A day after a disappointingly low turnout to the Argonauts’ second home date at BMO Field, Michael Copeland isn’t immune to the cawing of the Internet’s boo birds.

The Argos president and CEO read what floated across Twitter on Wednesday night and online chat through Thursday after the Argos put a crowd of 12,373 into their new home to watch the Argos lose 30-20 to the Ottawa Redblacks.

That number was almost a 50 per cent drop from the 24,812 that showed up for the season-opener June 23.

In a matter of hours, people were questioning whether the move to BMO Field could be a success, and ultimately if the Argos could survive in Toronto.

Copeland is steadfast there’s a difference between boo birds chirping and vultures circling.

“I think we knew going into this year there were going to be fluctuations game by game, different circumstances for different games,” he said.

“I think the vast majority of our fans understand that we’re changing things and that we’ve got a really strong, stable, committed ownership group that’s in this for the long haul. When you reflect on that, it tempers any frustration. You always want to get somewhere quicker than you can.”

While the on-field Argos have hopes for a Grey Cup, Copeland and the team’s front office are planning a slow build. The new ownership of Bell and MLSE chairman Larry Tanenbaum came into effect in January, putting season-ticket sales behind where it should have been in the team’s off-season, Copeland said. They had 3,600 season tickets sold in January and have cracked 7,000 today. That leaves the organization in need of a substantial walk-up ticket purchase for each home game.

“For this year and likely for the next couple of years we’re still skewed more toward the casual ticket buyer,” he said. “The reality is that the people we’re trying to bring into the fold, it’s difficult to get them on a season-ticket purchase. They’re more likely to come in on one game or two or three on a trial and then convert from there. Because of that you’re going to get certain games that are (better attended) than others.”

The Exhibition Place grounds were busy on Wednesday, with the race track already built for Sunday’s Honda Indy Toronto event with security fencing all around it and a Duran Duran concert across Lakeshore Boulevard at the Molson Amphitheatre. A hot, humid day that fell midweek — outside of the CFL’s usual Thursday through Sunday scheduling — also could have worked against a bigger turnout.

“It was a bit of a perfect storm,” Copeland said.

With construction to BMO Field affecting scheduling for both the Argos and Toronto FC, Copeland is anticipating a more fluid home schedule for both teams next year. For now, the Argos have to deal with something of an odd schedule. They host the Montreal Alouettes on Monday July 25 but get back to weekend home dates in August, with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers here on Friday Aug. 12 and the Edmonton Eskimos visiting Saturday Aug. 20.

“We’re learning this year. This is sort of, we call it Year 1, a new organization, a new stadium,” Copeland said, adding that Wednesday’s game was still the third-highest revenue-generating game for the team in the last six years, with the Week 1 opener the team’s No. 1 generator, based off paid ticket sales.

He sees it as the start of a good thing.

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“We’d love for every game to not have an empty seat and I think at some point we’ll be there, but we’re in a rebuild from a very, very low starting point,” he said.

“We’re making great progress but it’s going to take some time.”