Toronto Argonauts and CFL need to capitalize on Grey Cup momentum

There were a lot of reasons to be excited about what transpired in the 109th Grey Cup between the Toronto Argonauts and Winnipeg Blue Bombers.

After years of tough seasons and heartbreaking losses, the Argonauts pulled off the upset and going 7-0 in their last seven trips to the Grey Cup game. It was also one of the more entertaining finishes to a CFL season where Chad Kelly came off the bench for an injured McLeod Bethel-Thompson and led Toronto to the game-winning touchdown followed by a pair of blocked field goals to send everything into a frenzy.

Then it was time for the celebration with Henoc Muamba being the star of the show sweeping the Most Outstanding Player and Canadian awards and not holding back his emotions.

More importantly, when you look at the conversation on social media, there were hardly any complaints about the game. Instead, many who probably hadn’t watched a lot of CFL football were raving about the game and the result.

It was the perfect showcase for the league and the Argonauts to let others know that the CFL has loads of entertainment value. Now, for everybody’s favourite question…how do they capitalize off some of the momentum?

This will continue to be a main talking point in the city when it comes to the Argonauts which is why the narrative needs to start shifting for this team. There will be those who continually compare the CFL and the NFL and that’s never going to change but there is an opportunity to grab the attention of a new audience.

An important note to current Argonauts fans. There has been a lot of frustration shared throughout the years about MLSE’s ownership of the team and some of it is justified but nothing in the sports business world is perfect so just embrace the positive things that is happening with the team and make that the talking point.

Embrace the people who might consider giving the CFL a chance and don’t feed the beast of those who are clearly trying to draw a reaction with condensending messages about the team and the league.

In a city with so many entertainment options, the Argonauts need to sell the experience of going to a CFL game. They also have a great marketing tool that they can take advantage of and that’s the Grey Cup trophy.

Over the next few months, the team should be trying to orgnanize appearances with the Grey Cup trophy at schools, public areas (back in 2012 they were at the Canadian Auto Show) and community centres. The goal should be about outreach and bringing the game to the people rather than hoping those who watched the game will suddenly decide they’ll start showing up to games on their own.

Ticket prices are pretty reasonable for a sporting event in this city but there has to be another draw to the game whether it is a promotion for people who buy a flex pack or following what the Toronto Blue Jays did with their loonie dog sale.

The CFL head office plays a big part in this too with how the league schedules game for next season. The league cannot have a repeat of what the schedule looked like this year where Toronto played the same team four times in a five game stretch.

Because of the league having an odd number of teams, the Argos had the Week 1 bye which shouldn’t be the case for next season but they cannot have the opening game on a Thursday night. The CFL needs to start embracing the Friday night games as the primetime slot especially if they want to attract the right crowd at games.

The final one here is the way the league and team is covered in the media. Grey Cup week always sees a bump in coverage but there’s no denying the league needs more of it, especially in Toronto.

It was nice to wake up after the Grey Cup and see the Argos get some time on sports talk radio. It would be nice if this wasn’t a one-and-done type of deal and the storylines from the season and the upcoming off-season can be broken down.

There is definitely a lack of balance when you see a flurry of reporters and cameras at Toronto Maple Leafs, Toronto Raptors and Toronto Blue Jays practices/games but the Argonauts struggle to get it at all. It’s not just the traditional media formats like television, radio and newspapers that the Argonauts haven’t been able to get consistent coverage but only digital platforms too.

Seeing the Leafs and Raptors social media accounts promote the Argonauts is a simple yet effective way to help with that considering the reach both teams have in this city. It only makes sense to use the brands that you own to help elevate another one.

There was a tweet shared on Monday evening about the Argonauts website not being updated with any news about the Gery Cup win. In response, some of the team staff made it a point to say that the team has put more of their concentration on their social platforms which have put out some great content the last few weeks.

To be clear, it doesn’t take much to make a post about the Argonauts wining the Grey Cup. Go to the Toronto Maple Leafs website and they have a story on homepage that links to the NHL.com story from their last game.

It wouldn’t be that difficult for the Argos to do the same and link to content on the CFL.ca website which is something some teams do. Even if the team feels like the attention should be paid on their social media content, unfortunately, this is now a conversation that is being had on social media and is taking some attention away from the team’s accomplishment.

After winning the Grey Cup in 2017, general manager Jim Popp called on fans to "Join the Love Boat!" but that led to back-to-back four wins season and the organization needing a restart.

Head coach Ryan Dinwiddie said in his arrival to Toronto that his mind already started to think about what’s next for this team.

Dinwiddie was pretty much echoing what Michael “Pinball” Clemons said when he returned to the team. His goal for the organization was to establish some sustained success like Winnipeg and Calgary have had over the years and the last two seasons have put the team in the right direction.

Now it is up to the Argonauts to keep the momentum going both on and off the field.