The Arena Football League (AFL) ought to appeal to Canadian sports fans due to several distinguishing facts. This can be primarily attributed to the total accessibility to the players and the game field, affordable ticket prices, and the sheer speed of the game.

Judging by the reaction of the 7,717 predominantly young, male fans that cheered on the Toronto Phantoms’ pre-season opener versus New York on April 11, the AFL could conceivably grow in Canada.

— Related Story: Phantoms hold Fury to 30 in home opener —

Ask Phantoms’ president and CEO Rob Godfrey what he thinks of his team’s long term prospects in T.O. — an already saturated pro sports market that will see the American Hockey League set up shop at the CNE next year — and he’ll tell you that Canadian expansion is a real possibility.

“One of the great things about the AFL is there’s a salary cap so unlike baseball or basket ball or hockey, when you go into the business you never know where salaries are going. We’re fortunate that our players and their union have worked with us to make this game a success,” he said. “We saw the success that the Toronto Rock (lacrosse team) had here with providing a product that’s fast, hard-hitting, high-scoring, but most of all affordable to fans.

“I think Toronto is a fantastic market for [the AFL], I hope the league uses it as a proxy for how other teams will do. I would personally love to see a team in Montreal, Ottawa, and across the country. I think Calgary would be a great market for Arena Football.”

Accessibility and a whole lot more. For a meagre 10 bucks, and beyond the actual game itself, fans are treated to an in-house band that roams throughout the stands, nubile cheerleaders (more affectionately known as the Phantasy Girlz) that interact with fans, and free t-shirts delivered via a blast from a bazooka. Moreover, loud rap and rock music dote the stoppage in play, and most fun of all, the opportunity to meet the players post-game by coming down onto the field for an autograph and a handshake.

So close, fans can almost touch #7, Damian Harrell

“It’s a very participant friendly event,” Godfrey remarked. “This is a sport that endears itself to fans. We have a phans’ bill of rights and a mission statement, which mandates us to have fan-friendly football at an affordable price.

“I hope the league looks at this and says, ‘Canada is a fantastic market to be in’.”

The Phantoms enter their second year of competition in Toronto this year. Their regular season home opener is on April 25 (7 p.m. kickoff) at the Air Canada Centre (ACC) versus the Detroit Fury. Last year, the Phantoms clinched the 16-team AFL’s Eastern Division Championship before being eliminated from playoff contention by the Nashville Kats.

The club’s season ticket base grew this year to over 4,000 seats sold from less than 3,000 in 2001. Despite this good omen, Godfrey contends there’s still much work to be done in order to fill the 17,000-seat ACC. The team averaged about 7,000 fans per game last year.

“What [Arena Football] really brings here is that notion of accessibility is more than just the word itself,” he continued. “We don’t have a field, we have a stage, we have fans that come watch our game, we have participants in our event. Every single fan out there participates in some way whether it’s talking to the Phantasy Girlz who are dancing in the stands, or requesting music from the band, catching t-shirts that are being thrown into the stands, to coming down onto the filed afterwards to meet their favourite player.”

To watch the AFL brand of football is a little confusing at first. For starters, the game is played on an artificial field the size of a hockey rink, complete with boards. There’s four 15-minute quarters (that fly like the wind unlike traditional football), the coaches are allowed to be on the field during play, and the players quite frequently end up in your lap if you’re seated in the front row.

“Granted, Toronto is a pretty crowded sports market, I think what we’ve done this year that’s different is that you can’t just advertise in the newspaper and you can’t just count on the radio talking about you,” Godfrey told S&H. “From January to March, we visited over 50 schools with our players. We got them out there, talking to the kids. It’s amazing when you see a bunch of kids talking to a football player. They don’t know that this guy doesn’t make a million dollars … they just want to reach out and touch a hero. That’s what we’re selling, we’re selling our heroes.”

The stereotype that suggests Canadians only like hockey isn’t accurate. While it’s true the Canadian Football League’s (CFL) Toronto Argonauts struggle perennially to put living bodies into the SkyDome for it’s games, an National Football League (NFL) exhibition game at the same venue will sell out in hours. Thus, finding football fans isn’t such a monumental challenge for Godfrey and crew. Getting them to pay heed to the AFL’s brand of football is the order of the day.

- Photograph by Bouke Salverda
- Phantoms logo courtesy the Toronto Phantoms Arena Football Club

Back to top