blueandgoldguy

I still remember all those times on here and on Riderfarts that you claimed Harris was less effective in the second half of games as he was clearly gassed due to age. You were wrong about that, as once again displayed by Harris' production in the 2nd half yesterday, as you are about Reilly's teams never running the ball.

Yes, I mean his yardage was not spectacular.

Charles Barkley likes him. That probably buys him a few more years in the booth. Great game by the blue and gold. Kept BC under 400 total yards offense in a dome which is good accomplishment. Nichols was steady if unspectacular...didn't make any critical mistakes. O-line appeared solid as usual. Harris was great. Hecht was a pleasant surprise..

Wooooo! Is this the end of the Stamps run of greatness? Ok, I might be jumping the gun as it's one game. Let's hope it is though as they have been perennial Grey CUp contenders since 2008. It would be good for the league if they took a step back for at least a few seasons.

The majority of NFL players are fringe players too. Only 24 starters per team plus some rotational players but there are 53 players dressing for the game and a tonne of practice roster players. Most of these guys barely see the field or don't see it at all. Several of these players bounce around for a few years before leaving the game or coming to the CFL to hopefully earn a paycheque. The younger players they are replaced with are not necessarily better, but there is a hope they will be. There is also the question of veteran status that factors into the decision to keep a player. Once a player reaches a certain number of games or seasons in the NFL, they receive a minimum salary per the collective bargaining agreement. This can lead to the release of the player for someone younger though not necessarily better. Remember Derrick Armstrong? Started his career as an all star with Saskatchewan, went to the NFL and played for Houston for 3 years starting several games. I think he was a number 4,5,6 receiver for the duration of this stay. When he was released/not signed was he all of a sudden not good enough to play in the NFL? Unlikely. What is more likely is that he reached a point at which, given his veteran NFL status, he would have to be signed to a higher minimum salary. Houston and other NFL teams chose not to sign him in favour of younger players with perceived higher upside and cheaper. Armstrong then had a choice to retire or return to the CFL. He came here and played 2.5 pretty good seasons, though it should be noted he was not even the #1 receiver on the team despite playing in the greatest league in the world. The NFL is filled with hundreds of Derrick Armstrongs playing different positions - brief starters, backups, backups to backups, practice roster players. These make up the majority of players...in and out of the NFL within a few years. Most of these are comparable to the typical CFL player.

Gotta love Ripper's presentation of alternative facts. 😄

Unless Nichols regresses further, he is definitely better than Collaros. The numbers back it up. Take off those green goggles.

Given that the field is 30 yards shorter, those end zone seats are going to be 40 feet further away from the back goal lines. A reasonable comparable would be a soccer match at IG field. If you see any video of the Valour you get an idea of how far away those seats are from the field of play. That is probably the reason the Black Hole is located in the corner end zone seats as opposed to the back of the end zone - it is closer to the action on the field.

It is? Let's see the numbers then.

Congrats on a great career Kevin. I wonder if he will ever become involved in coaching or just stick to his business interests?

So apparently those Pinnacle Club seats were not sold out, merely held back for corporate and possibly the NFL. Over half those seats became available on ticketmaster. Looks like there is slow and steady progress on seat sales in the upper deck. A pleasant surprise are the steady sales in the "cheap" $240 end zone seats. The $380 and $340 seats between the 20 yard line and the corner end zones are not moving at all. No surprise there as they will need to reduce those to get any movement.

Agree that many on Riderfans see the team taking a step back this year. Most appear to have picked the team finishing 4th or 5th with some picking 3rd. Their offense may be just as bad this year, but it's unlikely the defense can repeat their performance from last year given the losses of some key personnel including Jones.

West Division 1. Calgary 2. Winnipeg 3. BC 4. Edmonton - crossover 5. Saskatchewan East Division 1. Hamilton 2. Ottawa 3. Toronto 4. Montreal Playoffs West Semi-Final : Winnipeg beats BC East Semi-Final: Ottawa beats Edmonton West Final: Winnipeg beats Calgary East Final: Hamilton beats Ottawa Grey Cup: Winnipeg beats Hamilton MOP: MIke Reilly MOC: Andrew Harris MOD: Jefferson - still not sold on Nichols but I made a bit of a homer pick with Winnipeg prevailing over Calgary in the west final.

If the promoter waits too long, then it will be too late as many people will have moved on and allocated their disposable income to other things. Every market has experienced price slashing - you just have to look. Saskatchewan has had tonnes of price-slashing for many of their events...and the two for one deal or discounts I have seen in every single market. They were discussing the optics of a poorly attended game on 1290 and the consensus was that they would not allow the game in an outside market to be poorly attended....need it to appear there is demand and excitement for the product even in a place which will never have an NFL team. That will mean selling a bunch of tickets to a sponsor at a hugely reduced price or reducing the prices in several sections, maybe both. As for GRRbrr comments, yes the game is 2.5 months away, but any event that is usually hyped quite heavily prior to the official sale of tickets to the public, has to rely on the majority of sales in the first few days, especially one such as this with insane prices. There will be no urgency to purchase tickets from here on out with an inventory of over 20,000 seats. I bet they hardly get anyone from Raider Nation to attend as the area designated as the Black Hole has barely moved tickets at all. Same with Packer fans south of the border...not when they can attend regular season games for a similar or cheaper price...and pre-season games where you can buy tickets on Stubhub for $6 - $8.

The seats are on the one side of the field are set aside for corporate and the NFL. I'm not even sure if they are sold out. Even if we include those seats, they might have sold 10,000 seats total in the stadium. The market has spoken. The promoter badly miscalculated the demand - supply dynamic of the region for an NFL exhibition game. Lot of egg on his face. We probably see a few hundred sell a day over the next few weeks, but they will have to reduce the price of most of these sections. Start with the middle of the upper deck and then from the 10 yard line to the back corner of the end zone.

We may still have that chance next year.

I'm a non-Bomber fan? Uh, no. I have been posting here since the beginning and on the old forum as well. I think it is fair game to criticize the promoter of this event for what little thought he put into the pricing of this event. Yesterday, Friesen provided an update saying around 5,000 seats were sold (or at least grayed out on ticketmaster...apparently the club seats on the east side of the building were set aside so not sure if those were all sold) Now I would say maybe around 7,000 seats are sold, not suprisingly almost all in the 3 cheapest sections. The promoter and his company are from Saskatoon so on a positive note if this thing goes south, we can blame Saskatchewan!

Can Teitz make the team. I want hear Rod mispronounce his name forgetting the E in his name during a game and then follow it up with a typical Blackian pun.

😒

The thing is you don't have to stay at a super cheap hotel or eat sandwiches to make a cheap trip to Minny. It's quite easy to stay at a 3-3.5 star hotel like a Marriott for $120 or so a night and split with a friend. Plenty of decent cheap dining options that aren't fast food but don't have to cost you an arm and a leg for eating out as well. Good breakfasts can cost you $10 in plenty of places. Heck the Marriott I stayed at last time in Minny had an all-u-can eat breakfast buffet for $12. Add in Viking tickets for $60 - $120 and other awesome attractions that are free or cheap and you can keep your spending to an amount not much more then what you would spend for a pair of $330 upper deck tickets to IG Field.

Sigh. My point is people are overstating the novelty of this thing. Yeah, it's in Winnipeg for the first time ever, but combined with the fact that Minneapolis is within easy driving, along with other NFL markets, and it being an exhibition game, takes away that aspect. The prices will be a further detriment. $330 for upper deck seats, over $300 for seats at the goal line, $250 or $280 for seats at the back of the end zone (which will be a mile from the field of play since an NFL field is 30 yards shorter). Pre-sale might be at 4,000 tickets sold by the looks of things which is pretty terrible, considering the hype and easily accessible pre-sale codes. Majority of seats for heavily hyped events happen in pre-sale so this is pretty much confirming my thoughts. It's also funny that the promoter has the Black Hole near the non-alcoholic section - guy really did his research. Edit: It appears there are 5,000 seats sold

I thought he said he made an offer and set his conditions, and then the league turned him down?

There just isn't much incentive long term for anyone to take over the Als and sustain huge losses for at least a couple seasons...no pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. The team will be a break even operation at best when the stadium is full and the increase in franchise valuation will be minimal to offset those early losses. That't the difference between the CFL and big-4 pro leagues. Teams in the NHL, NBA, MLB can have 8 figure losses on an annual basis, but the franchise values increase at greater annual rate. An owner can sell and still come out far ahead financially. There is no hope for being made whole owning a CFL team.

A few hundred? Sure.

I hate to say it but the Als will probably fold at the end of the season. No serious businessperson will take ownership of the Als without major concessions from the league. That would be paying a portion of the losses for the forseeable future (2020 and beyond). It will take years to increase the season ticket base and corporate support back to what it once was. At that point, it will be a break-even operation. Not much incentive for these wannabe owners. I think they are mostly tire kickers anyways. BOG won't agree to subsidizing operations for an indefinite period of time.