Is it time to perk up Rider season tickets?
Published: Tuesday, May 16th 2017, 1:05pm
By: Greg McCulloch – @GregOnSports
The Toros del Tijuana of Liga Mexicana de Beisbol recently unveiled their latest promotion to honour their season ticket holders, custom seat “jerseys”. It is a full seat cushion with the ticket holders name and a number of their choosing. It’s a very cool and original way to thank the fans for supporting the team with their hard-earned money.
Coincidentally enough CFL season ticket holders from all over the country have been receiving their ticket packages for the 2017 season. The CFL has always been a gate driven league and each franchise has different ways to thank their season ticket holders for supporting them.
In talking with some season ticket holders outside of Regina, most of the teams were very similar where there is a discount at the team’s stores. The discount varied from 10% (Toronto, Edmonton, Hamilton, Ottawa), 15%(Montreal), and 20% (Winnipeg, Calgary, BC). Hamilton and Montreal offer discounts at the stadiums’ concessions, while BC and Calgary throw in coupons for the concessions or for local business. Toronto in trying to get more people to discover Argos football is giving their season ticket holders 4 free flex tickets to bring new eyeballs to games.
Besides the Argos, most season ticket holders admitted the perks have been getting lesser and lesser each year.
Now, what about the Riders?
The Riders shipped out this year’s team cards in a fancy box with a hologram switching views from the old stadium to the new stadium. Also, included in the box was a plain string lanyard and a “season ticket playbook” which is a stadium map, and explains the amenities of the new stadium.
The Riders cards include the Rider Rewards points program that was started 3 seasons ago for showing up before games, checking out the pregame party, renewing season tickets, etc. The points then can be redeemed on the rewards website for raffle items, auction items, or you can “purchase” Rider store gift cards (5000pts for $10).
While the points seemed like a good idea at first, the points are much like Chucky Cheese tickets. You never have enough to get the prize you want, so you just end up wasting what you have on trinkets and double bubble just to get rid of them before you leave.
Rider Nation is constantly told they are the best fans in the league. They spend dollar after dollar on the team on merchandise with the Rider logo. They drive the TV ratings, they invade every other CFL market selling tickets. While they will be first in having the nicest stadium, the season ticket holders appear to be last in being appreciated.
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