Real world stress for fans adds to attendance challenges for sports teams

Empty seats a regular sight at all levels of sports in Canada

Some fans take in a U of Regina Rams football home game on Sept. 1. 

    Why don’t more people attend sports events especially at the higher levels in Canada?

    That has been a question I have been struggling with for some time.

    I’ve attend events at various venues that host WHL, CJFL, U Sports and CFL games for some time, and it seems the crowds on average aren’t getting bigger but smaller. Even the Saskatchewan Rush of the National Lacrosse League showed a small dent in the armour when tickets sales for their home playoff games last season failed to exceed 15,000 per game. That wasn’t a problem in the team’s inaugural NLL campaign in Saskatoon, when the Rush won a league title in 2015-16.

    When I watch NHL, CFL and NFL on television, I can spot the empty seats.

    It feels like empty seats really plague Canadian venues. They aren’t prevalent at NHL venues, but they are creeping in there.

    The easiest reason for absence would be to say people just don’t care. When I look my page view numbers for stories on the Saskatoon Stars and Prince Albert Northern Bears of the often ignored Saskatchewan Female Midget AAA Hockey League, I know that can’t be the case. The numbers are high enough to signal that people care.

Fans still pack the stands for the Roughriders Labour Day Classic game.

    The same can be said for my posts on the Saskatoon Hilltops, who have won the last four straight CJFL titles, the Saskatoon Valkyries of the Western Women’s Canadian Football League and the University of Saskatchewan Huskies hockey teams.

    When the WHL’s Saskatoon Blades honoured their former captain in Bruce Gordon at this season’s home opener, my post on that night became and still is my second all-time most viewed post. After Gordon passed away of cancer about a week after that contest, my post from the home opener has continued to attract views.

    People are interested, but they don’t seem to be going out in comparison to past years.

    A number of reasons have raced through my head, and I felt putting them out there might create discussion on that topic.

    The first two reasons that come to mind for non-attendance revolve around ticket prices are too high and lack of media coverage. The media coverage to create interest for sports in Canada isn’t what is used to be due to all the cuts in the mainstream side of the sector.

    On the ticket prices front, you usually get a gut feeling that tells you when they hit a point where the casual fans will stay away. The casual fans ultimately make up the big crowds.

    On the major junior hockey front, I always find single game tickets priced over $20 start to get dicey. For Roughriders games, the dicey point hits around $70 a game including fees. For those events, those seem to be the break points where impulse buyers lean towards not going games.

The empty seats are easy to see at Blades home games.

    As for the media argument, that is also a viable reason. If you go out, it seems casual fans have a handle of what is happening in the NHL due to the fact you can tune into TSN or Sportsnet and see those highlights.

    When it comes to local teams, I often find casual followers in Saskatoon don’t even know when Blades, Huskies or Hilltops games are going on. You are really in the dark when it comes to high school sports or any other minor events at that level. The same can be said of big curling events.

    Even as short of six years ago, the details of when games were happening were constantly repeated on all media platforms on the mainstream side. Now, it seems it is up to the teams to keep relaying that information on their social media handles. The teams in Saskatoon do a good job on that front, but it seems that information isn’t always reaching the casual fan, who are hit and miss with regards to following team social media accounts.

    To get fans, you almost need a lightning in a bottle situation like the WHL’s Regina Pats had last season, when they made the WHL championship series for the first time since 1984. The Pats finished first in the entire WHL with a 52-12-7-1 mark, which was also the best regular season record the team ever posted dating back to its inception in 1917.

    The mainstream media machine that follows the CFL’s Roughriders covered the Pats exploits, and it seemed like a large number of people in Regina were invested in that run. The Pats soldout a team record 26 contests between the regular season and playoffs. They benefited from a situation that doesn’t occur every season.

    Some events like the home opener for the Huskies football team or the Roughriders Labour Day Classic game always attract big crowds due to being viewed as big community gatherings and experiences, where fun and escapism are the top priorities.

Fans pack the U of Saskatchewan Huskies football game on Sept. 8.

    I believe attendance or non-attendance for local sports teams might be affected by the fact people these days are too stressed from their everyday lives. There are way too many companies out there that try to operate with skeleton crews like the media industry does, and as a result, people are often doing the work of two or three people at their job.

    When people get home from that situation, they just want to stay on the couch, watch television or scroll through their social media accounts. You feel too tired to go anywhere, and factors like ticket prices and bad weather will subconsciously go into the decision about not going to a game, if you know a game is going on that night.

    I also feel like casual fans have trouble identifying with high level athletes, which might add to non-interest. In the days before year-round training was normal and players came to training camp to get in shape, it seemed the high level athlete was viewed as being closer to the recreation league a casual fan would participate in. Those days weren’t that long ago as players still came to training camp to get in shape in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

    Now, the casual fan has a harder time identifying with the elite athlete because the casual fan is not constantly going to the gym to train or critically watching his or her diet on a daily basis to prepare to play a sport. When an elite athlete accomplishes something big or is part of a championship team, the casual fan is happy but still doesn’t identify with all the work that goes into that type of accomplishment that makes the elite athlete hit a huge emotional high.

The Pats packed the Brandt Centre due to a special campaign in 2016-17.

    It seems like family and friends make up most of those in attendance to see elite athletes play in circuits like U Sports, CJFL, WWCFL and SFMAAAHL.

   On the other hand, some of the biggest feeds that go through social media accounts are pictures of first days of school, high school graduations and pictures of babies after they are born. They are able to capture the attention of the average person more, because most people can identify with those experiences having gone through them as well. Those types of milestones should be celebrated in families too.

    A number of companies make a tonne of money catering to those types of things, because people can identify with those experiences.

    I don’t have any quick fixes to encourage people to go out to sports events. I believe teams that can stay connected in a genuine way with their communities and are involved with their communities will eventually see the reward of butts in the seats. The results with the ground work won’t happen overnight, but they will eventually come.

Broncos rally past Blades

Alec Zawatsky had a goal for the Blades on Wednesday night.

    The Saskatoon Blades weren’t able to hold off a comeback by the powerful Swift Current Broncos.

    On Wednesday at the Credit Union i-Plex in Swift Current, the Blades led 4-1 heading into the third period. Before 1,983 spectators, the Broncos roared back with three straight goals to force a 4-4 tie and send the contest to overtime and then to a tiebreaking shootout.

    Aleksi Heponiemi and Logan Barlage scored in the shootout to help the Broncos take the tiebreaking session 2-1 and the overall contest by a 5-4 final. Kirby Dach had the Blades goal in the shootout.

    For the longest time, it appeared Saskatoon was on the verge of pulling out an upset win. The Blades built a 3-1 lead over the opening 20 minutes thanks to singles coming from the sticks of Caleb Fantillo, Michael Farren and Cameron Hebig. Conner Chaulk had the reply for the Broncos.

Glenn Gawdin scored twice for the Broncos.

    The Blades went ahead 4-1 at the 2:37 mark of the second period on a goal from Alec Zawatsky.

    That tally chased Joel Hofer from the Broncos net. Hofer was making his fourth start of the season and turned away 11 of 15 shots sent his way.

    Logan Flodell, who is the Broncos regular starter and was supposed to get the night off, played the rest of the way stopping all 18 shots he saw in regulation and overtime and three out of four shooters in the shootout to pick up the win in the Swift Current net.

    In the third period, Broncos captain Glenn Gawdin scored twice to cut the Blades lead to 4-3.
    Broncos Russian import defenceman Artyom Minulin scored the equalizer that forced a 4-4 tie with 2:09 remaining in the third period.

    Nolan Maier, who is a 16-year-old rookie, had a strong night turning away 33 shots through regulation and overtime and two of four shooters in the shootout to take the setback in goal for the Blades.

    The Broncos improve to 16-5-1 with the win, while the Blades record moves to 8-12-2-1.

    The Blades return to action on Friday, when they host the Brandon Wheat Kings (14-6-0-1) at 7 p.m. at the SaskTel Centre. That will be the last Blades home game until Dec. 9, when they host the Kamloops Blazers.

Back in the Express with Hajek

Libor Hajek has been a consistent performer for the Blades.

    I was back in the pages of the Saskatoon Express this week with a story on Saskatoon Blades Czech import defenceman Libor Hajek.

    Hajek had put together a streak of recording points in four straight games before Wednesday’s 5-4 loss after a tiebreaking shootout to the Broncos in Swift Current. The 19-year-old rearguard is in his third full season with the Blades, and he has been one of the team’s most consistent players.

    He was selected in the second round and 37^th overall by the Tampa Bay Lightning in the 2016 NHL Entry Draft. The Lightning signed Hajek to a three-year NHL entry-level contract last March after the Blades regular season wrapped up.

    Hajek has six goals and 18 assists 23 games so far this season. He is hoping to crack the roster of the Czech Republic’s world junior team.

    The story on Hajek can be found here.

    If you have any comments you would like to pass along about this post, feel free to email them to stankssports@gmail.com.

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