blueandgoldguy

If Collaros played we would have scored 45 points and won the game!!! -Riderfans

Nichols played a great game last night, easily his best of the season. He was well on his way to another score last night when he had to leave the game with an injury. More of this Nichols for the rest of the season please.

Apparently there was a tweet that said only 6,000 seats have sold. Not sure of the credibility of the source but looking at the ticketmaster seating chart, it appears they are not far off the mark. Lower bowl appears to be over 80% unsold. Expect to see massive discounts soon for corner end zone and back of the end zone seats as well as the middle of the upper deck. Also, I think they will start selling blocks of seats to corporations for large discounts.

Nichols' play the last season+ probably is playing a role in lower than expected attendance. Barely any games over 27,000 last season despite the team making the playoffs and having a combined record 10 games over .500 in 2016 and 2017 - the previous two seasons.. People were losing faith last year as to whether he could win a playoff game let alone the Grey Cup. Things reached a crisis point at the Banjo Bowl. Fortunately for Nichols, the defense, special teams, o-line and Andrew Harris picked up the slack for his mediocre play in the final third of 2018. Basically Nichols managed most games. Rarely, if ever, did we have a game in which Nichols was great. Not what the fans like to see in a nearly $500K QB.

When the Lions come to town, they should replay that clip over and over again while playing the chicken dance song over the PA system. Have Buzz and Boomer do the dance next to the Lions bench for good measure.

It was a cheap shot by Simoni no doubt about it. He went in head first and made no attempt to hold up. Yes, Collaros is more susceptible to concussions given his past history but that should in no way diminish Lawrence's actions. 2-games would be ideal but he will probably only get 1. CFLPA will probably appeal it down to a fine, but the commissioner should step in and overrule this otherwise the league looks like a joke in its stance on concussions and protecting the players. UGh, now we will have to hear from Rider fans all season, after they lose games, how they likely would have won if Collaros had been playing.

Edmonton just had their lowest crowd in several years a couple nights ago. Calgary only had an announced crowd of 26,000 and that's after winning the Grey Cup and in a Grey Cup hosting season no less. Hamilton had their lowest announced crowd ever at THF too.

They are actually dragging the football player into the depths of Saskatchewan....which is actually worse.

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!