When were the Lions at the height of their popularity?

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In which era were the Leos most popular?

Mid-1960s
4
20%
Mid-1980s
16
80%
Mid-2000s
0
No votes
Other
0
No votes
 
Total votes: 20
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David
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After some disappointing seasons, time to think back to fun times in this town (although most of us were too young to have experienced their first Grey Cup or weren't born).

When were the Leos most popular in the Vancouver/Lower Mainland market?
I am featuring 3 primary choices.

Mid-1960s - This was the Joe Kapp/Willie Fleming era featuring a ferocious defensive line known as The Headhunters in front of jam-packed Empire Stadium crowds (35,000 per game were common). To consider what a big deal Joe was here, he had his own branded line of peanut butter!

Mid-1980s - After a long Grey Cup drought including a heartbreaking loss at home in 1983, the dam broke in 1985 with a big Grey Cup parade through town. Swervin' Mervyn and Al Wilson were household names and locally, the Lions were more popular than the Canucks. The Lions averaged 46,526 fans per game in 1986, more than the NFL's Cincinnati Bengals draw today!

Mid-2000s - Bob Ackles and Wally Buono helped usher in a new golden age of football to B.C. Place. A QB controversy created a lot of buzz and crowds were consistently in excess of 30,000 per game featuring some deafening Western Finals. There were also so many highly-skilled, "likeable" personalities fans could identify with such as Jason Clermont, Geroy Simon, Rob Murphy and Carl Kidd.


DH :cool:
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Robbie
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Definitely the mid-1980's, as clearly evidenced by the high attendance, the new stadium, and a huge improvement from the pitiful 1970's decade.

The mid-2000's were okay, but still not as popular as the mid-1980's and while bringing in Wally Buono was good, the Lions teams in the 1990's and early 2000's were not bad by any means either with two Grey Cups quarterbacked by now Hall of Fame members Danny McManus and Damon Allen.
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改建後的卑詩體育館於二十十一年九月三十日重新對外開放,首場體育活動為同日舉行的加拿大足球聯賽賽事,由主場的卑詩雄獅隊以三十三比二十四擊敗愛民頓愛斯基摩人隊。
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恭喜西雅图海鹰直到第四十八屆超級盃最終四十三比八大勝曾拿下兩次超級盃冠軍的丹佛野馬拿下隊史第一個超級盃冠軍。
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Hambone
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A couple of comments:
Mid 60s: The Lions were the talk of the town then in part due to the fact that similar to the situation with the Riders in Regina today the CFL was the top of the sports food chain. Montreal had the Habs and Toronto the Leafs. Aside from that there was no other professional sports entities competing for the attention and dollar of sports fans. With all due respect to the WHL Canucks playing out of the old Forum bandbox and the AAA Mounties at the Nat the Lions were the only game in town.

Mid-80s: The Lions enjoyed a purrfect storm. They moved into BC Place at the same time they had built their first legitimate Grey Cup contending team in 20 years. A certain portion of those going to games were there as much or more experience the stadium in an era where domed facilities were give almost "Wonders of the World" status. The NASL and with it Whitecaps would cease to exist after the 1984 season. Despite their unexpected Cup run in 1982 the Canucks were on a downward spiral into the lowest ebb in their popularity in their now 50 year history. I recall going to a game in around 1984 between Christmas and New Years. The Flyers were in town. We made the mistake of buying some tickets outside for one of the luxury boxes Needless to say we were turned away at the door to the suite because we weren't on the list. Security told us they could have us tossed out but "go find some empty seats, there's lots". Sure enough the upper bowl was 2/3 empty. Might have been lucky if they had 11000 to see the Flyers. It was glory days for the Lions somewhat in part due to their being no competition.
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B.C.FAN
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The Lions owned the sports market in the 1960s when I started following them and got my first season tickets but nothing then compared to the Lions’ fervour of the 1980s.

The sold-out Western Final clashes with the Bombers in 1983-85 were the height of local popularity. I had given up my season tickets at the time due to work and family commitments. Single-game playoff tickets were pricey and hard to get. With local blackouts in effect, I would drive 30 minutes to watch a satellite feed of the Western Final on a big screen with hundreds of people in a church hall. It was a community event.
We weren’t all passionate football fans but we were all B.C.ers and were proud to cheer for the Lions.
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Toppy Vann
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Echoing the 60s comments here.

When the Leos started any moves on coaches would be front page headlines period.

But that was also the era when even non fans would watch the Saturday afternoon Grey Cup games at home or at homes of others.
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David
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I am not necessarily surprised that the 1980s is winning this poll, just that there's not more love for the 1960s. Maybe it's because it was before our time (most of us anyway), but just reading books and articles, the club was hugely popular locally. Being the biggest game in town brought awareness and recognition of the players that we likely haven't seen since. There was rabid support.

Metro Vancouver was still fairly small then too, less than 1 million people. Thousands stood in the pouring rain at YVR in '64 to welcome the team home with the Grey Cup. It is interesting how many of the players from the era ended up making this their year-round residence.


DH :cool:
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SammyGreene
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What happened in the mid-2000s doesn't measure up to the club's popularity in the 60s or 80s but certainly was the most impressive achievement of all and what potential new ownership (and us diehards) cling to on what can happen again.

The popularity seemed to crest in 2007 when they averaged in the mid-30,000s which was remarkable given the club was up against a very competitive Canucks team that dominated talk radio and the Whitecaps. I always wondered if they could surpass 40,000 for a regular season game in that era but it never did happen. A year later we lost Bob Ackles and the momentum was gone soon after.
Dusty
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David wrote:
Wed Dec 11, 2019 11:06 pm
I am not necessarily surprised that the 1980s is winning this poll, just that there's not more love for the 1960s. Maybe it's because it was before our time (most of us anyway), but just reading books and articles, the club was hugely popular locally. Being the biggest game in town brought awareness and recognition of the players that we likely haven't seen since. There was rabid support.

Metro Vancouver was still fairly small then too, less than 1 million people. Thousands stood in the pouring rain at YVR in '64 to welcome the team home with the Grey Cup. It is interesting how many of the players from the era ended up making this their year-round residence.


DH :cool:
I was a teen-ager when the Lions were the biggest and essentially the only pro sports team in town, during the 60's. I also lived in North Vancouver, about 4 blocks west of Lonsdale. Back then, on the Highway, Lonsdale had a traffic light as did Westview. On game days, the traffic would back all the way from Lonsdale to Westview as people drove over to Empire Stadium. I always remember that game day phenomenon. It was a good way to look for interesting, and mainly new cars.
cms22
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i would say 1964 or so OR mid-80's.

mid-80s was purrfect storm... great teams and new stadium.

60's the team was probably much more part of the community culture.
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Sir Purrcival
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I'm going with the 80's as well. I was born in the early 60's so I missed that era but by the time the 70's rolled around, they were pretty awful and through my formative years they remained so. It wasn't until the 83 season that they really began to shine and I kept waiting for them to get awful. They had a good start, then they lost a few in the middle and was thinking that this was the beginning of the return to form that I had grown up with and then they picked it up again. Pretty much the first real winning season that I could remember and of course, the Grey Cup loss devastated me. What a brutal 2nd half capped off with a Chapdelaine drop that would have put them in field goal range of Lui. Crushed because I had never seen them win and I kept thinking that I would never see them do it. Of course 2 years later they did. So yeah, definitely the 80's for me. You never see your team win it all for the first time in your life ever again.
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