GRID-IRONING OUT THE WRINKLES
Anxious for a boost of youth, the CFL is fighting to win over millennials to rejuvenate its fan base
‘OUR BALLS ARE BIGGER’
Yes, gone are the carefree days of the playful and politically insensitive ad campaigns the CFL ran in the 1990s, an all-out, all-caps attempt to wrestle football dominance away from the NFL.
That approach might have resonated with those lowbrow types who wear watermelon helmets to football games, but it does little to sway those coveted and inscrutable millennials, who are far more likely to drop two bills on square watermelons from Japan — dessert after the avocado toast, one assumes — than pay much mind to threedown football.
And thus, the CFL begins to reimagine itself.
“Diversity is strength,” the league brays.
“Bring it in,” the league says, bravely demonstrating its generous ability to be inclusive and welcoming.
Heck, let’s throw in some Mexicans, too. Maybe not a caravan of refugees, but how about a couple Naucalpan Raptors joining the CFL to show just how hip and modern the league really is?
The CFL knows it’s under a cloud — a grey, and greying further cloud — of an aging core demographic. That, in itself, isn’t exactly news. Neither is the pursuit of the allmighty millennials’ dollars and interest. The league long ago recognized its problem and has worked at becoming more appealing to the younger sports fan.
“That’s not going to be a surprise to anybody,” said Derek Mager, the managing partner at research and consultancy group The Data Jungle, who has worked with nearly every team in the CFL. “You saw the CFL as a league trying to rebrand and remarket itself a few years ago, and they’ve been trying for a while.
“I think one of their tag lines a few years back was, ‘This isn’t your grandfather’s league anymore.’ There’s been a push to try and refill that funnel.”
It’s almost become an annual, um, ‘write’ of passage for the sports media to pen Chicken Little stories declaring the end is near for the league, but it has persisted despite the pillar of its fan base growing older by the day.
The vitality of the CFL can be separated into three categories: the three largest urban centres, Saskatchewan, and everybody else.
Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal are the team’s three largest markets. They’re also the cities with the lowest attendance.
The Lions just arrested a seven-year annual decline at the B.C. Place Stadium turnstiles.
Back in 2011, they averaged 29,725 fans per game. The next season, after winning the Grey Cup, they cracked the 30,000 mark, and hovered around 28,000 the next two seasons before falling off a cliff to 21,000.
This year’s average gate was a mere 117 fans more than 2017, but at least it was an increase.
Montreal (17,332) and Toronto (14,211) were the only cities worse than Vancouver, in terms of paid attendance, and the Als actually plan on constricting their seating nearly 15 per cent to make the game-day atmosphere more intimate.
The rest of the league has remained stable — highlighted by Hamilton and Ottawa both selling more than 94-per-cent capacity of their stadiums — and an average of around 24,000 fans across the league.
And then there’s the fortress of Saskatchewan — which averaged 32,057 fans per game this season — with new Mosaic Stadium at 96-per-cent capacity.
“I don’t think there’s any surprise we have some fans who have been with us for a long time,” said Terri Breker, the B.C. Lions’ director of marketing.
“And we love them, but we do know that somewhere along the way, we lost a generation of fans — but I don’t think that’s isolated to just the B.C. Lions.
“That’s something you see across the league as well. For us, we’re continuing to draw in a younger fan base, we’ve put in a lot of emphasis in marketing back to kids these past couple of years, and seen some tremendous success and growth.”
The league said Friday that TV ratings this season were up five per cent, with an average of 730,000 tuning in for CFL games. More importantly, they were up 15 per cent in the 18-49 demographic.
This comes on the heels of a study done last year by brand analytics firm IMI International, which said there was a five per cent leap in the number of millennials — the 18-34 age bracket — identifying as fans of the CFL, the largest jump of any North American pro league.
And with three more years remaining on the TSN/RDS broadcast deal with the CFL — which doles out around $4 million per team each season, covering the lions’ share of a $5.2-million salary cap — there’s still sunshine peeking through those grey-haired clouds.
DOWN BUT NOT OUT
The CFL had a stranglehold on the Canadian football fan until about 2010, when Drew Brees and the New Orleans Saints outgunned Peyton Manning and the Indianapolis Colts in Super Bowl XLIV.
It was the first time the NFL championship game had outdrawn the Grey Cup, and the disparity has only become wider since.
The past four, five years, the CFL isn’t getting the support we’d like.” Mike Jackson, manager, Robson Sports
In Vancouver, the power of the NFL’s marketing juggernaut is bolstered by the success of the Seattle Seahawks. In the past two decades they’ve won eight of their 10 division titles, won a Super Bowl, and missed the playoffs just four times.
“We probably sell 10 NFL jerseys for every CFL jersey,” said Mike Jackson, manager at Robson Sports. “The CFL, they’re struggling. They don’t really sell well. The past four, five years, the CFL isn’t getting the support we’d like.”
When it comes to football, B.C. Lions sweaters are way down the list, behind NFL teams Seattle, New England, Pittsburgh and Oakland — and, of course, the Saskatchewan Roughriders, especially when the Green Machine is in town for a road game.
“The demographic is still older, but a larger, younger audience are NFL fans as opposed to CFL fans,” said Mager.
“What’s the NFL doing to attract younger audiences that the CFL cannot capitalize on? Canadian football, and talent on the field, it’s a great product. The three-down system, the size of the field, it makes for an incredibly exciting game.
“But the NFL is very unique; they’re head and shoulders above every other league on this continent.”
GOING DOWN TO GO UP
The CFL made its 2.0 concept official on Friday, with commissioner Randy Ambroise making his plans to partner with Mexico’s professional football league official.
The strategy is to make the CFL a global brand, playing games there within a few years and possibly using it as a developmental destination for players not ready for a CFL roster.
When first broached a few months ago, the idea seemed foolhardy and reminiscent of the failed expansion into the U.S. market. But Ambroise said he’d had unanimous support from the board of governors, something confirmed by B.C. Lions’ president Rick LeLacheur.
“We first started talking about it a few months ago, and it’s sort of grown on me. I don’t think anyone is sure where it’s going to end up, but it’s clearly worth further investigation,” he said Friday from Edmonton, a few minutes before heading into the board of governors’ meeting.
“I think Randy has had his vision for this, and the board of governors really supported it. Like I said, we’re not sure where it’s going to take us, but if you don’t try different things, you’ll never succeed with them.”
The league is also expanding into Atlantic Canada, where the Schooners may finally be resurrected, this time in Halifax. The proposed team already has more than 5,000 season-ticket deposits, and is working to secure funding for a new stadium. They could begin play in 2020, possibly sooner in a temporary stadium.
Teams across the country are trying to replicate the success the Ottawa Redblacks have had in attracting younger fans, but none have hit on the key formula. They only know they want to improve the game-day experience to make it a more engaging and social event, one that piggybacks on the game itself.
In B.C., the Lions have the Beach Party Zone, a $20 general admission area aimed at the college crowd. There’s a DJ spinning tunes and beach attire. There are social media hashtags to share your pictures on the Jumbotron or Twitter feeds. Anything to try and get fans off the couch, away from their cheap beer, comfortable couch and lineup-free bathroom and into the stadium.
“We’ve found this year some of the younger generation look at the cost of a lower-priced ticket in the end zone as sort of a cover charge for a club,” said LeLacheur. “They’re just there to have fun, enjoy themselves, have some beers, meet some people and watch some football.”
Think of it as a mini version of the Grey Cup festival, which is doing just fine, thank you very much.
The weeklong festival in Edmonton is in full swing ahead of today’s game between Calgary and Ottawa with the Alberta capital expected to have nearly $100 million injected into its economy from all the fans and tourists.
“The Grey Cup is unique, even the world over. Here we are as a league that has a national championship that culminates in a festival, where people from all corners of this country gather well in advance, and bring their own team colours, and are coming together in a fun, festive community environment for the love of the game … more so than the rivalry of the two teams playing,” said Mager.
“I can’t think of too many other events globally that has that type of following, that has that type of annual pilgrimage to book a year in advance.
“‘Who cares who’s playing? I’m going to go to Edmonton next year in November, sit outside in the freezing cold of commonwealth stadium, and just cheer on the game of football.’ That’s pretty cool, if you think about it.
“This is Canada’s league. So to sit outside, it’s minus-20 or whatever, with snow falling, that just seems so Canadian for us to do.”