The poor turnout for the Argonauts’ home opener last Saturday, when only 17,758 showed up, is not a problem just in Toronto.

Across the CFL, attendance at home openers fell from last season, even in traditional strongholds such as Winnipeg, Edmonton and Saskatchewan.

Of the nine teams, only Hamilton and Ottawa have yet to have a home date for 2014, although the expansion Redblacks have announced that their home opener against the Argos on July 18 in 24,000-seat TD Place is sold out.

The following crowd numbers for the seven home openers across the league in the first two weeks of the season all show declines, with 2013 numbers shown in brackets:

Toronto, 17,758 (29,852).

Vancouver, 24,524 (25,255).

Edmonton 30,714 (35,869).

Winnipeg 24,872 (33,500).

Calgary 26,135 (26,625).

Montreal, 20,018 (22,134).

Regina 19,285 (35,296).

The lousy attendance for the Roughriders, who drew the smallest home crowd since 2001 when 18,496 showed up, has much to do with fact the game was played on a wet and windy day.

After four games, attendance was averaging 23,704 across the league. In 2013, average attendance overall was 27,006, so there is hope the crowds will grow throughout summer.

Of course, it’s far too early to indicate any trends.

Yet it is hard to reason why so few spectators turned up at the Rogers Centre on Saturday. The conditions were perfect. It was a warm, sunny day and the lid was open. It was an odd starting time, however, with a 3 p.m. kickoff and the Argos had gotten off to a bad start in a 45-21 loss to Winnipeg.

Those who came on Saturday were rewarded with a highly entertaining game featuring plenty of offence in a 48-15 Argo victory over the defending Grey Cup champion Roughriders.

Lori Bursey, who runs the official Argonauts fan club, Friends of the Argos, had been hoping for a crowd of 30,000.

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“It’s disappointing,” Bursey said. “There was no reason to believe people would have any issues coming to the game, but clearly they did.”

Bursey, who founded the Argo fan club in 1990, said her membership has fallen from a high of about 450 supporters to around 200. The biggest reason she hears from members who don’t renew is that they are too busy after starting a family.

You could argue that sports fans were more interested in watching a World Cup match between the Netherlands and Costa Rica. If soccer is a conflict, the Argos may face more challenges this Saturday when they go head-to-head with Toronto FC at BMO Field.

The Argo game against the Calgary Stampeders kicks off at 6:30 p.m., and Toronto FC hosts Houston at 7 p.m. The timing of the Argo game will allow CFL rights-holder TSN to go directly to the second game of a doubleheader, with the Roughriders hosting the Lions at 9:30 p.m. ET.

It didn’t help season-ticket sales campaigns when it appeared for a time that the players would strike and wipe out some, if not all, of the regular season.

That perhaps accounts for the fact that attendance has slipped in other cities as well, although CFL commissioner Mark Cohon didn’t want to make a comment about attendance this early in the season, according to the head office.

Of course, the CFL is excited about the future because new stadiums in Saskatchewan (coming in 2017), Winnipeg (2013), Hamilton (2014), Ottawa (2014), and ultimately Toronto will provide a more intimate atmosphere and better fan experience.

Chris Rudge, CEO of the Argonauts, said the biggest issue with Argo attendance relates to a competitive marketplace.

“It’s tough competition,” said Rudge, who regularly hears from people in the Prairies who don’t understand why a big city like Toronto lags behind.

“You have to live here to understand what Toronto is,” Rudge said. “It’s a city that’s highly engaged with a multitude of entertainment options. Toronto is the third-largest theatre centre in the world next to New York and London and people don’t realize that.”

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