The Great Canadian Sports Attendance, Marketing and TV Ratings Thread

[Acajack]

Can someone please explain to me why a team in Winnipeg is called the Sea Bears?

[Denscity]

Originally Posted by Acajack

Can someone please explain to me why a team in Winnipeg is called the Sea Bears?

That's what I asked as well.
Apparently they're calling their polar bears sea bears as opposed to bay bears.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by Denscity

That's what I asked as well.
Apparently they're calling their polar bears sea bears as opposed to bay bears.

Why not just call them the Polar Bears then?

(I honestly thought this was a team that moved from Atlantic Canada.)

[trueviking]

it's truly a dumb name.

The Sea Bears name was chosen in honour of the polar bear, whose Latin name, Ursus maritimus, means "sea bear." Manitoba is known for its polar bears at Hudson Bay.

[trueviking]

Originally Posted by esquire

^ So where are the results, then? Speaking from my local experience, the CEBL team just showed up in Winnipeg and they have blown away Valour FC in terms of building a profile. There has only been one Sea Bears home game and my son and I can already easily name more Sea Bears players than Valour players. Sea Bears get some discussion time in the paper and on the local sports shows as compared to Valour, which seldom does. Valour did reasonably well in their first season but they have fizzled since then... they are probably roughly on par with the Winnipeg Goldeyes in terms of the mindshare they have among local sports fans. I say this as someone who would like to see the club thrive, but they seem to exist in their own little bubble.

I find it hard to believe that the exposure provided by cable TV doesn't play into this situation.

might have to give it some time before announcing their unbridled success....first game had some exposure, but will it last? Valour had 10,000 to their first game in 2019 and now draw a couple thousand....let's at least see how the summer goes....i'm pretty sure 99.9999% of people in Winnipeg couldn't name a single sea bear and almost as many couldn't name the sport they play.

[esquire]

Originally Posted by Acajack

Why not just call them the Polar Bears then?

(I honestly thought this was a team that moved from Atlantic Canada.)

Polar bears are kind of a big deal here even though they're Churchill's and not ours Churchill is only 1000 km away, no big deal, right?

Best guess as to why not simply name the team polar bears is that the name was already trademarked for one reason or another.

The polar bear identity was used by the Winnipeg Thunder of the WBL/NBL in the early 90s. Same colours and everything. So I guess Sea Bears just kind of built on that.

The old:



The new:

[esquire]

Originally Posted by trueviking

might have to give it some time before announcing their unbridled success....first game had some exposure, but will it last? Valour had 10,000 to their first game in 2019 and now draw a couple thousand....let's at least see how the summer goes....i'm pretty sure 99.9999% of people in Winnipeg couldn't name a single sea bear and almost as many couldn't name the sport they play.

Valour did get off to a hot start, it's true. But seemingly everything that could go wrong for them has gone wrong. The biggest thing obviously not being their fault (the pandemic), but even a lot of things under their control have gone off the rails, which is unfortunate.

But the point is that CEBL's accessibility via TSN gives the Sea Bears a major promotional advantage that the CPL lacks. The CPL is kind of out of sight, out of mind for many.

[thurmas]

Originally Posted by esquire

Polar bears are kind of a big deal here even though they're Churchill's and not ours Churchill is only 1000 km away, no big deal, right?

Best guess as to why not simply name the team polar bears is that the name was already trademarked for one reason or another.

The polar bear identity was used by the Winnipeg Thunder of the WBL/NBL in the early 90s. Same colours and everything. So I guess Sea Bears just kind of built on that.

The old:



The new:

See Bears. Name makes sense

[trueviking]

Originally Posted by esquire

^ CBC Gem worked too. The point is that putting games on some obscure streaming service where you charge an extra X dollars to watch is hindering your league's growth in the long run. Maybe a league with an established, devoted following can get away with that, but for something like the CEBL you want as many eyeballs on the product as possible. I think the CPL could stand to take a lesson from how the CEBL is doing it.

i guess I'm old, but having each sport on its own streaming service is terrible.....I used to watch premiership football every saturday, but I'm not enough of a fan to pay for it alone....it must be devastating for growing the sport in Canada...its basically vanished from the scene....i'm a soccer fan, but I don't want to pay for a streaming service to watch national team and CPL, another for Bundesliga, another for Premiership.....then another for rugby, another for F1....and then have cable to watch the Jets.

[trueviking]

Originally Posted by esquire

Valour did get off to a hot start, it's true. But seemingly everything that could go wrong for them has gone wrong. The biggest thing obviously not being their fault (the pandemic), but even a lot of things under their control have gone off the rails, which is unfortunate.

But the point is that CEBL's accessibility via TSN gives the Sea Bears a major promotional advantage that the CPL lacks. The CPL is kind of out of sight, out of mind for many.

it doesnt help playing in a 30,000 seat stadium to be honest....i went to a Valour game last year and the atmosphere was lousy.

[thurmas]

https://3downnation.com/2023/06/06/2...cast-audience/

2023 CFL preseason TV ratings: Riders’ win over Bombers provides worthy TSN broadcast audience


TSN chose to cut its 2023 Canadian Football League preseason coverage in half, dropping from four to two television broadcasts. But even that small sample size shows viewers were jonesing for CFL ball.

The Saskatchewan Roughriders 28-16 win over the Winnipeg Blue Bombers drew more eyeballs on TV than many regular season games did last year — one tilt in Week 21 last year had less than 200,000 viewers. Clearly, Rider Nation wanted to see Trevor Harris play in green and white for the first time, despite the game not counting in the standings.

Harris went four-of-four passing for 72 yards with one touchdown strike to Derel Walker in his only exhibition drive. The performance helped the Riders go 2-0 in the preseason for the first time since 2007. Excitement surrounding the new-look Saskatchewan squad led to a rating over 360,000 on TSN.

The other tune-up contest broadcast nationally by TSN was the Alouettes visiting the Redblacks on May 26. Cody Fajardo did not play in the game but it still attracted more than 275,000 viewers on TSN and RDS combined. Fajardo put on Als colours for the first time in Montreal’s last preseason tilt, which was aired exclusively on RDS, TSN’s French-language affiliate, and produced a respectable viewing audience.

Every other preseason game was streamed by the league on its CFL+ platform as radio calls were synced with the moving pictures for most of the matchups. The product was solid but it was not up to the standard of a regular TSN broadcast.

CFL preseason TV ratings 2023:

Week 1:

Montreal vs. Ottawa — 275,900 (TSN and RDS combined)

Week 2:

Hamilton vs. Montreal — 140,400 (RDS)
Saskatchewan vs. Winnipeg — 361,700 (TSN)

[blueandgoldguy]

The demographics would probably be favorable to the long-term success of semi-pro basketball in Winnipeg. There are approx. 90,000 Filippinos in the city and they tend to gravitate towards basketball.

Many recent immigrants to Winnipeg are Sikh. I'm not sure to what degree they enjoy basketball as a spectator sport. If they do, that would probably be encouraging sign for pro ball in Winnipeg.

[elly63]

Cable TV Numbers Are Falling Faster Than Expected
Kayla Wassell cordcuttersnews.com June 8, 2023

[gattaca]

Originally Posted by trueviking

i guess I'm old, but having each sport on its own streaming service is terrible.....I used to watch premiership football every saturday, but I'm not enough of a fan to pay for it alone....it must be devastating for growing the sport in Canada...its basically vanished from the scene....i'm a soccer fan, but I don't want to pay for a streaming service to watch national team and CPL, another for Bundesliga, another for Premiership.....then another for rugby, another for F1....and then have cable to watch the Jets.

The Prem moving to streaming provided a cambrian style explosion that has led to the golden age of soccer viewing in Canada.

DAZN paved the way for 6+ foreign-owned sports streamers focused on soccer to come to Canada. The Prem's success at DAZN led fubo to outbid them for the Prem.

Now, we can watch 70+ leagues/tourneys - basically at least one match everyday.

[gattaca]

Originally Posted by esquire

Valour did get off to a hot start, it's true. But seemingly everything that could go wrong for them has gone wrong. The biggest thing obviously not being their fault (the pandemic), but even a lot of things under their control have gone off the rails, which is unfortunate.

But the point is that CEBL's accessibility via TSN gives the Sea Bears a major promotional advantage that the CPL lacks. The CPL is kind of out of sight, out of mind for many.

Based on social media metrics, CPL has much more engaged fans than for CEBL even though latter has been much more on linear tv in the past 5 years.

CPL has 3x more twitter followers, 4x more on Youtube & 9.5x more on reddit. Part of it is CEBL is viewed more as a night out entertainment while CPL is viewed in bigger picture terms and has bigger picture ambitions given it is Canada's entrance into global club football & league echo system.

[esquire]

Originally Posted by gattaca

Based on social media metrics, CPL has much more engaged fans than for CEBL even though latter has been much more on linear tv in the past 5 years.

CPL has 3x more twitter followers, 4x more on Youtube & 9.5x more on reddit. Part of it is CEBL is viewed more as a night out entertainment while CPL is viewed in bigger picture terms and has bigger picture ambitions given it is Canada's entrance into global club football & league echo system.

I get that, and there is no question that being part of a "bigger picture" matters a lot in terms of the relevance of a league. It's why, say, the CHL is more interesting and compelling than low-level bus leagues like the SPHL even though the latter is technically a higher level given that it's professional.

But that said, and maybe this is a localized situation specific to Winnipeg, the fact is that Valour is having trouble getting traction with thin crowds and very little prominence in the local sports media. They get a couple of news articles a week but very little chatter on the local sports shows, podcasts, etc. This is a bit surprising to me, I would have expected that the soccer community alone would have kept it on the forefront. But they have lost the casual fans and even the soccer diehards are dropping off.

Contrast with the Sea Bears... it's broadly analogous to the CPL in terms of its overall level, but there seems to be much more fan interest so far into the season. The fact that a prior-to-now totally unknown league in Winnipeg can pull in an average of over 6,000 fans through two games speaks to a significant demand for basketball. The basketball community is showing up for the Sea Bears in a way that the soccer community simply is not for Valour. I wonder how much of the CPL's engagement is coming from outside the country, given the number of foreign-born players in the league?

[thurmas]

https://3downnation.com/2023/06/14/2...ear-over-year/

2023 CFL Week 1 English TV ratings down 12 percent year-over-year

Sometimes, and quite frankly too often, the CFL doesn’t do itself any favours. Exhibit A: the CFL’s choice for its 2023 season opener.

There’s a new major United States network broadcasting the three-down league and Jim Nantz was on the airwaves during The Memorial hosted by Jack Nicklaus, one of the top PGA Tour tournaments outside of the majors, promoting the Lions versus Stampeders. Interested fans who tuned in saw a half-empty McMahon Stadium.

Any Jimmy, Joe or Jenny could’ve predicted a sparse crowd in Calgary, especially considering president of business operations Jay McNeil revealed the team’s season ticket holders have decreased by 25 percent since 2019. On top of that, recent ratings data would indicate that — intriguing Nathan Rourke performances aside — the Leos and Stampeders are not large TV draws.

Bo Levi Mitchell brings in eyeballs. It’s easy to say in hindsight but the CFL should have put the Tiger-Cats versus Blue Bombers game first on the schedule. The league could also have simply copied what the NFL does, which is match the defending champions against a sexy team. They could have had the reigning Grey Cup champion Argonauts at the start of the Chad Kelly era with multiple opponent options.

Mitchell travelling down the QEW for his first game with the Ticats against their storied rivals would’ve ensured hype around the matchup and lots of black and gold fans making the short trip to check out Hamiton’s new franchise quarterback. You could have had the pomp and circumstance of the Argonauts’ 109th Grey Cup banner unveiling and the rest.

The league could have also sent Kelly and the Argos to Winnipeg or Saskatchewan where the fans would have shown out.

This is about making the league look cool and exciting to a first-time audience. Commissioner Randy Ambrosie wants the CFL to have ‘some swagger’ but that wasn’t the case with a CFL kickoff game that had 17,000 and change in attendance with less than a quarter-million people watching in Canada.

There was plenty of competition on TV for Thursday night’s CFL opener, which was beyond the league’s control. The Toronto Blue Jays beat the Houston Astros 3-2 with 876,700 people tuning in on Sportsnet. 1,660,100 watched Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Final on Sportsnet and CBC as the Florida Panthers edged the Las Vegas Golden Knights 3-2 in overtime.

Friday Night Football went over 500,000 viewers on TSN in a fun 42-31 win by the Blue Bombers over the Tabbies. The Alouettes and Redblacks’ defensive tilt on Saturday night had a decent number considering it was directly against Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Final, which drew 1,853,200 viewers on Sportsnet and CBC. Finally, the Roughriders and Elks produced the highest-rated CFL game in Week 1.

English TV ratings were down over 12 percent compared to the first week of regular season Canadian football one year ago.

2023 Week 1 TV ratings:

Thursday
B.C. at Calgary — 226,900

Friday
Hamilton at Winnipeg — 511,500

Saturday
Ottawa at Montreal — 278,500 English and 174,000 French

Sunday
Saskatchewan at Edmonton — 535,300

Total Week 1 average: 388,050 (French included: 431,550)

2022 Week 1 TV ratings:

Thursday
Montreal at Calgary — 345,500

Friday
Ottawa at Winnipeg — 434,000

Saturday
Hamilton at Saskatchewan — 557,000
Edmonton at B.C. — 430,000

Total Week 1 average: 441,625

2021 Week 1 TV ratings:

Thursday
Hamilton at Winnipeg — 683,100

Friday
B.C. at Saskatchewan — 764,600

Saturday
Toronto at Calgary — 318,400
Ottawa at Edmonton — 341,700

Total Week 1 average: 526,950

2019 Week 1 TV ratings:

Thursday
Saskatchewan at Hamilton — 522,100

Friday
Montreal at Edmonton — 395,600
(French viewership on RDS — 140,000)

Saturday
Ottawa at Calgary — 490,100
Winnipeg at B.C. — 685,800

Total Week 1 average: 523,400

[VANRIDERFAN]

I’ll see if I can find a link but Stanley Cup Final was done 47% in Canada. According to twitter.

[thurmas]

Stanley Cup finals ratings down 43% in u.s. this year too. Combination off all sunbelt finals and games only on cable hurt.

[Hawrylyshyn]

Originally Posted by esquire

Polar bears are kind of a big deal here even though they're Churchill's and not ours Churchill is only 1000 km away, no big deal, right?

Best guess as to why not simply name the team polar bears is that the name was already trademarked for one reason or another.

The polar bear identity was used by the Winnipeg Thunder of the WBL/NBL in the early 90s. Same colours and everything. So I guess Sea Bears just kind of built on that.

The new:

We all know THIS is a true sea bear