RS Posted September 6, 2007 Share Posted September 6, 2007 quote:Originally posted by Free kick The benchmark, for comparative purposes, would have to be that friendly versus Jamaica held at about the same time of the year. I would be scratching my head and at loss if it turns out that this crowd cant surpass that one. I have to disagree, as the Montreal game was at 4pm on a Labour Day Monday, while this game is early evening on a random Wednesday. Apples to oranges, IMO. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daniel Posted September 6, 2007 Share Posted September 6, 2007 BTW, the Montreal game attracted 6.5k people. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CanadasBest Posted September 6, 2007 Share Posted September 6, 2007 I'll reserve any comments about the size of the crowd until I see just how many people show up. Are people willing to pay $99.00 to see Canada play? I know most of the supporter tickets were discounted, but the prime seats are $99.00. To my knowledge this is the highest ticket price ever charged for a Canada game. Ask a random Toronto sports fan who Danny Dichio is and they will probably tell you he's that bald guy that plays for Toronto FC. If you asked a random Toronto sports fan who Julian deGuzman, Atiba Hutchinson, or Duane deRosario are they probably would not know even though all 3 are Canadian. Arguably</u> these 3 players are superior in talent to anyone on Toronto, yet they have zero marketability in Toronto or in Canada as a whole. Thanks to the CSA. By the way this is not a shot at the fans in Toronto or at the city. I've used Toronto as an example only because there's a game next Wednesday. It's the same problem in every Canadian city, and this problem won't go away until the CSA gets it's act together. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gian-Luca Posted September 6, 2007 Share Posted September 6, 2007 quote:Originally posted by gwallace76 If you asked a random Toronto sports fan who Julian deGuzman, Atiba Hutchinson, or Duane deRosario are they probably would not know even though all 3 are Canadian. Arguably</u> these 3 players are superior in talent to anyone on Toronto, yet they have zero marketability in Toronto or in Canada as a whole. Thanks to the CSA. You may not be aware of this from where you are posting, but the CSA has been running copious radio ads on the sports stations hyping those three players. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Posted September 6, 2007 Share Posted September 6, 2007 Frankly I wouldn't expect to see much in the way of marketing of tickets to a game in Toronto out here in British Columbia. If I did I would have cause to be critical of the CSA for wasting its precious resources! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ag futbol Posted September 6, 2007 Share Posted September 6, 2007 quote:Originally posted by Gian-Luca You may not be aware of this from where you are posting, but the CSA has been running copious radio ads on the sports stations hyping those three players. The ads may bring awareness but that doesn't attach people to Canada the same way Dichio does to Toronto FC. However, there isn't exactly an easy short term solution to this problem. Having a star attacking player suit up for a Canadian team in MLS would probably push up the awareness a fair bit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest speedmonk42 Posted September 6, 2007 Share Posted September 6, 2007 7PM is a boo boo. 7:30 would have been better, hell even 8:00 Could there be any Canada U20 backlash happening here? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest speedmonk42 Posted September 6, 2007 Share Posted September 6, 2007 quote:Originally posted by Danny Boy BMO is sold out.... all the fans are wearing black.... ...and the MNT comes out wearing the black kit...??? As stated above, it would go down in history as one of the funniest things in Canadian soccer. At least to us. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redhat Posted September 6, 2007 Share Posted September 6, 2007 The Most Valuable Player in MLS for the past few years is from Scarborough ... Dwayne De Rosario. The Most Valuable Player in the CONCACAF Gold Cup is also from Scarborough ... Julian de Guzman. The best Canadian players will be at the game; surely the CSA marketing department would highlight that. (sarcasm) Right? (sarcasm wink) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Jeffery S. Posted September 6, 2007 Share Posted September 6, 2007 quote:Originally posted by speedmonk42 7PM is a boo boo. 7:30 would have been better, hell even 8:00 Could there be any Canada U20 backlash happening here? I don't think there is backlash, but maybe saturation. Toronto has got a lot of football lately, meaning a lot of people have spent money to see games, including TFC and the u-20s, including the Argentina friendly, and maybe other matches in the knockout rounds. Which may have been easier to do when kids were on holiday too. Add to that the fact that those in the know are aware that you will be getting competitive national team games in 2008, which will really be important to support (and spend money on). The rival is important, they were at the World Cup, but even most of us look at that squad from CR and we really don't know the team that well. They certainly are not coming with any stars or name players that could be a draw. I mean, even Peru or Bulgaria with a full squad would have more recognizable names. Plus a midweek game at a time most in TO feel is a bit early. So a weaker attendance could be understandable. What was the ticket deal for TFC fans, and has it been actively promoted through TFC? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gian-Luca Posted September 6, 2007 Share Posted September 6, 2007 quote:Originally posted by ag futbol The ads may bring awareness but that doesn't attach people to Canada the same way Dichio does to Toronto FC. However, there isn't exactly an easy short term solution to this problem. Indeed. Dichio was basically totally unknown here until he played for Toronto, his instant popularity really wasn't because of any specific marketing initiave by MLSE (other than their general marketing of the team), but simply because the fan base they created took to the player. That's what we need the CSA to do, and the best way to do it is by actually playing games here. We need to start re-growing the fan base in Canada, which is another reason why playing at home more often is so important. A lot of people only become fervent supporters of the National team after they have had an opportunity to attend a match live. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gian-Luca Posted September 6, 2007 Share Posted September 6, 2007 quote:Originally posted by Jeffrey S. What was the ticket deal for TFC fans, and has it been actively promoted through TFC? From my understanding there was an exclusive window of opportunity to purchase their own season tickets seats for the Canada game. After that the tickets went on sale to the general public. I'm not actually the official season ticket holder in my family so I couldn't tell you how actively the game has been promoted via email to the TFC season ticket holders, other than that initial ticket window. But they have been made aware of the game. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VPjr Posted September 6, 2007 Share Posted September 6, 2007 quote:Originally posted by Jeffrey S. I don't think there is backlash, but maybe saturation. Toronto has got a lot of football lately, meaning a lot of people have spent money to see games, including TFC and the u-20s, including the Argentina friendly, and maybe other matches in the knockout rounds. Which may have been easier to do when kids were on holiday too. Add to that the fact that those in the know are aware that you will be getting competitive national team games in 2008, which will really be important to support (and spend money on). The rival is important, they were at the World Cup, but even most of us look at that squad from CR and we really don't know the team that well. They certainly are not coming with any stars or name players that could be a draw. I mean, even Peru or Bulgaria with a full squad would have more recognizable names. Plus a midweek game at a time most in TO feel is a bit early. So a weaker attendance could be understandable. What was the ticket deal for TFC fans, and has it been actively promoted through TFC? agreed...it's unlikely backlash. Saturation isn't something I thought about but there is some validity in that argument. Many of us have gone several years (if not most of our lives) not regularily going to the stadium to watch soccer but this year, we've had TFC, U20 and now this. The TFC ticket deal was essentially an early bird window for season ticket holders to be able to get first dibs on tickets. A couple of days later, the tickets were opened up to the public. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gian-Luca Posted September 6, 2007 Share Posted September 6, 2007 quote:Originally posted by Daniel BTW, the Montreal game attracted 6.5k people. For some reason I thought it had been higher, but I guess that number puts things into perspective somewhat. And that was on labour day to boot, and was the first game in Montreal in what, 12 years? Even worse than the 7 year Toronto drought. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daniel Posted September 6, 2007 Share Posted September 6, 2007 The National Team gets pretty much no coverage in Montreal at ANY time and without Ziggy Marley practicing with the Jamaicans, it probably would not have had any build-up. That being said, I'm pretty sure *I* wouldn't pay 99$ for a Canada friendly. They should have kept it simple and cheap: 15$ behind the net, 20$ on the Maple Leaf side and other non-VIP areas and 40-50$ for the VIP. You're not making money on friendlies in Canada, you're building the product. No one there, no awareness, no merchandise sold, no point in having tickets cost 100$. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gian-Luca Posted September 6, 2007 Share Posted September 6, 2007 To be fair, there is only one section in the whole stadium that is $99. If that section sells even half-decently then it might justify making a top ticket at that price. I'm also not so sure we should be so quick to discount the possibility of making money on a friendly, but it is difficult for any of us to say for sure as we have no idea what costs are involved. But we'll see. I'll be surprised if there is any merchandise is sold even if attendance is 20,000. If there's none for sale, it's difficult for anybody to buy any no matter who shows up. That's an area that the CSA has been woeful in for years. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JB_Tito Posted September 6, 2007 Share Posted September 6, 2007 quote:Originally posted by Jeffrey S. I don't think there is backlash, but maybe saturation. Toronto has got a lot of football lately, meaning a lot of people have spent money to see games, including TFC and the u-20s, including the Argentina friendly, and maybe other matches in the knockout rounds. Which may have been easier to do when kids were on holiday too. Add to that the fact that those in the know are aware that you will be getting competitive national team games in 2008, which will really be important to support (and spend money on). The rival is important, they were at the World Cup, but even most of us look at that squad from CR and we really don't know the team that well. They certainly are not coming with any stars or name players that could be a draw. I mean, even Peru or Bulgaria with a full squad would have more recognizable names. Plus a midweek game at a time most in TO feel is a bit early. So a weaker attendance could be understandable. What was the ticket deal for TFC fans, and has it been actively promoted through TFC? Deal was a presale window if 3days,we received email at Thursday presale started on Friday and was closed on Monday.It was suppose to give us opportunity to buy our seats but that was only if you call ticketmaster and tell them,in the same time sale was going on internet and ticketmaster was selling the ticket by price range.That why most of season ticket holders didn't get their seats and probably gave up on the game all together.I think there is maybe 10 fans from sec 115 got their seats because that was the first section that would pop up on internet presale.Ticketmaster didn't know how to handle the sale ,that why I would not blame all on CSA but 90% was CSA fu*kup. Now we can only wait and see,I told parents in soccer youth club and no one was aware of this game,now the whole team(U8) with parents are going to the game.OSA didn't make it any better to promote this game. Hope for the best and around 15.000 fans. Cheers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lefoot Posted September 6, 2007 Share Posted September 6, 2007 I hope there is a really solid crowd for the match in Toronto. It is purely due to inept marketing by the CSA if they do less than close to a sell-out. There is absolutely no reason your average TFC fan cannot be marketed to and enticed to buy a ticket, along with the wide range of youth clubs etc. The CSA really is run by amateurs in terms of its marketing approach. They need to buck up, develop a much more risky approach to marketing, and spend a lot of time researching how clubs in England use some of the most cutting edge ad agencies etc. This kind of thing cannot be done in house. Having said that, if they did approach an ad agency, they would have to know this agency has some understanding of what is hot/cool/marketable about soccer. Its a different approach than hockey or other sports. I think they need to privatize the Mens national team on this level. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PunjabiOil Posted September 6, 2007 Share Posted September 6, 2007 " It almost feels like the CSA is purposely not promoting this game as hard as they can. " ______ That's nothing new. There has been very little to none advertising in Edmonton for Team Canada games, be it National Men, National Women, U20 Men, or U20 women. The complaint last year for the U20 game against Brazil in Edmonton was that nobody knew about it. Despite the Oilers playing in the Conference finals that night, the game drew about 15,000. One wonders how much better they could do if it's properly marketed. Absolutely no advertising for the U20 friendly prior to the FIFA tournament against Czech Republic either. It's a niche sport in this country, but the CSA does a terrible job advertising the sport. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VPjr Posted September 7, 2007 Share Posted September 7, 2007 On the Fan590's Soccer Show, Bob Iarusci's closing comment was "there are Lots of tickets left for the game so fans please buy some tickets so we can have a good crowd" (paraphrasing a little...hard to hear the show perfectly over the voices of my 3 kids). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rodfern2007 Posted September 7, 2007 Share Posted September 7, 2007 What if the CSA has been reading the message boards and saw this movement to have fans come in wearing black and bring banners that are unflattering to the CSA? Would they try to stop us, and if so, what should our response be? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Ref Posted September 7, 2007 Share Posted September 7, 2007 quote:Originally posted by Gian-Luca You may not be aware of this from where you are posting, but the CSA has been running copious radio ads on the sports stations hyping those three players. Them must be potent radio stations to reach all the way to the West. Ha Ha. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Ref Posted September 7, 2007 Share Posted September 7, 2007 quote:Originally posted by rodfern2007 What if the CSA has been reading the message boards and saw this movement to have fans come in wearing black and bring banners that are unflattering to the CSA? Would they try to stop us, and if so, what should our response be? I don't think the CSA is smart or even able to read. In any event, have a couple of standby guys equipped with a video camera and sound recording to use later as evidence of the CSA mafioso style. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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