Quote:
Originally Posted by browna
It’s really apples to oranges in many ways.
First, it’s about the ingame experience at Lacrosse. It’s loud music all the time and more or less attempting a party vibe and thus heavily into the fan experience, with lacrosse sprinkled in.
Second, lacrosse season is what, three months?
Cheaper tickets, owned by CSEC. Games league wide are Friday Saturday or Sunday. Players salaries are for those 3 or 4 months and most ownership owns its own buildings. So overhead is relatively low on the operations side. Road trips play two or three games at a time l, but again, short seasons.
Yes there are hardcore fans but it’s basically a cheap weekend night out for many, and it’s groups of people going, where the result and watching the game is secondary. Lots of people dont sit in seats the whole game from my recollection, instead get up and wander around, something hockey or soccer games don’t lend itself too.
Spruce of course could handle more as a venue, they pack a lot more in there for show jumping.
Sure a downtown 10k stadium would be nice but who will pay for that and what else would it be used for that will turn a profit? It took a whole lot of time and effort and politics replace a 43 year old stadium that the City paid 25% for back in 1983.
As mentioned, the CPL will have a few critical years coming up here. Capitalizing on the WC for popularity and hopefully getting some funding out of the WC legacy (though my guess is the CSA and CSB already have that spent) has been basically counted on for years within the various CPL and team budgets. If that increase in popularity and revenue doesn’t come to roost, and it’s pretty clear that this is the niche market that thy will be operating in city wise and league wise (and no realistic situation of betgter stadiums, here or anywhere) would change the interest, so things could get grim.
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This is a pretty elitist, dismissive take on an awesome sport and league that has spent decades creating a great experience and fostering new fans, lol. You don't average 12000 fans a game by being a place where people wander. Also, they had even higher attendance back in the day before the Flames purchased them and raised prices, losing fans, like they did with the Stampeders. You used to regularly see 14500, with some games being 16000+.
I guess I could start with just your pricing comparison. I'm not too up on the Cavalry pricing but I believe the lowest is usually about $45, and then $65 on the high end? So the Roughnecks charge $85-$95 in the lower bowl (more equivalent to the seats at Atco) with most seats in the second bowl being $65, with a few end zone second tier being $42. So basically the second tier at the Dome is semi equivalent to Cavalry's entire seat selection and way further away. Yet the attendance success is from a cheap night out where the game is secondary?
From your recollection people don't stay in their seats, they get up and wander? I mean yeah, but you know where else that happens all game? Stampeders, Flames, Cavalry. People get up and wander for food, beers, take their time getting back at all sporting events. I've been to many of all our sports teams games and have never noticed a larger "wandering" portion at Roughnecks relative to the others. I've wandered at Cavalry games myself and been to a few now. There's tons of people there that are no hurry to rush to their seat for kickoff, after half time or after going to the bathroom/grabbing beers/food.