowl]

from today's news release (which started with third jersey info). The intros sound like a cool idea:

With Friday’s game tracking to have the largest attendance so far this season, the club has open even more sections of seats to accommodate strong demand for tickets after making a similar announcement last week.

“We’re thrilled with the response from fans over the past couple weeks and Friday will undoubtedly be one of Vancouver’s biggest sporting events of 2013,” noted Skulsky.

Fans will be in for a treat as the huge West Division clash will feature “blacked-out player introductions.” Everyone coming to the game is encouraged to be in their seats by 6:45 pm before the in-stadium lights go out.

[notahomer]

Thanks for posting Upper Bowl

Hopefully there will be some blacked out "blacked out" (oops I mean Gun-Metal-Greyed out) introductions

I was impressed at how many Lions fans I saw in Winnipeg. Not tons by any means but they were still there. One guy even had a gun metal grey jersey. Another had a jersey that must have been from the mid80's. A few sprinklings of orange here and there. Of course, it was cool seeing Andrew Harris' Mom in her Harris jersey sporting a gigantic Grey Cup ring on her finger.......

I think the Rider faithful can/will show. This is a big year regardless. If showing up can help, they'll want to be there. And, IIRC, BC Place is not being anal about the Watermelon helmets like the PNE was. In the PNE's defence, apparently some Rider fans were chucking them around after a Rider loss at Tempire. Funny, I don't remember getting to see lots of wins at Tempire but there were a few. BC Place? Whole different ball game.

[Rammer]

Thanks for posting Upper Bowl

Hopefully there will be some blacked out "blacked out" (oops I mean Gun-Metal-Greyed out) introductions

I was impressed at how many Lions fans I saw in Winnipeg. Not tons by any means but they were still there. One guy even had a gun metal grey jersey. Another had a jersey that must have been from the mid80's. A few sprinklings of orange here and there. Of course, it was cool seeing Andrew Harris' Mom in her Harris jersey sporting a gigantic Grey Cup ring on her finger.......

I think the Rider faithful can/will show. This is a big year regardless. If showing up can help, they'll want to be there. And, IIRC, BC Place is not being anal about the Watermelon helmets like the PNE was. In the PNE's defence, apparently some Rider fans were chucking them around after a Rider loss at Tempire. Funny, I don't remember getting to see lots of wins at Tempire but there were a few. BC Place? Whole different ball game.

Andrew Harris mother must have been trying to rub in the GC factor a little to the Bomber fans.

[sj-roc]

from today's news release (which started with third jersey info). The intros sound like a cool idea:

With Friday’s game tracking to have the largest attendance so far this season, the club has open even more sections of seats to accommodate strong demand for tickets after making a similar announcement last week.

“We’re thrilled with the response from fans over the past couple weeks and Friday will undoubtedly be one of Vancouver’s biggest sporting events of 2013,” noted Skulsky.

Fans will be in for a treat as the huge West Division clash will feature “blacked-out player introductions.” Everyone coming to the game is encouraged to be in their seats by 6:45 pm before the in-stadium lights go out.

Yeah, they kind of buried the extra sections announcement which I thought could have been trumpeted more. It's only two more sections, one more on each side of what was already available, so not much, but being able to say more sections have been opened to meet growing demand is a positive and only close observers such as us would pay attention to the niceties of it anyway. These two sections happen to be in the cheapest price point in the house; I think the extent of uptake in these with only four days or so of availability will offer some reflection on the wisdom of the Lions' ticket pricing structure. Looking at the map as I type it looks like 20-25% of seats from these two sections have been sold, in the first 24 hours or so.

I've voiced skepticism of the availability of 40k seats without offering much backup so I thought I should do this now.

• Capacity is 54,313 (sold out 2011GC att). Say there's a 50/50 upper/lower split: about 27,155 each.

• The upper deck has 54 sections and the number of seats per section which, while surely not uniform, does not, from inspection, depart too strongly therefrom (even though this is the case for the lower bowl, what with parts of sections cut out from the endzone overhangs and such). At any rate it's not like only the smallest sections are closed off. So that's 27,155/54 or just over 500 seats per section.

• The currently available sections are 430 through 453, which leaves 401 through 429 sealed off, plus 454. So 30 closed sections, really 31 since for each of the 430 and 453 end sections, only the half that abuts the rest of the continuum is open.

• 31 x 500 = 15,500 and subtracting this from capacity leaves a little over 38,800. May actually be slightly less since I've rounded down in using the 500 figure. Some of my assumptions to arrive at this 38.8k figure could be off a bit so I guess there's a slight possibility that they really are 40k there right now.

Our best reg season crowd since (aside from) the BCP re-opening was Ssk's visit last year with 36,357. I have no recollection of which sections were open for this game but it would make for a good comparison if it's the same as now. OTOH if last year had fewer sections open then this game will likely draw more. We had a handful of better crowds in 2005-2008 but comparisons to this period are hampered by the then-larger capacity which was since been reduced in two stages. Some blue seats were removed for the new 300-level larger-sized club seats before they shut down to replace the roof (I think these were installed in time for the 2009 season, the final one of the BCPI era, possibly 2008) and then all the blue seats were removed during that time in favour of the larger multicolour seats.

[notahomer]

......I have no recollection of which sections were open for this game but it would make for a good comparison if it's the same as now. .......

My recollection is fuzzy at the best of times but... I remember only one side of the upperbowl being open. IIRC, it was the home side. Of course, I feely admit my revisionist history is almost surely wrong. I'm just glad we'll have a great crowd of CFL fans there. Maybe we'll even get a 50/50 draw of over 40K! The Bombers crowd had a 50/50 with lots of options and it was over 30 K and that was with a crowd under 30 thousand......

[Rammer]

......I have no recollection of which sections were open for this game but it would make for a good comparison if it's the same as now. .......

My recollection is fuzzy at the best of times but... I remember only one side of the upperbowl being open. IIRC, it was the home side. Of course, I feely admit my revisionist history is almost surely wrong. I'm just glad we'll have a great crowd of CFL fans there. Maybe we'll even get a 50/50 draw of over 40K! The Bombers crowd had a 50/50 with lots of options and it was over 30 K and that was with a crowd under 30 thousand......

I am surprised on the amount that the Bomber fans are still purchasing on the 50/50's, as it wasn't too long ago that it was found out to be fixed at the Bomber games.

[sj-roc]

......I have no recollection of which sections were open for this game but it would make for a good comparison if it's the same as now. .......

My recollection is fuzzy at the best of times but... I remember only one side of the upperbowl being open. IIRC, it was the home side. Of course, I feely admit my revisionist history is almost surely wrong. I'm just glad we'll have a great crowd of CFL fans there. Maybe we'll even get a 50/50 draw of over 40K! The Bombers crowd had a 50/50 with lots of options and it was over 30 K and that was with a crowd under 30 thousand......

FWIW I just happened upon print copies of both the 2012 & 2013 pocket schedules. This year's version has most of the upper deck greyed out (except for 436 thru 449, although this doesn't include the tailgate section starting at 434, a printing and/or editing error) but last year's indicates that the entire stadium was open in 2012, nothing greyed out anywhere like on this year's version. I don't recall this complete lack of closed-off sections to be the case but TBH I don't really firmly recall it one way or the other.

[sj-roc]

......I have no recollection of which sections were open for this game but it would make for a good comparison if it's the same as now. .......

My recollection is fuzzy at the best of times but... I remember only one side of the upperbowl being open. IIRC, it was the home side. Of course, I feely admit my revisionist history is almost surely wrong. I'm just glad we'll have a great crowd of CFL fans there. Maybe we'll even get a 50/50 draw of over 40K! The Bombers crowd had a 50/50 with lots of options and it was over 30 K and that was with a crowd under 30 thousand......

Hey, look what I just found from the game day thread of last year's Rider visit at the end of the season. Seems there was some tarping going on after all. So I'm not sure what the 2012 schedule was all about.

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=26481&p=316018#p316018

[the 36,357 attendance] was ... the largest crowd since 2008/09/13 (28-23 win v Ssk) when 38,608 attended — a nearly 38 month high. It seemed like the upper level endzone sections above the dressing rooms were more filled than usual and prob accounted for most of the boost, along with the lowest rows of the upper level corners behind the Lions' bench, which until tonight had been tarped off all year (the higher rows of those sections remained tarped off). This seems to lend credence to what we've all been saying for the whole season: the upper level sidelines, at the same cost as those directly below in the lower bowl, are overpriced.

You can see from the link that the 40k figure was also getting kicked around for last year's Rider visit.

Which means we're prob in for another 36k crowd.