Apathy the scariest thing

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 21/07/2016 (3366 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The booing started midway through the second quarter at Investors Group Field Thursday night. That’s bad.

But then it mostly stopped. And that’s worse. A lot worse.

Because when the long-suffering fan base of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers is booing, that means they at least care.

But it’s when they stop booing — like they did Thursday night in the midst of a 33-18 Bombers’ loss to the Calgary Stampeders that dropped Winnipeg’s season record to 1-4 — we all need to worry what’s been a Bombers’ problem until now is threatening to very soon become a problem for every Manitoban.

Because when the fans stop caring, they stop coming. And if they stop coming in this town, that massive loan every taxpayer in this province extended the Bombers to build IGF is going to become a very questionable proposition very quickly.

Indeed, you only had to attend a Bombers home game this season to understand patience has already run out for wide swaths of this team’s fan base.

Thursday night’s announced crowd of 24,677 was the sixth-lowest attendance at IGF since the place opened in 2013 — and the second-worst-attended ‘summer’ game (games in June, July, August) in the history of the facility.

The worst-attended summer game ever at IGF? Well, that was last week when just 24,007 turned up to watch the Bombers lose to the Edmonton Eskimos.

Why does this summer-game thing matter? Well, it’s because until this year, the lousy Bombers crowds have come in the fall when the Bombers were already out of playoff contention. This year, people aren’t even waiting to stop caring.

Add to the small crowds for the last two games the very modest 26,433 that turned up for the 2016 season opener at IGF last month, and the Bombers are averaging just 25,039 fans per game this season in a building that holds 33,000-plus.

While you’re pondering that, ponder this: the Bombers play next week in Commonwealth Stadium in Edmonton, where Winnipeg hasn’t won since 2006.

A loss in Edmonton would see the Bombers limp home with a 1-5 record to play at IGF Aug. 3 in what will be this team’s final home game until after Labour Day.

Anyone want to venture a guess at what the crowd will be for that Hamilton game if the Bombers’ season is already all but over just one-third of the way into an 18-game season?

The Bombers never publicly announced their season-ticket number for this season, and after making a few inquiries, I found out why: at 19,144, season ticket sales this year are down 10 per cent over last year and are at their lowest level since the Bombers moved into IGF.

As worrying as that number is, remember this: the Bombers sold the fewest season tickets in IGF history this year despite a huge off-season of player signings that had just about everyone — including me — expecting big things from the Bombers this season.

Can you imagine what the season-ticket base would have been this year if GM Kyle Walters hadn’t won free agency?

Now, it is a credit to the most loyal fans in Canadian football that it has taken this long for cracks to finally materialize in the Blue Wall. After suffering through decades of frustrations, no one can blame the fans if their frustration has finally given way to apathy.

And it’s not like this team, for all it’s new free agent talent, has given fans much to cheer about. The offensive scheme under co-ordinator Paul LaPolice is simultaneously ill-suited both to the Canadian game and to the quarterback who has to run it, Drew Willy.

Might LaPo’s scheme work better with Matt Nichols under centre? Maybe — Nichols drove the team for a touchdown Thursday night when head coach Mike O’Shea finally put him in midway through the fourth quarter with the Bombers trailing 26-10.

But it proved too little, too late and only served to make fans wonder once again why O’Shea, unique among CFL coaches, so stubbornly refuses to make effective use of his backup.

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If Willy is the hill O’Shea is prepared to die on, he might yet get his wish. And sooner than later.

Because it’s one thing to torment a fan base that deserves so much better with yet another losing season. But it is quite another when those fans just stop caring and simply move on to better things.

The Bombers had no excuses Thursday night: a gorgeous summer night, a divisional opponent, a huge game with huge implications. And they rewarded their fans with what was the Bombers’ sixth straight loss at Investors Group Field.

The Bombers are 7-23 at home since IGF opened. The question isn’t why a lot of fans have stopped coming; the question is why the rest still are?

paul.wiecek@freepress.mb.caTwitter: @PaulWiecek