Scoring, big plays, attendance and TV ratings are all up; games and standings are close going into Week Five
TORONTO – The 2012 Canadian Football League season is off to an exciting start with scoring, kick return touchdowns, attendance, and television ratings all up as we head into Week Five.
“It’s early, of course, but so far this season is a off to a great start as we travel the road to 100th Grey Cup championship,” said Mark Cohon, Commissioner of the CFL.
Going into Week Five of the CFL season:
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• Scoring, at 55 points per game, is up 10 per cent over the 2011 season.
• No Lead is Safe: 63 per cent of the games so far have been decided in the final three minutes, up from 50 per cent in 2011.
• Seven of the 16 games thus far have been decided by four points or less including two last weekend.
• We’re seeing big plays: there have been seven kick return touchdowns – and we had eight all of last season.
• Passing attacks are prominent: TD passes are up over 25% this season and the 3.5 TD passes per game is the highest in CFL history. Last week, Ticats quarterback Henry Burris matched the highest completion rate in CFL history for a game where a QB attempted at least 30 passes.
• Teams appear to be evenly matched: There is a three way tie for first in the East, and all four teams in the West are separated by no more than a game.
• After four weeks seven of the eight teams have at least two wins and are within one game of first place.
All of these factors are contributing to promising ratingperformances for the CFL on TSN. Overall, ratings for the first four weeks of the season are up 3.2 per cent over the same period last year. Ratings among males aged 18-34, long considered a key demographic, are up 37 per cent, adults aged 18-34 are up 19 per cent and the 25-54 adult category is up 10 per cent.
Some of the games that have garnered the largest audiences have featured the Toronto Argonauts and Hamilton Tiger-Cats in highly populous southern Ontario, long considered a key region.
The Argonauts -Ticats game in week three was the third most-watched game ever on TSN between those teams that wasn’t played on Labour Day.
With games being so close in the fourth quarter, several games have averaged more than one million viewers in the final ten minutes, including last week’s Argos game against the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.
Fans are also engaging deeper on CFL.ca and LCF.ca. During the month of June, fans spent 30 per cent more time on CFL.ca and LCF.ca than during the same period last year.
Through the first four weeks of the season, attendance is also looking strong. Compared to this time last year, average league attendance is up 3.3%.
Week Five in the CFL kicks off when the Edmonton Eskimos take on the Winnipeg Blue Bombers at Canad Inns Stadium on Thursday, July 26 at 8:30pm, ET. Week Five continues on Friday when the Argonauts travel to Montreal to play the Alouettes at 7:30pm ET and concludes with a double header on Saturday when the Hamilton Tiger-Cats battle the Saskatchewan Roughriders at Mosaic Stadium at 6:00pm ET and the BC Lions take on the Calgary Stampeders at McMahon Stadium at 9:00pm ET.
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