Even when they win they lose

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 25/10/2009 (5881 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

OK, so let’s deal with the skeptics right off the snap: Yeah, Anthony Calvillo was MIA at Canad Inns Stadium, so the Bombers victory Saturday requires an asterisk. Close enough?

Perhaps, but here’s a counter-argument, for what it’s worth. First, it’s still two points, big ones, in the East playoff race, so what does it matter who started for the Als? Besides, it’s not like Mike Kelly filled out the Montreal roster himself.

Second, Calvillo is a lot of things, but he’s not a defensive back, and Bombers QB Michael Bishop was advancing as fast as the Canadian infantry at the Battle of Normandy. In other words, pretty fast.

Look, imagine if the Bombers had lost under the circumstances, against an Alouette team with little motivation starting their second-best pivot? The home team, after dropping a decision to the B.C. Lions last week — guided by backup Travis Lulay — would have been roundly crucified. And for good reason. So what can you do? Well, just win, for starters. That’s all the Bombers could control.

The good news for the Bombers: The final game of the season at Canad Inns Stadium will be a winner-take-all showdown with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, also 7-9, for sole possession of second place in the East, with the prize of hosting the semifinal. And that would be a minor miracle, given the undulation that has characterized the Bombers largely forgettable 2009 season.

But, frankly, that resurrection doesn’t mask what the Bombers have already lost this season that can’t be recovered. Sure, this team could still win the Grey Cup. A pipe dream, perhaps, but not unattainable, what with the CFL’s long and loony post-season history.

But you can’t get back the hundreds of thousands of dollars in lost revenue the Bombers have seen slip though the franchise’s fingers in the last month. Because that was the plan, right? Play six of the first nine on the road, get better and host six home games in the second half, feeding off the good vibes of on-field progress.

After all, the Bombers administration was adamant that sagging attendance earlier this season was simply explained: If you don’t win, they don’t come — at least, outside of the 20,000 core Bomber faithful that come rain, shine or a 55-10 loss to the Roughriders.

So how do you rationalize Saturday’s underpopulated gathering of just 21,378, the smallest Bombers crowd since Oct. 17, 1999? The math isn’t pretty. The Bombers have averaged around 23,000 fans in the last three home dates, about 6,500 short of a sellout. That’s in the ballpark (more accurately, not in the ballpark) of 20,000 empty seats in this month alone.

That’s anywhere between about $500,000 to $800,000 in lost revenue, depending on the average price of every ticket not sold.

The perplexing part is that the Bombers are now 4-1 in their last five games, arguably the hottest team in the league, factoring Saturday’s victory over Montreal. They are knee-deep in a playoff race and have more reason to hope than at any time this season after the opening kickoff in Week 1.

Yet the crowds… grow smaller?

So did Bombers head coach Mike Kelly — who offended any number of fans by calling them “manic” and “fairweather” during the season — really turn that many folks away from the ticket window? Did the sideshows that dwarfed the actual football alienate the populace to this ominous extent? Are Bombers fans really manic and fairweather?

No matter what the answer — if not all of the above — it’s been an expensive question.

Because given that the Bombers still live and die by the house, the true damage of sparse crowds in October will resurface in red ink in the team’s financial report next spring.

The good news is the home team will host the Hamilton Tiger-Cats two weekends hence in what promises to be one of the biggest showdowns in Bomberville outside of the post-season. It’s a game that should include the homecoming of the departed Kevin Glenn, a matchup that has to be a marketer’s dream.

Question: How many will even bother to show up?

You see, the Bombers future on the field is always dictated by the final score. But the franchise’s financial future is just as closely tied to final attendance figures. That’s how accountants and bill collectors decide winners and losers.

Good on the Bombers for winning a game they needed, regardless of circumstance.

There are no hollow victories on the field.

Clearly, there can be at the box office.

randy.turner@freepress.mb.ca

Randy Turner
Reporter

Randy Turner spent much of his journalistic career on the road. A lot of roads. Dirt roads, snow-packed roads, U.S. interstates and foreign highways. In other words, he got a lot of kilometres on the odometer, if you know what we mean.

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