IGF sees bump in attendance thanks to risky ticket discounts and classic football

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This article was published 28/10/2017 (2932 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

They lost the game, 36-27 to the B.C. Lions.

They lost, their starting quarterback, Matt Nichols, to a lower-body injury in the first half.

They lost their starting tailback, Andrew Harris, to an upper-body injury in the second half.

And they lost a chance to clinch, in front of their own fans, a home playoff date.

But on a Saturday afternoon that not much went right for a Winnipeg Blue Bombers team that has now lost three of their last four games, the one place the club did record a much needed ‘W’ was in the stands at Investors Group Field.

With an announced crowd of 25,034 for the final regular season home game of 2017, the Bombers finish the regular season with a total attendance of 249,129.

That works out to an average of 27,681 fans per game per game this season, a big improvement over the 25,935 fans per game the Bombers averaged in 2016.

And that’s big news for anyone with a stake in Investors Group Field, which is to say every single Manitoban.

Attendance at IGF had been in freefall ever since the building opened in 2013. The Bombers averaged 30,637 fans per game that first season at IGF, but attendance had declined every season since, dropping to 28,314 in 2014; 26,745 in 2015; and finally bottoming out last year with what was the lowest average attendance for the club since 2009, when they were still playing at dilapidated Canad Inns Stadium.

It was an alarming trend and it spelled big trouble if it had continued, both for a team carrying a $185 million mortgage on their new football palace and the taxpayers of this province who hold that note.

And that’s why amidst all the gloom on Saturday afternoon concerning a Bombers team that seems to have found itself in a tailspin at the worst possible time of the season, there is reason to hope the club has finally gotten things back on the track off the field, if not necessarily on it.

Now, we won’t know what the improved attendance this season means to the Bombers razor-thin bottom line until the club releases its annual report next spring.

And there is reason to believe at least some of this year’s attendance bump had as much to do with deeply discounted tickets as it did with the club’s second winning season in a row on the field.

Surfing the internet this week, I had a Bombers advertisement pop up on me that offered four tickets to Saturday’s game, along with four hot dogs, four bags of chips, four soft drinks and a parking pass for the incredible price of just $97.

When you consider the parking pass alone in that deal is worth 20 bucks, the club was almost giving away tickets this weekend to try and get some butts in the seats on a frigid weekend.

That’s a risky marketing strategy, with pros and cons.

On the one hand, you’ve got paying customers in your building sitting in seats that would otherwise be empty. Anything they spend, no matter how little, is a bonus.

But on the other hand, I’ve been hearing stories circulating all season long about deeply discounted tickets to Bombers games and if I’ve been hearing them, you have to figure at least some of those stories have also gotten back to the club’s loyal season ticket base.

Imagine how happy you were on Saturday to park your car in your full price spot, sit in your full price seat and chow down on your full price concessions only to have four yahoos plunk down next to you with a story about how they’re enjoying all the same things as you, except it’s practically free for them because they aren’t nearly as loyal to this team as you are.

Hmmm.

Still, in the big picture, it’d be hard for any Bombers fan to say they didn’t get their money’s worth from this club this season, no matter how this season turns out in the end.

The club’s 6-3 record at home this season was their first winning record at home since they moved into IGF and some of those home games — beginning with that crazy 41-40 comeback against Montreal in Week 6 — were absolute classics.

You can say a lot of different things about these 2017 Bombers — not all of it good. But the one thing you cannot say is they haven’t been entertaining.

So what now? Your guess is as good as mine when it comes to this enigmatic team.

All I know for sure is that for the second year in a row, the Bombers are in the playoffs.

And after some long, lean years in this town, that’s a victory of sorts all by itself.

paul.wiecek@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @PaulWiecek