BLUE CRUSH
Argos back with a bang, but few there to see it.
If a 37-year-old quarterback carves a bitter rival like it was a $20 steak — if he carves them like he had never carved any other team in his 14-year CFL career, with his receivers making Superman catches all over the field — but he does it in Toronto, does anybody know?
That’s an absurd exaggeration, of course. Not the part about Ricky Ray eviscerating the Hamilton Tiger-Cats in Toronto’s home opener. That happened, all right. Lots of people probably watched. But most of them weren’t at BMO Field, and that’s the loneliness of the Argonauts as the season begins. Ray completed 32 of 41 passes for a career-high 506 yards and a touchdown, and the Argos blew Hamilton off the field, 32-15. The offence was full of stars. The defence made Hamilton quarterback Zach Collaros bellow, “I don’t have time to do my f------ work.”
Toronto actually made a few mistakes — flip three or four plays and they win this one 45-7.
The Argos, in their season opener, were back.
“I’ve probably had six practices, total, and when I came in the last week of camp, you could not have told me this team was just put together,” said linebacker Bear Woods, who was signed a little over two weeks ago.
Attendance was announced at 13,583, for a home opener against Hamilton, with Tiger-Cats fans in the stands. Last year’s opener was also against Hamilton, and the crowd was announced at 24,812. This wasn’t the end of the world, or the franchise. But it was an embarrassment. “Yeah, I mean, there was energy there at the end of the game, making it tough on Hamilton,” Ray said. “We’re just trying to come out and win each game, and we’ll see where it goes from there.”
“Obviously we’d like to fill up the stands and get this place rocking,” said slotback S.J. Green, who caught seven passes for 124 yards.
“But if we keep winning games, they’ll come.”
“I’m just thankful for the 13,000 that did come,” said Woods, in his north Florida twang. “We really appreciate them taking time out of their day, spending their money, to come see us. But as far as looking at the crowd size . . . that’s going to get better. It just will.”
You’d think so, but . . . what if it doesn’t? Having a good team would presumably help, and in this one game, the Argos looked good. Hamilton was missing two starters at defensive back, but they got rolled all over the field.
Ray was kept clean enough, and the receivers — Green, Jeff Fuller, Armanti Edwards and Posey, the last of whom was the only one on the roster last season — combined for 453 of those passing yards. Fuller and Posey each dropped a touchdown pass for a combined 29 more. Green is coming off knee surgery, and Ray is 37, and they ate Hamilton up.
“We really didn’t know what we were going to have until today, and we shined a light on a little of it,” Argos coach Marc Trestman said.
But the place was literally half full, with fans in town from down the road. This is where they are.
“We’re not measuring ourselves by our attendance today,” Argonauts president and CEO Michael Copeland said.
“We’re measuring ourselves by how we build this brand up in this city, and that’s not going to be accomplished today. We’re going to do it as quickly as we can. We would love to do that this year. But we’ll see. And nor is ownership measuring what happens in the short term. It’s ultimately about getting it right. And I think it’s about trying to be really consistent, and making sure that you’re going in the right direction.
“We might go slowly. But as long as we’re moving in the right direction.” OK. Let’s rewind a bit. The team was sold to Bell Communications and Larry Tanenbaum in 2015, and they moved to BMO last season, and the schedule was a mess, and marketing never really landed. The Grey Cup was jammed in here so former owner David Braley could try to profit after years of miserly conduct, and it was a free-ticket disaster. Then the Argos waited until late January to fire the general manager, and then the coach unexpectedly quit, and they still didn’t have replacements in place until the beginning of March. The marketing budget is about a quarter of last season’s big-splash version, and the season-ticket base is something close to cut in half from last year’s 7,000. That’s moving backward.
Look, the tides this franchise is fighting against are decades old, generations. This will take time, and even then, only if it’s done well. So, going back to Copeland: How can you tell you’re headed in the right direction?
“I think trends,” Copeland said. “Trends will tell. If you know you’re going in the right direction, then you know that eventually you’re going to get there. The speed at which we get there becomes a little bit less relevant, because you know you’re going to get there. And that’s paid tickets, and wins. Tickets and wins: That’s what 2017 is about. And hopefully we have more of each.”
This is now the starting point, and a nadir. The game Friday against B.C. could be another one. The Argos are back, and they might be good, and the real question is whether it will matter at all.