Alumni Stadium on the University of Guelph campus will be the stadium that plays host to as many as 10 Tiger-Cat games next season. Yes, that's right; every game next season could be played in Guelph. No Moncton game, no game in London at Western and no Labour Day game in Toronto. It could all be in Guelph. I still believe that Labour Day will be in Toronto because the crowd size, something I think could be as high as 35,000, might be too much to pass up.
Obviously this solution isn't perfect and won't appease everyone (I've already seen some backlash, which was to be expected), but I do believe it is the best the team could do once McMaster told them no. Western, thought to be the front runner, is just too far from the Tiger-Cat base, whereas Guelph is less than an hour away. This allows the team stay close enough that most of their current fan base can make it to games.
With only 15,000 or so seats available, the team is aware that not everyone will make the trek to Guelph for every game. That will allow them to possibly pick up new fans in that region, expanding their fan base in the process. Once the Ivor Wynne site was chosen, we all knew the 2013 season would be different and that any plan would likely anger some and be met by indifference by others. But I truly believe this is the best possible solution for the fans.
It will be interesting to see how they dole out the tickets. If the Cats do have 18,000 season ticket holders, you could expect 10,000-12,000 of them to make the journey.
ReplyDeleteI hope the STH get first crack and I hope that the prices aren't increased.
No price "increase" for the seat, but they've already put an invoice on my account and there's a $56.50 facility fee added.
DeleteI expected something like that, but it may come as a shock to others and be a cause for some grumbling.
This is a good compromise to a difficult problem.
ReplyDeleteClose enough for those of us who will want to go, yet far enough out of sight and mind that those who have vowed "never again" just might have the time to cool off.
It keeps the team from being too nomadic; perhaps they can build a bit of temporary home field advantage (though I always thought this opportunity to bring the game to several cities would have benefit too).
They still have the option to play a game or two here or there as well - perhaps one at Rogers might soothe an aching revenue stream, as this is going to be a big hit to the team wallet. But that's the price they chose to pay.