Argos Home Opener

The folding of my home town's football team (for the second time) has forced me to re-evaluate my relationship with the Canadian Football League. Though it pains me, I will try to support the Toronto Argonauts' 2006 campaign. This seemed sensible since I can make it to most home games, I've been a Damon Allen fan since I was a kid, and I can continue to loathe Hamilton. Well, Damon was knocked out during the first series and at times I was actually cheering for the Ti-Cats. At least it was easy to get tickets.

Yesterday's opener made for a fine afternoon with the roof open, lukewarm beer, and enough empty seats to chase the shade across the nosebleeds. I'll offer only one observation about the experience. Someone in the Argos' marketing department has determined that the patrons don't really like football and have the attention span of gnats. To keep them from walking out after the first quarter, they are bombarded with music, cheerleaders in the stands, games at every commercial break, and high school-calibre skits on the Jumbotron. The sensory overload is so great that you actually miss the home team scoring touchdowns. Some advice to the front office: the 15,000 people who gave up their Saturday in June to sit in the Skydome are probably die-hards.