Ivor Wynne Stadium

Ivor Wynne
Originally uploaded by philinator

I'm going to the season ticket pickup party today. Hopefully should be interesting.

Ivor Wynne Photo

IMG_0544
Originally uploaded by philinator

I took a few photos of Ivor Wynne in early May and haven't gotten around to posting them yet. Here's one the concourse below section 21. Won't be too long until the first exhibition game.

$25 Million in Naming Rights for New Stadium?

The Spec is reporting that a corporation is willing to pay $25 million for naming rights for the new Pan Am stadium which would be a future home for the Ticats. I assume that obviously is good for a period of 15 to 20 years, so the value isn't that remarkable on a per year basis. This Star article on the sale of the naming rights for BMO stadium in Toronto says the value for that deal could be up to $27 million for only ten years. That stadium has the advantage of being right on the Gardiner Expressway, with the disadvantage that Toronto FC generates relatively pathetic television numbers compared to the CFL.

Since the government funding is only good for a 15,000 seat stadium, this money would go a long way to building the other 15,000 seats. Which corporation would it be? One of the banks or insurance companies? Tim Horton's? Who knows.

One thing about the proposed new stadium, pretty much any rendering I've seen shows that the sightlines will suck compared to Ivor Wynne, especially with the track around the field. Ivor Wynne may be old and decrepit, but it is a great place to watch a football game and I have a feeling that after a couple of years in a new stadium, people will be pining for Ivor Wynne.

I like the renderings for the Copps Coliseum renovations if Balsillie gets a team. Hopefully that would spur development in the areas just west of the stadium.

Argos Season Ticket Sales Honking

Unlike the Cats, who may actually be ahead 4% on previous ticket sales, the Argos season ticket sales are poor, according to the Toronto Star. I suppose the 4 and 14 record is a change for Argo fans who are used to 500 teams over the years. Cat fans are used to something different entirely.

Continuing on the theme from yesterday of trying to create packages of Saskatchewan games in Southern Ontario, the Cats and Argos should offer an enhancement to their season ticket packages where for a slightly higher price you also get tickets to the team's away game in the other team's stadium. You already get diehard fans going to the games anyways, why not try and increase this number by offering such packages and actively promoting them during the season ticket period. One problem would be if one team benefited disproportionately from such an arrangement, however surely some sort of revenue sharing agreement that was mutually beneficial could be agreed to. For the Cats, it could mean getting the Labour Day game closer to a guaranteed sellout every year. Admittedly there could be some logistics with which seats and which prices to offer, however the number of fans exercising the premium pack option would probably be small enough to handle.

Exploiting Saskatchewan CFL Fans

After seeing the results of the best road team draws for the CFL in 2008 in the previous post, it got me to think about Saskatchewan, the clearly best road draw. Last year for the Rider game in Hamilton, sitting in section 5 I was amazed at the number of Saskatchewan faithful in the North side stands. The attendance for that game was only 20,874 however. That tells me that Saskatchewan isn't a big draw for Ticat fans, but they certainly got a lot of Rider fans to help compensate.

So why not make more of an effort to get more Saskatchewan fans out to games in Toronto and Hamilton? They already seem to come without much of a nudge anyways, so why not exploit their rabid fandom? The Ticats and Argos could get together and offer a two game package for the two Rider games in Southern Ontario. Fans already come for the Riders, so making a package available and promoting it in advance would increase revenues. Arrange it so Brad Wall, the Saskatchewan premier, speaks at half time for the Argo game as an additional attraction. The CFL has a lot of possibilities for enhanced revenues. Further exploting Rider fans is one.

Best Road Draw: Saskatchewan, BC Worst

I finally got around to doing the data entry into octave for calculating the best CFL road draws in terms of attendance. For each team's road game, the attendance was compared to the mean attendance (which I blogged about here) of the home team and then averaged over all nine road games. Here's the list (rounded to the nearest fan), with no surprise, Saskatchewan being way out in front:

1. Saskatchewan 2658
2. Calgary 374
3. Edmonton 370
4. Winnipeg 200
5. Toronto - 145
6. Hamilton -634
7. Montreal -1296
8. BC -1380

Probably the biggest surprised is that BC is the worst road draw for
2008 in the CFL, closely followed by Montreal. Now these numbers are
highly dependent on various factors, such as what conference the team
is in, and when during the year specific games take place. Montreal always
having a constant number of fans and Saskatchewan having two levels of
sellouts during 2008 adds some other weirdness. Looking over BC's road games, they were a poor draw in Hamilton (18,723), although the main culprit
seems to be the Calgary games at the beginning and end of the season (30,159 and 30,275 fans respectively). They were also relatively a weak draw for their two Edmonton games (35,008 and 34,342 fans) and their Toronto draw was no great shakes either (28,273). Montreal was hurt by weak draws in Edmonton (29,911), Calgary (30,960) and BC (30,132), plus the fact their draws versus their Eastern rivals were nothing special.

I was surprised to see that Hamilton wasn't the worse (although maybe some fans showed up thinking sure fire win!). Hamilton was hurt by a relatively weak Calgary game (31,116) and two weak Winnipeg games (25,484 and 24,595 fans). Hamilton was probably helped by two games in Montreal, where the attendance doesn't change.

Saskatchewan benefited from a monster game versus Edmonton (48,808), plus excellent draws for Calgary (35,650 and 35,650), BC (38,608) and Winnipeg (29,770). Almost makes you wonder why they don't schedule two road games for Saskatchewan in Edmonton. Saskatchewan was a poor draw in Toronto (28,654), but that was right at the end of the season, where the Argos were heartily sucking.

It will be interesting to see if Saskatchewan can continue their road draw strength for 2009. Last year they probably benefited somewhat from their hot start, which in my opinion is unlikely to be repeated this year. For Hamilton, an improved team should keep them from rock bottom in terms of road draw, although I don't expect much to change.

Mo Frank D'Angelo

I missed this while on my tour of the Holy Land last week (following up on the Pope's visit naturally). Who knew that Frank D'Angelo would know so many crown attorneys? Does he actually still own a "Supper Club"?

Cat Season Ticket Sales Apparently Up

Drew Edwards is reporting in the Spec that Ticat season ticket sales are up possibly 4% from last year, with a 87% renewal rate from the year before. The Cats do say that the more expensive tickets are not selling as well. This is actually pretty good news for a team that has had back to back 3 and 15 seasons and during a pretty poor economy. It also shows that the CFL will probably be relatively unscathed by the recession compared to other North American sports leagues (NHL, NFL, MLB, NBA, MLS, and Nascar).

Could Hamilton even show an attendance increase this year? With a 9 and 9 team with a reasonable start, with the wins coming more at home, this is definitely possible. With Calgary apparently going to have a good attendance year due to the Grey Cup and Saskatchewan having expanded seats all season, the CFL could see an increase in attendance compared to last year.

Argos Sign Former Pro Bowler

What is with the Argos signing clapped out former Pro Bowlers? I suppose they have done better than the Cats the past five years...

New Rules

So the league will enact four new rules, some of which were apparently suggested by fans. Moving the safety touch kickoff back ten yards is ok, considering there seems to be more and more safeties. Maybe a more effective way would be to increase the value of a safety. Making all field goals be kickoffs isn't bad. Wildcat formations for the QB. I guess it could be interesting, although I have a feeling the Cats will be more victims of this than coming up with wacky gimmick plays themselves. Don't really care about the challenges change so much.

Personally one rule change I've advocated for some time is getting rid of the single point after and making everything a two point convert attempt. I suppose it takes away from the excitement of the whether the coach is going to go for it or not, but you're guaranteeing an extra exciting play for each TD score. To maximize the excitement based on information theory, I would set the distance from the goal line for the attempt at the point where approximately 50% of the converts are successful. Maybe that is the three yard line. One small disadvantage would be tie score situations would probably be less throughout the game, i.e. no matching TDs.

Sorry Zac Carlson

On rereading an article on Zac Carlson, I found out it was marijuana he tested positive for not performance enhancing drugs. Which obviously is not much of a big deal at all, so sorry about that. Hopefully Carlson can make a difference this year along with Rottier.

CFL and the Wonderlic Test

After some googling using the search terms cfl and wonderlic together, I found this article that describes a player the Riders drafted that scored high on the Wonderlic IQ test. Apparently, all CFL prospects also take the test which I did not know. I would not mind finding some scores from CFL players, but they seem harder to come by than those of NFL players.

Zac Carlson, Ticat and Drug Cheat

So the Cats have gone ahead and drafted Zac Carlson of Weber State via the supplementary draft. Unfortunately the Cats had to give up the first round pick in next year`s draft. I was hoping the Cats would only have to give up a second pick, but another team must have been willing to give up a first rounder. Hopefully the Cats will not be in last place next year and forfeit the first overall pick (not that they have done them much good anyway). I do wonder a bit about what happens to the Cats first rounder next year. Will there only be seven teams drafting in the first round or is the pick like what happens if you violate the salary cap by more than $100,000, like Montreal last year and the last place team gets it?

Wackily, Drew Edwards is reporting in the Spec that Carlson failed a drug test at Weber State last season. I love the money quote from his agent: “It’s not even an issue, a factor or a question anymore, especially in the CFL where there is no drug testing.” Admittedly that is true, there is no CFL drug testing. I am fairly cynical however and believe that pretty much everyone on the offensive line at a NCAA division 1 program is on something at some point of their university career, so I am not going to get particularly worked up about it. Although I do wonder about Zac`s Wonderlic score if he was stupid enough to get caught.

Oh Noes! Say it Ain't So, JoJo!

It is a sad day at Tigercatatonia. The Cats have released JoJo Walker. A long time Tigercatatonia and Charlie Taaffe favourite (he play for Charlie at Maryland), JoJo was a reasonable receiver whenever he actually got into the game. Unlike some other Ticat receivers over the past few seasons, JoJo would catch balls and make clutch first downs, often over the middle. However the Cats are 3 and 15 the past two seasons, and import receivers are a dime a dozen.

Good luck, JoJo!

Apparently Rontarius Robinson got the boot too.

Hamilton Whatsits

This is pretty much a Ticats blog, although I will occasionally touch on some other Hamilton sports issues as it gives me something to write about. Right now in Cat land, there's not much to comment on except for the fact that Corey Mace will probably come to camp. His agent may say he has other NFL teams interested in him, but I think that's some typical agent bullshit. Who's interested in a castoff from the Bills practice roster?

Anyways, in my last post, I mentioned Jim Balsillie's bid for the Phoenix Coyotes, which if successful would likely bring the team at least initially to Copps for a few years. Certainly MLSE will not want this, although if the writings on the wall and a team is coming to Southern Ontario, Copps may be their preference. A new stadium in Vaughn would siphon off concerts from the Air Crapada centre (I fly to Europe all the time on our so called flag carrier and believe me, it honks, especially the geriatric flight attendants and their ability to lose my luggage for days at a time) and thus profitablity. Copps already exists and siphons off some concerts already and isn't going away in any case. Plus a team in Vaughn probably would draw more fans from the overall Toronto area (similar to the Mets), whereas a Hamilton team would become be much more popular west and south of Oakville. I do fear Balsillie building a new stadium somewhere "central", like in Cambridge near the 401, surrounded by parking lots and inaccessable by public transit (hello Orchard Park!).

What would this mean to the Cats? Probably a good thing. Downtown would probably improve to a certain extent, especially Jackson Square which is already slowly improving from its nadir. It probably wouldn't draw that much away from the money spent on the Cats for season tickets because a lot of money would be coming outside Hamilton. Plus the cost of a Cats season ticket is pretty minimal compared to that of the NHL. Mainly corporate money, while the Cats is more broadly based. Easy for me to say, but the CFL does reasonably well in other Canadian places.

Still working on the road draw statistics. Half way there.

Rest of the Draft

I suppose I should say something about the Cat picks beyond the second round.

In the third round, the Cats picked Scott McCuaig, a defensive lineman from UBC. I suppose we do need some help there. Third round picks are a bit of a reach.

In the fifth round we picked a running back from Laval, Guillaume Allard-Caméus. Ironic, considering that we wouldn't consider Jamall Lee, but I suppose special teams is the reason. Also in the fifth round, we picked Raymond Wladichuk, a defensive back from Simon Fraser. More special teams.

Finally in the sixth round, we had two picks. Cassidy Doneff, a wide receiver from Washburn, a university of which I have never heard (surely an august institution of higher learning). And last but not least, Bill McGrath, an offensive lineman from Indiana State (also I'm sure another august instituition of higher learning). Probably can't have too many offensive linemen, as those with the Cats tend to get injured a lot.

Some of these players probably have some university eligibility still left, so they can go back to school next year. I can't see anyone sticking around after camp after the third round, although there are sometimes surprises.

In other Hamilton news, it looks like Jim Balsillie of RIM will put in an offer on the bankrupt Phoenix Coyotes. I hope he honours his previous season ticket drive for Hamilton as I put down deposits for two tickets (I'm also hoping it goes to Hamilton, but if it has to play here in October, what other option is there but Copps?). If the team becomes a slam dunk and a new season ticket drive is launched, they will go pretty fast.

Draft Live Blogging, Part 5

Ok, the Cats take Ryan Hinds, a DB from New Hampshire with their second round pick (13th overall) acquired from BC. Could end up as a safety. I have no real opinion. Well I'm done for the day. Still hoping the Cats take Zac Carlson in the supplemental draft, which is probably why they didn't take more than one offensive lineman over the first two rounds.

I was wondering what kind of advertisers TSN would have for the draft. Now I see an ad for Heaven and Hell's (Black Sabbath Ronnie James Dio era) first album in basically forever. Not sure what that says about the CFL demographic.

Draft Live Blogging, Part 4

The Cats take wide receiver Darcy Brown from Saint Mary's sixth overall. Weighs 251 pounds which is a bit wacky. Not sure why the Cats made this pick. TSN says they might use him as a fullback.

Draft Live Blogging, Part 3

Looks like the media won't be going to Simeon Rottier for sound bites based on his TSN interview.

The Argos take defensive lineman Legare from Laval. I guess the trade with the Lions goes through.

Draft Live Blogging, Part2

Gats take Rottier. Hopefully he works out better this season than last year's first overall pick.

Draft Live Blogging, Part1

The Cats are on the clock, odds are Simeon Rottier, seemingly taking a long time. I assume the announcements follow the constraints of television.

Rod Black is hosting. Where's Dave Randorf?

Draft Predictions

Well I don't really have a lot of good predictions. The Cats will not select Jamall Lee, I think that is for certain. And now I read on TSN that the Cats may have traded their 3rd pick overall for BC's sixth pick and BC's second round pick. So much for the excitement of picking first and third. I figure the Cats will for sure take Rottier as number one overall. I wonder if the Cats know they can sign Corey Mace, a defensive tackle now, so they don't have to draft Laval product Legare third overall. Who the Cats will pick as their second rounder? Who knows? Continuing the wonder theme, I wonder if the Cats will now end up taking offensive lineman Zac Carlson in the supplemental draft.

I also read on TSN that Saskatchewan and Hamilton have made a trade. We get non-import linebacker Yannick Carter (who?), import receiver Brandon Myles (who? and don't we have a horde of import receivers coming into camp already?) and Saskatchewan's third pick (22nd overall). We send to the Riders non-import defensive back Sasha Glavic (he's still on the roster?) and our third rounder (17th overall). This seems to me, to be a trade that will end up meaning exactly nothing as most CFL trades do.

I will try and live blog the first part of the draft, such as it is, although it will probably be me just saying the Cats drafted Rottier and not really caring about the other players picked. BC will pick Lee in the first round. Who knows what the Argos will do with their second overall pick.