Blue green with ticket envy

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 04/11/2008 (6374 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

News that the Saskatchewan Roughriders had sold out their West semifinal in less than an hour went rippling through Blue Bomberland on Monday morning and had the players talking about a similar turnout for their scrap with the Edmonton Eskimos this Saturday.

“Our fans have to come out and support us. See what those guys in Regina have done. We have a lot more fans here so they have to come out and support us,” said veteran Milt Stegall, who along with the rest of his teammates will meet the Esks in the East semi on Saturday with the winner advancing to the East final in Montreal against the Als the following week. “I think they’ll get it done. They’ve been supportive of us win, lose or draw so when it’s all said and done I think we’ll have a sellout.”

The Bombers had sold 23,000 tickets as of late Monday afternoon, about 6,500 stubs shy of a sellout. The team has purchased the game from the league and last week CEO Lyle Bauer said the break-even point was around the 22,500 mark, but also that the Bombers stood to profit as much as $300,000 if they reached capacity at 29,500.

Capacity at Mosaic Stadium in Regina is 28,800.

For players, Stegall says a full stadium adds steam to the home side.

“The 13th man as they call it. It’s important. Home field means you get your own locker-room. You get to sleep in your own bed. When you hit the field, I don’t know. It’s 12 against 12 whether you’re at home, on the road or in your back yard,” said Stegall. “It’s always good to have that home crowd cheering for you. When you make a big play, you can hear them. Sometimes on the road, when you make a big play you don’t hear anything. It’s nice to have your fans cheering for you. We’ll feel it, whether it’s one fan or a sellout. The people that are here, they’ll be loud.”

Embattled Bombers kicker Alexis Serna will be playing in his first CFL playoff game. Many a kicker has been chewed up and spit out by the mercurial Prairie winds at this time of the year. Serna will have the advantage of kicking on his home field all week but says Saturday afternoon’s gusts will be unpredictable.

“You never know here in Winnipeg. The wind seems to change every single day and you just have to adjust. It’s more about hitting the ball solid each and every time. I’m excited. It’s an opportunity for us. It’s the first step towards the Grey Cup,” said Serna.

Serna, who finished the season 34-of-51 in field goals and is ranked last in the league with a 66.7 per cent success ratio, has heard the boos from his home fans at several junctures this year, was a little prickly when it was suggested one good playoff game could erase the bad feelings built up between him and the fans.

“I guess I could do that. But it’s not really for the crowd. It’s for these players. My teammates and these coaches that have put in all this hard work. Especially my teammates,” said Serna, before backing up a bit when he was asked if he didn’t care about the fans. “I want to reward the fans but mostly my teammates. They’ve been rallying around me real well.”

The Blue Bombers have averaged 24,406 customers over their last five home playoff games with just one sellout in that time.

Bombers marketing boss Jerry Maslowski expects Winnipeg football fans to make a push as the week grows older.

“Where we’re at right now is very close to what we ended up with last year,” said Maslowski, referring to the attendance mark of 22,843 in the team’s East semi win over the Montreal Alouettes last fall. “This is a point of pride and it represents our city and our province and also how Winnipeg is perceived in Canada and the U.S. It’s more than football but having a full stadium, we’ve got more than 6,500 seats left. Hopefully the rest of the country will see a full stadium here before they switch to the late game in Saskatchewan.”

gary.lawless@freepress.mb.ca