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Not too suprisingly, the blowout nature of the Grey Cup game didn't do it any favours in the viewership ratings, as per the Yahoo! article below. The audience peaked at 5.5 million during the second quarter and averaged to 4.5M for the entire game, down 17% from last year's avg of 5.4M. It was also less than the 4.6M avg of the 2011 BC vs Wpg game. On the plus side, it still ranks as the most watched sports program so far in 2013 and the 4th-most watched Grey Cup of all time. Total reach was 11.5 million.

Regular season ratings were up 4.3% from 2012. The article gives no indication but I wonder how much of this growth was from HD viewership of games that would otherwise have been blacked out and which also might have cannibalised ticket sales.

Grey Cup blowout produces big ratings drop for TSN

I doubt it helped that all Hamilton got all week was the proverbial "Thanks for coming, guys."

Even the crowd influenced heavily the reporters there. Swept up in the green tide.

I didn't have much of a horse in the race but preferred Hamilton and it just didn't feel like a traditional Grey Cup - more like a Riders home game.

Toppy Vann wrote:I doubt it helped that all Hamilton got all week was the proverbial "Thanks for coming, guys."

Even the crowd influenced heavily the reporters there. Swept up in the green tide.

I didn't have much of a horse in the race but preferred Hamilton and it just didn't feel like a traditional Grey Cup - more like a Riders home game.

I think some of this criticism might have hit home to the Rider braintrust as they placed a full-page ad in the Hamiton Spectator today to reach out to Tiger-Cat fans:

Roughriders place ad in Hamilton Spectator to tip their hats to Tiger-Cats’ fans

sj-roc wrote:

Toppy Vann wrote:I doubt it helped that all Hamilton got all week was the proverbial "Thanks for coming, guys."

Even the crowd influenced heavily the reporters there. Swept up in the green tide.

I didn't have much of a horse in the race but preferred Hamilton and it just didn't feel like a traditional Grey Cup - more like a Riders home game.

I think some of this criticism might have hit home to the Rider braintrust as they placed a full-page ad in the Hamiton Spectator today to reach out to Tiger-Cat fans:

Roughriders place ad in Hamilton Spectator to tip their hats to Tiger-Cats’ fans

It is a great gesture but couldn't they have found a photo of some Rider and Ticat fans together from that week showing that despite what we saw on TV it was more than a Rider love in and "hey, ticats - thanks for coming" and all that phrase connotes. Oh the thumbs up gesture - having just attended two cultural awareness seminars in Hong Kong over the past 6 months - is also something that they might think twice of in a photo like that for a multi-cultural group of football fans in Hamilton.

The Center of Intercultural Competence would give the "thumbs up" in this photo this kind of review:

Showing the thumb held upwards means in Latin America, especially Brazil, but also in many other countries, everything’s ok”, while it is understood in some Islamic countries as well as Sardinia and Greece as a rude sexual sign. Furthermore, the sign of thumb up may signify the number "one" in France and a few other central European countries.

When we were kids the thumbs up pose if you moved your hand up and down with your thumb up , it was also considered crude, rude and dealt with a body orifice. Times changed.

Toppy Vann wrote:It is a great gesture but couldn't they have found a photo of some Rider and Ticat fans together from that week showing that despite what we saw on TV it was more than a Rider love in and "hey, ticats - thanks for coming" and all that phrase connotes. Oh the thumbs up gesture - having just attended two cultural awareness seminars in Hong Kong over the past 6 months - is also something that they might think twice of in a photo like that for a multi-cultural group of football fans in Hamilton.

Probably could have been better executed in terms of Ticats content in the ad but the Box J Boys seemed to accept it at face value so I'll just leave it at that. As for the thumb gesture, being a young kid I don't think there was anything untoward intended on the Riders part.

I fully expect home team fans to blow their own horn. If things were too one sided in Greenville, then the fault lies with the league itself. I think they bought in to the passion of Riders fans and failed to realize that there is more to this than just money and adulation for the Riders of Sask. It seemed as though every media outlet was focusing on the fans and the energy because that looked to be where most of the action was. Big shock, outside of Rider fans, most people aren't really all that excited about excited Rider fans. Couple that with the fact that the home team - home city has been done already two years in a row and there goes that story line. Throw in that there wasn't much anticipation of the game itself owing to the one sided nature of it, add in sub-zero temperatures during the week leading up and poof, not a lot going on but Green Weenies running around all over the place in a City that isn't really all that entertaining and can be hard if not impossible to get accommodation in. There is only so much drinking and partying one can do and when all you are hearing is the same rhetoric from a group that vastly dwarfs all others and viola, it is more a media farce than an event.

This game is supposed to be a Canadian tradition that brings people from all over Canada to celebrate. Going to Sask in winter = strike 1, Having a game pretty much preordained = strike 2, Being completely overshadowed by local rabid fans = strike 3. Not really the Riders fault in any of it but put it all together and you get the 101st Grey Cup. A underwhelming game, an over focus on a place that hasn't got that much going for it in winter and the same old bleating of Riderfans and their love for their professional sports team. Their belated gesture to the city of Hamilton while well meaning, doesn't really overcome the tidal wave of Green where the idea seems to be that we'll shout the loudest, buy the most crap and completely try to drown out the rest in our efforts to show the rest of the country that we are the best fans on the planet. I think the message to the league and fans of the Riders should be. "We in the rest of Canada get it." You are the most enthusiastic fans. You do support your team better than most other teams are supported by their fans. Now try and show some refinement in your support and to the league itself, STOP with the RiderNation love. It is an old message that we have all heard. The league is richer for them than it would be without them but most of us in the rest of Canada are tired of hearing about it. Make sure you pass that message along to your media partners. If anything, it pushes other fans away from doing things that look like it might resemble RiderNation.

I found that the rider fans did whatever they could to promote the home field advantage, and as fans thats what they should do. I was surprised that they let Gainer the The stupid gofer drive around in golf cart every time the riders scored. I do not recall seeing the Hamilton Mascot out there esp. When they scored...but that was very infrequent....

Question for those with better memories did we allow that to happen in 2011 grey cup? Was roary on field level making noise when we scored? was the blue bomber mascot?

I vaguely recall the stamps horse being in toronto but not sure if he was at the game....

(Also why are my Grey Cup Memories so Hazy....)

Mike

snackdaddy wrote:
Question for those with better memories did we allow that to happen in 2011 grey cup? Was roary on field level making noise when we scored? was the blue bomber mascot?

Mike

No, the Grey Cup is supposed to be a league event. No announcers encouraging the fans to make noise etc.

While the Riders have tremendous fan support, there are only 1 million people in Sask. With the two smallest cities in the Grey Cup, the maximum audience potential was limited somewhat. With the Lions in the game, for example, even with a 40% share in B.C., that equals 2 million viewers.

The halftime show was a dud also. Rather than attracting viewers, the 4.2 million peak for the halftime show was 1.3 million less than the 2Q peak. Those fans turned the channel at halftime and might not have turned back in the 3Q due to the lopsided nature of the game.

So there is little to worry about. The lower ratings (the 4th highest GC ratings ever) were mainly a result of the small population in Sask and the flying skidoos at halftime.