You hear a lot of talk these days about how Toronto isn’t a football city, that the fans don’t care, that it just won’t be successful. The media will suggest fans do not care, and to some extent they’re right. How could an average fan care about the CFL when local papers devote at best half a page to the sport, while preseason hockey is making the front page?
In last week’s thrilling victory over their rivals Hamilton, when Chad Owens made the game-winning TD catch. The Rogers Center was loud; the 17,811 fans that did come to the game were rewarded with a classic that brought them to their feet.
Sadly, in the rest of Toronto, the conversations starters were “How are the Leafs doing?”, and “Why didn’t the Jays make it?”
Reporting on how low the fan support this year is an easy write and guaranteed to provoke some readers. But it’s typical sensationalist writing; if one really cares about the situation in Toronto, it doesn’t make sense to just offer the bad news again and again.
Meanwhile, new generations of young fans won’t come see the show the Argos can put on when all that’s being reported is how bad the fans are and how poor the atmosphere is at the Rogers Centre. Potential fans won’t try something new if they hear all the bad.
While there are many ways to help the Argos out, one major way would be for big media to commit to solid CFL news coverage, generating more awareness throughout Toronto. Why are the Raptors in preseason or the Leafs after a blowout loss taking so much valuable space in the local media? There is a exciting race for first place in the CFL division and the Argos are right there, and media outlets who care about the city should be reporting in volume.
The city as a whole could also do its part by creating a community feeling for the Argos. Pubs located near Rogers Centre could offer a discount for fans who show their tickets from that night’s game, and the TTC and GO Transit could offer discounts on fares, something they’ve done before.
The media itself, though, needs to be the major player in turning this ship around, by focusing on the positives instead of the same old story of how it doesn’t work here. One day the CFL will be relevant again in Toronto; it’s just a question of who will step up and make it that way.
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