CFL 2011 Attendance Analysis, League and Team Averages

A bit late, but here's the average attendances for each CFL team in 2011:

1. Edmonton 34625 (35035)

2. Calgary 30601 (30795)

3. Saskatchewan 30021 (30048)

4. BC 29725 (24327)

5. Winnipeg 29559 (26083)

6. Montreal 24058 (25012)

7. Hamilton 23676 (23890)

8. Toronto 20018 (22069)

Note stats on best road drawing teams are in this post.

The 2010 attendances are in parentheses. Only BC and Winnipeg showed increases with every other team having lower attendance. The order was pretty similar to, but BC was able to move ahead of Winnipeg and Montreal. Montreal had some games that did not sellout for once.

Overall, the average CFL attendance for a game was 24,698 a minor increase compared to the 24,140 of 2010. Maybe the league can get over 25,000 average attendance next year.

BC had a bit of a weird year for attendance. Still playing at Empire Field earlier in the season, the Lions reopened BC Place with 50,213 attendees against the Eskimos, the highest attended game of the CFL regular season.

Saskatchewan being the worst team this year didn't make a big difference in their own attendance, but hurt other teams (especially Calgary and Edmonton) when the Riders were their opponents. Hear's hoping for at least a 500 team for the Riders next year, as it's good for the CFL. The Riders should also consider trying to boost the capacity of Moasaic Field a bit more. I know it's already been juiced a bit, but if you have the worst record in the league and it doesn't do anything to your attendance, you can afford a couple of extra thousand seats.

Hamilton was slightly lower, but that included their home game in Moncton which dragged down the average attendance. However the Cats only had to sell tickets for eight home games in their own market. The Cats were also hurt by not having the Argos as an opponent on Labour Day as the Alouettes only drew 26,964. Hopefully in the last year in the old Ivor Wynne, the Cats can get a good number for attendance, including a game with the Argos back for Labour Day. Maybe they can pass the Alouettes in 2012 for average attendance.

Toronto was hurt by their sucky performance. With them hosting the Grey Cup next year, there's nowhere for the Argos to go but up.

Here's some analysis for last year's CFL attendance (2010).

Ricky Ray an Argo?

Looks like there's news that Edmonton quarterback Ricky Ray has been traded to the Argos in exchange for quarterback Steven Jyles, a first round pick and defensive back Grant Shaw. Obviously the Argos want to do better with the Grey Cup in Toronto in 2012, but this smells a bit of desperation.

Ray is not exactly young at 32, but at least had a decent season last year. The problem I see is Ray's salary cap hit being pretty high and the Argos still needing some decent receivers to throw to. No doubt the Argos would have been better last year with Ray instead of Cleo "the Party" Lemon, but Lemon was no doubt cheaper too. Maybe new Argo coach Scott Milanovich can do something with Ray.

I'm not sure how I would feel as an Eskimo fan. Many probably thought that Ray is no longer good enough to take them to the next level. I'm not sure Steven Jyles is the guy to do that, although his cap hit is likely less, allowing the Eskimos to sign some better free agents or retain their own.

What Was That?

I suppose I should say something about the Ticats' home 38 to 23 loss to the Eskimos on Friday. It felt a lot like the Jason Maas era, where the Cats offense would have a festival of two and outs in the first half and barely any scoring. Certainly being down 25 to 6 at the end of the first half is not a good thing. One game in a row like that isn't a massive concern, even a good team can have a terrible first half and get blown out. Two in a row though? This makes me wonder if the Cats will even end up 500 again this year. They're 5 and 6 and need to go 4 and 3 over the last seven games to do it. Possible? Sure. Will they do it? I'm not so sure after the last two games.

Points For and Against Bizarreness, Greg Marshall Firing

After last night's game, the 5 and 3 Edmonton Eskimos have 173 points for and 190 points against, a little odd. Odder still, the BC Lions with a 2 and 6 record have 203 points for and 203 points against. Personally I think point differential should be the first tie breaker (even ahead of head to head record) so we'd be treated to crazy games where teams tried to score no matter what the current score.

After writing this post about the importance of Andy Fantuz to the Riders and the fact that not having him this year is the main reason for Saskatchewan sucking, the Rider braintrust has canned the former Ticat defensive co-ordinator. Sad, but something that had to be done, just to placate the fans and the general manager wasn't going to fire himself. The fact that the Riders are still inexplicably in the hunt for a playoff spot is an argument for keeping Marshall (who was fired before the BC victory), but the trigger was pulled. I'd be curious to see how many years Marshall signed for. The Riders are the most profitable team in the league, so if they signed Marshall to a three year deal, they can eat the next two and a half year's salary easily. No matter how much the Argos suck, I don't see Barker getting canned this year.