Argozzz!

August is generally an exciting time for football fans. August means Fantasy Football drafts and the latest installment of the MADDEN series. In Canada, the CFL season is in full swing, in the US College football season begins; NFL players, well at least some of them have returned to training camp and the much anticpated pre-season schedule begins. Yes the pre-season where 3rd and 4th stringers battle it out for 1 or 2 spots on the kick coverage or practice squad, what a wonderful time.

Friday I decided to take in my very first CFL game of the 2008 season (I always think it`s strange that there are so very few sports that have a season entirely contained in a single calendar year). I had to that point not really watched a full Argo game this season, I picked this game for several reasons, the most important being it was on a Friday night of a long weekend and it was against Winnipeg, perhaps not as big a rivalry as Hamilton or Montreal, but having a good drinking buddy from Winnipeg who also enjoyed watching the CFL, I thought at the very least I can enjoy imbibing even if the game wasn`t very entertaining. Let`s just say this theory was about to be put to the test.

Approaching the stadium I was accosted by an Anti-Buffalo Bills campaigner who wanted me to take some flyer protesting the pending pre-season game and regular season game to be held in Toronto over the next few years. I declined. I will briefly explain my stance on this. I do attend Argo games, I am also an avid NFL fan although not much of a Bills fan. Personally, I think even if an NFL franchise were to come to Toronto, the CFL and the Argos could manage to survive. I would not pay the outrageous prices that are being charged to see a pre-season game, a regular season game it would depend entirely on the match up. Even if we had an NFL franchise, I don`t think that`d stop me from seeing an Argo game for a fraction of the cost. The CFL operates during the summer months and the season ends in November right when the NFL starts to get interesting. You can argue the Argos and the CFL are a cultural institution and to lose that would be a shame, I agree, but I think if the CFL fails it won`t be because people have chosen to attend an NFL game over a CFL game, I think even without the NFL people will find other places to spend their entertainment money if they don`t enjoy the CFL. I mean the NFL is hardly Walmart I don`t think they really care whether the CFL lives or dies, in fact I think the presence of the CFL as an almost North American farm system could be invaluable especially since the end of NFL Europe.

The Argos failed miserably at building any kind of energy in the crowd prior to this game. I showed up at 6:15 expecting some kind of tailgaiting event, either a barbeque or beer garden, but there was nothing. I managed to buy tickets off of a scalper friend below face value, when we got to our seats in the 200 level we noticed there were no upper bowl cheap seats sold at all. This I find extremely disappointing. Maybe you are only selling 25,000 seats, but open up the upper bowl, sell tickets at $2 a piece if you need to fill it. Perhaps the costs of security and ushers for the upper bowl keeps the Argos from making seats available in the upper bowl, but it just seems pathetic. The game itself was nearly as dull as an NFL pre-season game. There were 3 exciting events the entire game: an Argo punt return for a TD, a 80+ yard Blue Bomber TD pass and the drunken fan in the 4th quarter who tried to run across the field. Too many punts led to a lack of continuity, an inherent danger in watching a CFL game, but rare to see teams punt or settle for field goals so frequently. When the star of the game is Mike `our drunken idiot kicker` Vanderjagt you can tell it`s not such a good entertainment product. The only thing I could take solace in is I got a 200 level seat and 4 beers ( the fact I was drinking a beer for which the rival team was named led me to question whether I was somehow being disloyal to my home team) for the price of a person would pay to watch the Steelers vs. Bills Pre-Season ticket in the upper bowl.

Next Argo home game: Friday August 15th vs. the Montreal Alouettes. I wonder whether they will have taken down all of the Bills banners and displays from the night before by then.