The BC Lions announced on Sunday that they have now sold over 50 thousand tickets for their season opener. Since it was announced on May 27 that 50 Cent would be performing at the BC Lions home opener tickets have been selling at a rapid rate.

The day after the 50 Cent announcement the Lions announced that they were opening up more sections in the upper bowl. They had surpassed 45,000 tickets sold for the game last Friday.

With the Lions now having sold 50 thousand tickets for the game they are very close to the capacity of BC Place which is 52,400 for football.

The Lions home opener looks now to be poised to be the most attended CFL game in over a decade. The last time a CFL game had over 50 thousand fans in attendance was in 2011 when the BC Lions hosted the Edmonton Elks in week 14 which saw the Lions win 33-24 in front of 50,213 fans.

Hopefully for the Lions and the rest of the CFL, this can help move the needle on later attendance throughout the year as well. The league’s overall attendance numbers were decreasing every year from 2012 to 2019.

The BC Lions saw a sharp uptick in attendance in 2022 in large part due to Canadian sensation Nathan Rourke. In 2023 the numbers increased again as the team built on the previous season with more high-quality play. However, the Lions are still quite lower than behind what they saw from 2005 to 2014 when the yearly average attendance was around 30 thousand over that span.

Amar Doman’s leadership as the Lions owner is clearly influencing the club towards a positive direction. Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment should look to him as an example of how they can regain the interest in the Toronto Argonauts in their community.

@JonathanClink on Twitter