Unusual promotion sees Tiger-Cats offer fans tickets for an Argonauts' home game against them

"Buy one ticket, get one ticket to a rival's home game against us for free" is certainly an unconventional approach, but it's what the Hamilton Tiger-Cats are doing, potentially amping up their Southern Ontario rivalry with the Toronto Argonauts. The club sent out an e-mail (viewable here) Wednesday with a special deal for their fans; buy a silver- or gold-level ticket to their final home game on Nov. 8 against Montreal and get a free ticket to this Saturday's road game against the Argonauts in Toronto. That's an interesting approach from Hamilton, but it raises questions about the Argos' ability to sell tickets to their own fans. From the Ticats' e-mail:

That's rather remarkable to see a team offering tickets to an away game, but Tiger-Cats' CEO Scott Mitchell told 55-Yard Line Hamilton has done promotions to try and entice fans to travel to Toronto (a 43-minute drive, according to Yahoo Maps) before.

"We've done a bunch of things over the years," Mitchell said, specifically referencing pre-game parties in Toronto last year that attracted hundreds of fans. 

Mitchell added that the Ticats are buying the tickets in question from the Argonauts and then handing them on to their own fans. They're also buying the tickets (he estimated the numbers available as between 200 and 500) at the standard group rate.

"The Argos aren't giving us tickets, we're buying them," he said.

Mitchell added that the Ticats' goals here are two-fold; they want to have a more friendly atmosphere at Saturday's game (which will be crucial in deciding playoff seedings), and they want to boost attendance for their own home finale.

"There are two motivations," he said. "One, we want a lot of fans, Hamilton fans, to come to [Saturday's] game. Two, it's just a creative way to sell tickets."

Some would argue selling a block of tickets to a rival ahead of a crucial game is problematic, but Argonauts' senior vice-president (business operations) David Bedford told 55-Yard Line Wednesday this is part of the ongoing cooperative efforts between the two Southern Ontario franchises to grow the game.

"As we always try to do off the field, we worked closely with our friends at the Tiger-Cats on mutually building our business," Bedford said. " In this case, we agreed to provide an opportunity for the Ticats to move some tickets for their home game on Nov 8^th, while at the same time helping us move some for our game this coming Saturday."

Bedford said the Argonauts have used this approach in the past, and it might work the other way in the future.

"We did something similar last year for the East Final [in Toronto, which Hamilton won 36-24]," Bedford said. "I have no doubt the Ticats would, and will, do the same for us should we play one of these important games in Hamilton in the future.

On one level, this is smart thinking by both teams. The Ticats add an extra appeal to buying premium tickets for their home finale, and they also potentially dilute the Argonauts' home-field advantage this week. Meanwhile, Toronto at least sells more tickets and makes more money than they might otherwise, and they also potentially gain a bargaining chip they can cash in with the Ticats down the road. It seems likely some Argos' fans won't be thrilled that their team is helping opponents' fans come to the game, though; consider how poorly that worked out for another Toronto team in recent years. At the very least, it may be another sign of the Argos' issues attracting fans that these tickets are available to the Tiger-Cats. The reaction to this will be interesting to follow.