Leafs town no more?
Jays top poll of fan favourites,
According to pollsters, folks like Tyler Richard are about as common as unicorns.
When Forum Research polled 1,001 Ontarians about their favourite sports teams, only two per cent said they cheered primarily for the Toronto Argonauts compared with 28 per cent for the Blue Jays. And among the 18-34 demographic marketers covet, 23 per cent are Jays supporters while not a single respondent identified themselves first and foremost as an Argos fan. Not one. The pollsters should have called Richard, who moved to Calgary last year and brought his lifelong love of the Argos with him.
He attended his first Argos game in1990 and hasn’t stopped supporting the club. His new friends in Calgary tease him about his clothes — double blue every day —and tattoo (“Argos” above his shoulder blade). At 33, he fits within the age group the Argos are fighting to attract and also blends in well in his adopted city, where CFL fans of all ages are the norm.
But Richard knows he’s an outlier amongst his peers in Toronto, and the poll results have him a little worried for his hometown team, especially with the 2016 Grey Cup being held in Toronto, a city that appears quite indifferent to the CFL.
“The CFL feels like a small-town league in a big city,” says Richard, a sales rep for athletic shoe manufacturer Saucony. “(My friends) think I’m a little kooky, but I’m an against-the-grain kind of guy.”
Earlier this year, the Star commissioned Forum Research to survey Ontarians about various aspects of their lives, including their favourite sports teams.
Some poll results were predictable. Two per cent of respondents identified Toronto FC as their primary rooting interest, tying them with the Argos and placing both teams well behind the city’s big three franchises.
Only two per cent of Ontario sports fans polled said they cheered primarily for the Toronto Argonauts, compared with 28 per cent for the Blue Jays
But there were some surprises — six per cent of fans root for the Raptors,12 per cent back the Leafs and 28 per cent said the Blue Jays were their main sports team.
Blue Jays support was strongest in Toronto, where 39 per cent of respondents support them, and weakest in eastern Ontario where Ottawa Senators fans (26 per cent) predominate.
The main factor driving the Blue Jays’ surge in popularity? On-field success. The president of the polling company says the Jays’ run to the ALCS placed the club front-of-mind for sports fans across the province, while the Leafs retain fans in spite of lacklustre results.
“It’s not true (anymore) that this is a hardcore hockey town,” says Forum Research president Lorne Bozinoff. “I assumed this was a Leafs town (but) this town is starved for a winner.”
Still, the poll contains encouraging results for CFL stakeholders.
Four per cent of respondents listed the Hamilton Tiger-Cats as their favourite team.
Among residents of the 905, that figure jumps to nine per cent, placing them just ahead of the Raptors, at eight per cent.
And in eastern Ontario, the Ottawa RedBlacks (15 per cent) outranked every team besides the Sens.
But conquering the Toronto market remains difficult.
“It’s a challenge, but it’s a challenge for every other league out there,” says CFL communications director Paulo Senra.
Argos executive Sara Moore says unique circumstances likely swayed this year’s poll results. Just as a strong season boosted the Blue Jays’ numbers, the Argos suffered from events they couldn’t control.
The club played its first five games on the road last season while the Rogers Centre prepared to host the Pan Am Games opening ceremony. And October scheduling conflicts with Jays playoff games forced the Argos to play “home” games in Hamilton and Ottawa.
With so many events aligning to keep the Argos out of town for long stretches, Moore isn’t surprised the club polled so weakly.
She says she would be more worried if the club had played a normal schedule and still failed to capture sports fans’ attention.
“We made it really hard to be an Argos fan last year,” says Moore, the Argos senior vice-president of business operations. “We’re never going to have all those things go against us again.”
Moore, Richard and the league all hope the Argos’ move to a remodeled BMO Field will re-energize the club’s
“We made it really hard to be an Argos fan last year.” ARGOS EXECUTIVE SARA MOORE
current fans and help it welcome new ones.
The Argos averaged 12,430 spectators at the Rogers Centre last season, well below the league average of 24,737. And in a stadium with more than 28,000 seats, those gatherings seemed tiny. Meanwhile, a lack of parking precluded the pre-game tail- gate parties central to the game day experience elsewhere.
Moving to the city-owned, MLSE-managed BMO Field makes the Argos and TFC roommates and rivals.
A year from now, Moore says, the Argos should post stronger poll numbers than TFC, which earned two per cent of votes even after league MVP Sebastian Giovinco powered the club to the post-season. She says a season with a balanced schedule, on-field success and BMO Field’s fan-friendly atmosphere could make the Argos as popular as the Raptors if a similar poll is conducted next autumn.
As for Richard, he will be at BMO Field.
He gave up his season tickets when he moved to Calgary but has plans to attend the Argos inaugural game at BMO.
“What the Argos have now is that feeling of Canadiana, that feeling of being outdoors,” Richard says. “It’s become a lifelong passion, but it got me before I was 10 years old.”