r/CFL • u/CFLStatsGeek Argonauts • 1d ago

Attendance Check W19

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94 Upvotes

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19

u/Hungry-Room7057 1d ago

Is the new TV deal enough to transition from a primarily gate-driven league to a TV revenue league? 

15

u/JoshwayTV King of r/Argonauts 1d ago

I have a really bad feeling this is going to go the same way the CPL deal went.

CPL received a 10-year $200 million dollar contract from streaming giant MediaPro in 2019. This seemed like a great pathway for stable revenue, but MediaPro abruptly pulled out of the agreement halfway through because it became obvious the CPL was not going to be able to hit their targets for viewership.

9

u/CanInTW REDBLACKS 🇹🇼 1d ago

Yes. This is my biggest fear - and in the meantime, many CFL fans will have been alienated since they don’t want to pay for DAZN.

10

u/NH787 1d ago

because it became obvious the CPL was not going to be able to hit their targets for viewership.

Why would you think the CFL is headed the same way? The CPL is a relatively new and unproven product... the CFL has been around for many decades and has a very established track record, the media executives already know what to expect in terms of TV viewership by city.

5

u/JoshwayTV King of r/Argonauts 1d ago

CFL viewership has been declining consistently my entire life, to the point where the CFL stopped releasing viewership numbers publicly the last couple years because they were getting embarrassing.

Add to the mix the fans alienated over the gamut of recent changes + the fact that very very few people are going to pick up DAZN purely to watch 1 CFL game a week, and you've got yourself a viewership disaster in the waiting.

5

u/TheCatMak The only good Roughrider is your mom 1d ago

Do you have a source for "TV ratings not being released because they are embarrassing". From what it was reported it was mostly due to the tracking company (Numeris) not releasing ANY numbers publicly due to changes in how people are consuming broadcasts.

Last years Grey Cup numbers were up, and the league touted that the quadruple header had better viewership numbers than the primetime NFL games and the US Open that week.

It would seem backwards for a media company to enter into a record rights deal (for 1 game of the slate) if the numbers were trending to the embarrassing level.

3

u/JoshwayTV King of r/Argonauts 1d ago edited 1d ago

In 2009, the Grey Cup averaged 6.1 million viewers in Canada. Last year's Grey Cup had about 4 million, meaning 1/3rd of your audience has disappeared in a 16 year span.

With regards to the quadruple header beating the NFL - the CFL used to consistently defeat regular season NFL games in ratings week after week just a decade or so ago. In 2024, you didn't have a single regular season game break 1 million viewers and some games had around 200k viewers, which is not good. It should be telling that since the ratings went dark, they've only released specific tidbits of ratings.

DAZN definitely has a vision for the CFL - they are likely a driver behind some of these big rule changes in exchange for exposure and a new property. Whether it works or not is yet to be seen, although I do not hold a lot of optimism based on the public's response to these changes.

8

u/TheCatMak The only good Roughrider is your mom 1d ago

Wasn't 2009 the record for Grey Cup viewers? How does 2025 compare to other Grey Cups around 2009 (say 2005-2015).

Is the CFL uniquely seeing a decline in ratings off pre-COVID peaks, or are other leagues also showing decline? Is it due to disinterest or fragmented rights or alternative methods of viewing (although I imagine TSN as sole broadcaster of the CFL in Canada probably has a good handle on steaming numbers in Canada)

4

u/SmarcusStroman Reigning… Defending… Undisputed 1d ago

I think it's disingenuous to not say that ratings for ALL things are down over that time period. Not just the CFL.

3

u/TheCatMak The only good Roughrider is your mom 1d ago

Nuance is not allowed on the internet!

I don't doubt that ratings are down, especially from that 2009 peak, but viewing patterns are way different in this social media driven world now I'm sure.

There was a time where Sports were considered the gold standard for broadcast rights... But then a bunch of regional sports networks started going belly up so who knows anymore.

It's somewhat buoying that the commissioner was an exec on the other side, and they have gotten another company to buy in so I'm sure the numbers the league is putting out there are what external forces are in decent shape.

1

u/JoshwayTV King of r/Argonauts 19h ago

I can think of a few sports properties in Canada that have seen their ratings rise substantially since 2009, namely the NFL and the Raptors.

As I mentioned earlier, the CFL used to beat the NFL in ratings regularly just 15 years ago. Now random NFL games get the ratings the CFL used to get.

1

u/TheCatMak The only good Roughrider is your mom 16h ago

Hasn't the Super Bowl had a couple of years of fairly significant drops in viewers in Canada? And the majority of games are on network television rather than cable. It seems that primetime NFL games on TSN draw about the same as a Bomber/Rider/Als game where I can see numbers.

NBA numbers have been doing pretty well and it makes sense Raptors games would be well watched as Basketball as a whole is super popular and they are the only game in town. Even in Winnipeg the CEBL draws 8K a game.

1

u/NH787 1d ago

Yes, but my point is that unlike the CPL which was a new entity, they know exactly where the CFL stands and where it is likely to go. Give the TV execs some credit, they're not stupid...no one is throwing down money on outlandish assumptions about where viewership is headed.

4

u/JoshwayTV King of r/Argonauts 1d ago

Based on the massive changes happening, we cannot make the assessment that they know where the CFL stands and will go. We are entering an entirely new, unknown era of CFL next year, one that has already drawn a lot of alienation from existing fans.

Also, if the TV guys were such geniuses, viewership wouldn't have dropped so much over the past 15-20 years.

1

u/jjaime2024 1d ago

Mediapro was in trouble before they signed the deal with the CPL.

4

u/harveythehooligan 1d ago

Hockey still owns the Canadian sports market, eh.

3

u/Extension-System-974 1d ago

Gotta get these numbers way up

2

u/ivakunciak REDBLACKS 1d ago

Glad to see the Elks getting a good increase this year!

Redblacks are dragging the league down at this point with their poor performance. :(

3

u/Own-Eye6145 1d ago

it's likely going to go down further next year what with the North side getting redone. That for sure is going to drive attendance down on its own.

If the team isn't any better than this year? I wouldn't be surprised if attendances get below 10,000 (diminished stadium capacity included).

2

u/Nopithyusernamehere REDBLACKS 1d ago

Seems to be a rough correlation between team performance and attendance. Huh.

2

u/CanadianDinosaur Blue Bombers 1d ago

some exceptions apply.

We've been kinda shit the last couple years and still have sold out almost every game in the past 3 years