Saskatchewans travelling circus

[theonlywhiteout]

http://montreal.ctv.ca/servlet/an/lo...MontrealSports

MONTREAL — As one of the seven deadly sins, pride is something conventional spiritual wisdom tells us is best avoided, lest it manifest itself as hubris.
Apparently, Rider Nation forgot to consult with its spiritual advisers before the Grey Cup.

What a great article.

[Erick Estrada]

The Alouettes and their entourage were a Grey Cup week afterthought, overshadowed by Saskatchewan's travelling football circus, which the CFL and its media partners gladly exploited to the promotional maximum.

This pretty well sums my feelings. The CFL is running the risk of alienating fans of the rest of the league. It seems like the team that faces the Riders every week is marginalized and all we hear about is Riders this, Riders that, Ridernation, etc. I found the playoffs really tough to watch this year and if the league doesn't smarten they are going to start losing fans and you can't prop up the entire league just on Rider fans alone.

[JayP]

Originally Posted by Erick Estrada

This pretty well sums my feelings. The CFL is running the risk of alienating fans of the rest of the league. It seems like the team that faces the Riders every week is marginalized and all we hear about is Riders this, Riders that, Ridernation, etc. I found the playoffs really tough to watch this year and if the league doesn't smarten they are going to start losing fans and you can't prop up the entire league just on Rider fans alone.

And this is especially true since this whole "Rider Nation" stuff has only existed for maybe 5-6 years. I've been a season ticket holder 2002 and I have no recollection of there being anything different between Rider fans and the rest of the league back then. They start winning a few games and all these bandwagoners all boast about how diehard they are because they get drunk before the game and throw a watermelon on their head.

When the commissioner gives out a BS award to a certain fanbase over all others you know there's a major problem with the way the league is run.

[Erick Estrada]

Originally Posted by JayP

And this is especially true since this whole "Rider Nation" stuff has only existed for maybe 5-6 years. I've been a season ticket holder 2002 and I have no recollection of there being anything different between Rider fans and the rest of the league back then. They start winning a few games and all these bandwagoners all boast about how diehard they are because they get drunk before the game and throw a watermelon on their head.

When the commissioner gives out a BS award to a certain fanbase over all others you know there's a major problem with the way the league is run.

It's pretty obvious that Montreal feels pretty slighted and justly so but Stampeder and Eskimo fans have supported their teams much more consistently than Rider fans as well. Honestly can anyone blame Stampeder fans for being a little skeptical about how the Wester Final was called by officials when the Commisioners Award was going to be handed out during Grey Cup week to Ridernation? The whole think stinks to me and the more I think about it the more I think the officials were instructed to call the game very close on the Stampeders to protect the league's best interests.

[Cowboy89]

Originally Posted by Erick Estrada

It's pretty obvious that Montreal feels pretty slighted and justly so but Stampeder and Eskimo fans have supported their teams much more consistently than Rider fans as well. Honestly can anyone blame Stampeder fans for being a little skeptical about how the Wester Final was called by officials when the Commisioners Award was going to be handed out during Grey Cup week to Ridernation? The whole think stinks to me and the more I think about it the more I think the officials were instructed to call the game very close on the Stampeders to protect the league's best interests.

Or the officials were tired of hearing Dwight Anderson and Brandon Browner chirp at them for doing their job early in the game. Not saying the Riders weren't getting favored, but rather that the Stamps seem to always have a team full of players I imagine would be hard to officiate. Next time you wonder why the Stamps get the raw end of calls, watch what their players do after getting called for an infraction. Always in the officials face! That kind of behavior makes it easy for the refs conscience to call them for taunting in a close playoff game. Trust me, you do yourself no favors by getting in refs grills all the time.

[getbak]

Gotta love this from the comments section: "Hey Als - don't get quite so cocky. It took you 8 Cup appearances to get 3 trophies. Maybe you had some karma of your own to deal with."

Says the fan of the team that has won 3 Grey Cups in 100 years.

[Erick Estrada]

Originally Posted by Cowboy89

Or the officials were tired of hearing Dwight Anderson and Brandon Browner chirp at them for doing their job early in the game. Not saying the Riders weren't getting favored, but rather that the Stamps seem to always have a team full of players I imagine would be hard to officiate. Next time you wonder why the Stamps get the raw end of calls, watch what their players do after getting called for an infraction. Always in the officials face! That kind of behavior makes it easy for the refs conscience to call them for taunting in a close playoff game. Trust me, you do yourself no favors by getting in refs grills all the time.

That's funny but players tend to chirp in the ears of officials when they don't agree with the call and that's not just a Stampeders thing. What did the overturned fumble (on inconclusive evidence that took 10 minutes for the replay officials to find a speck of grey area to overturn) have to do with Anderson and Browner?

[ricoFlame]

it's an obnoxious trend in sports today, and in this case where there is literally only one show in town...it's much worse. All this overdoing it stuff is relatively new for the most part.

[North East Goon]

The Roughriders have always had a fantastic fan base, the on-field product was terrible thus making them just a bunch of loveable losers in those days.

[shermanator]

First off I post this as a passionate hater of Rider Nation. I didn't buy tickets to the West Final because the Riders were in the game.

The CFL is primarily a gate / merch driven league, and until other teams start selling out their stadiums constantly or spending high amounts of money on merchandise, I have a feeling Rider Nation will be pandered to by the league. Those fans which produce the most money for the league will be considered best for the business, especially considering the league was almost out of business 10 years ago.

Montreal has a case, they sell out Molson stadium at prices which are double McMahon's, but what about the other teams? Calgary didn't even sell out Labour Day this year...

[SeoulFire]

_______ Nation is the stupidest concept ever. Not sure which team was the first to do it but it is so overused.

[kirant]

Originally Posted by getbak

Gotta love this from the comments section: "Hey Als - don't get quite so cocky. It took you 8 Cup appearances to get 3 trophies. Maybe you had some karma of your own to deal with."

Says the fan of the team that has won 3 Grey Cups in 100 years.

The 'riders also own the dubious record of most Grey Cup game losses...and almost losing the franchise twice . I don't know how the heck it was claimed that they have the 3rd highest sales of any pro sports team in Canada (behind the Leafs and Habs).

Originally Posted by SeoulFire

_______ Nation is the stupidest concept ever. Not sure which team was the first to do it but it is so overused.

Pretty sure it was the Raiders...dunno if somebody did it before them though...

[Bring_Back_Shantz]

Originally Posted by North East Goon

The Roughriders have always had a fantastic fan base, the on-field product was terrible thus making them just a bunch of loveable losers in those days.

Really?
Isn't this the same team that was on the verge of bankrupcy for the better part of the 90's and early 2000's?

Pretty sure this surge in "Rider Pride" conincides pretty well with the rise in popularity of trucker hats. Yup, once redneck became kinda the cool thing to be, all of a suddern the Riders were the greatest thing in the world.

In short I completely blame the rise of the really annoying Rider fan on Asthon Kutcher!

[rubecube]

Originally Posted by kirant

Pretty sure it was the Raiders...dunno if somebody did it before them though...

Yep...and if there's one fanbase in sports that other fanbases should aspire to be, it's definitely Raider fans.

[Resolute 14]

Originally Posted by shermanator

The CFL is primarily a gate / merch driven league, and until other teams start selling out their stadiums constantly or spending high amounts of money on merchandise, I have a feeling Rider Nation will be pandered to by the league. Those fans which produce the most money for the league will be considered best for the business, especially considering the league was almost out of business 10 years ago.

Seems rather odd to pander to the third place team in attendance.

But really, it is one thing for the media to attach itself to a team's posterior. For the league itself to do so only opens up accusations of bias, which certainly were flowing following the West Final. The CFL has abandoned any pretense of neutrality, and only makes itself look even more bush league than usual.

[burn_baby_burn]

Originally Posted by Erick Estrada

This pretty well sums my feelings. The CFL is running the risk of alienating fans of the rest of the league. It seems like the team that faces the Riders every week is marginalized and all we hear about is Riders this, Riders that, Ridernation, etc. I found the playoffs really tough to watch this year and if the league doesn't smarten they are going to start losing fans and you can't prop up the entire league just on Rider fans alone.

I know tonnes of die hard NFL fans living in the shawdow of CFL stadiums that have never been to a CFL game. I love football, I live 90 minutes from two CFL stadiums. Yet I have only been to one CFL game in 38 years. The only reason I went to that one was because it was a stag party for, surprise, surprise, a Rider fan.

[calgaryrocks]

Originally Posted by burn_baby_burn

I know tonnes of die hard NFL fans living in the shawdow of CFL stadiums that have never been to a CFL game. I love football, I live 90 minutes from two CFL stadiums. Yet I have only been to one CFL game in 38 years. The only reason I went to that one was because it was a stag party for, surprise, surprise, a Rider fan.

these fans aren't the issue here. the NFL only crowd will always put down the CFL, no matter what it does (because its not the NFL, its not superhyped, its Canadian etc), they won't be losing those fans, they would never get those fans, unless the NFL really kicks itself in the face.
what Erik is pointing to is the fans like me who have grown up watching the league, going to many games every year, watching the league favour one team over the other 7. if a league favours one team over the rest (whether there are 31 or 7), they are bound to piss off way more fans than they would gain. I hope that the CFL isn't actually favouring the Riders, Its easy to find something to criticize about any league.
I was at the west final and didn't think the refs were favouring the Stamps, although the burris intentional grounding call seemed dumb, but blamed that in poor reffing (the CFL should invest more into reffing). I didn't have doubts about the league favouring one team until I came on here (calgarypuck).

of course thinking about it the CFL wants to not piss off Rider fans, one of the biggest revenue sources, but I hope they are smart enough to realize that an image of favouring one team would seriously set back all of the momentum and respect they have gained over the past 10 years. I will still support my Stamps and watch the CFL, as its fun to watch and follow, if the Riders start winning more than a cup every 30 years then maybe I will be worried they are favouring one team.
bottom line as a Stamps fan, the Stamps need to figure out how to get the Riders out of thier heads in the playoffs!

[shermanator]

Originally Posted by Resolute 14

Seems rather odd to pander to the third place team in attendance.

I would argue that if Sasksatchewan had a stadium bigger than 30000 seats, they would be #1 in attendance, by far.

[valo403]

Originally Posted by shermanator

I would argue that if Sasksatchewan had a stadium bigger than 30000 seats, they would be #1 in attendance, by far.

And I would argue that history shows that to be highly unlikely.

[shermanator]

Originally Posted by valo403

And I would argue that history shows that to be highly unlikely.

I mean the current Riders, not the Riders from the 90's who needed to be saved.