[Julio]

Originally Posted by Joborule

So there's been discussion before about whether the league should move the schedule up in order to have more summer games, as well have the important games played in warmer temperatures. The idea would be that more people would go to the games then, especially in the later part of the season.

So for fun I decided to compile the attendance for each team from last season, and see if there is much of a drop off from the earlier games compared to the later games. At the bottom is the season average for the teams' games. On the far right column, it's the average throughout the league on attendance for the home game number. This again, was for the purpose of seeing the attendance drop off. I also put in playoff numbers (that didn't count towards average) for teams that hosted games. These would've been in November.

Game #    CGY    TOR    WPG    MON    OTT    HAM    EDM    VAN    SSK    League Avg.
1    24,613    13,583    30,165    20,129    24,565    24,135    31,828    19,175    33,350    24,616
2    30,274    11,219    25,085    18,728    24,347    23,531    36,260    21,017    33,050    24,835
3    25,492    15,801    25,931    18,610    24,756    23,517    32,837    23,415    33,350    24,857
4    26,150    11,616    30,554    19,712    23,725    23,524    27,078    20,622    33,350    24,037
5    33,731    16,326    33,134    18,564    23,851    23,926    41,738    18,029    33,350    26,961
6    28,176    13,182    26,588    18,325    24,887    23,604    34,312    18,091    33,350    24,502
7    26,394    12,862    26,204    22,596    24,901    24,067    30,524    19,324    33,350    24,469
8    27,316    15,102    26,434    18,849    24,893    23,672    26,738    19,816    30,083    23,656
9    24,281    15,532    25,034    20,184    24,781    23,526    30,601    19,233    31,627    23,867
Playoff    30,116    24,929    27,244        24,107                    
Average    27,381    13,914    27,681    19,522    24,523    23,722    32,435    19,858    32,762

So obviously this isn't a perfect format to draw conclusions from. It doesn't take into account when the games were played, the weather, team record, and the attendance figures itself may not necessarily mean who showed up to the game. And this is only off one season, rather than compilation of multiple years.

Either way, I found it interesting since it seems the attendance across the board didn't fluctuate as much as I thought it would. There are a few games that had noticeably bigger turnouts than others (rivalry game and labour day), but for games that would be in the fall (after game 6 usually), there's some that have turnouts that are similar or better than those in the summer. And the playoff games turnouts were good in relation to their regular season average. Again though, it doesn't take into account weather, which can have a significant impact on turnout. This was a warm November in Calgary for instance, and probably was one of the warmest western final here.

Looking at the numbers through, if the season was to be bumped up, would it actually make a difference in attendance? From last season alone not taking factors into consideration, maybe not. For Toronto and Montreal which have a high metro population, the summer numbers were actually fairly low, and actually had equal or better turnouts in the fall.

For Vancouver, they're the one team that had did have better attendance in the summer than in the fall, despite being in a dome venue. Although their dome has a retractable roof, which could have played a factor? The idea of being inside a concrete shell with no natural lighting could be viewed as a negative experience to the attendee?

I go back and forth on whether the league should bump up the schedule. On one hand, I feel the CFL should because along with more favorable weather conditions, it's less competition with the NFL since once that season begins my attention with the CFL is diminished. On the other hand though, winter is Canada, and having the season feature snow games is embracing what makes Canadian football. As well, U SPORTS season goes on from September-November, and if the CFL was to move the season up, how would it affect university football? I feel that U SPORTS season needs to be aligned with the CFL, and that wouldn't be possible since the season would be too short unless they're willing to push the season into the summer months when students aren't around, which isn't ideal I feel.

A few thoughts, not so much on the concept (I wouldn't mind if they moved the season up a week or two, but not the month some are talking about) but the analysis:

-It would be interesting to see how overall the Thursday night games did. I would expect them to be amongst the lower attended games.

-As for the games later in the season, it might have been relatively nice at the Western Final, but it was horribly cold for the last regular season Stamps game. The announced attendance is easily twice the number of people that came through the gates. The Riders actually discounted tickets for their last regular season game, and still had one of their lowest attendances, also with a ton of no shows.

The Stamps game was a worst case scenario (nothing for the Stamps to play for and bad weather) but rather than the time of year, I would suggest the time of day is important to the attendance. I did notice no Friday night games at the end of the season at McMahon this year.

As for the amount of fluctuation, I would suggest that it might indicate that the amount of casual fans that go to the odd game is a pretty small percentage. Certainly there wasn't much for walk up sales for the last Stamps game.