Courtesy Winnipeg Sun:

I’ve never been one to tell sports fans what to do, particularly when it comes to buying tickets. Figure my job is more to monitor their pulse than try to get it racing.

That’s why I’m not going to dump all over this city’s football fans for treating Sunday’s CFL playoff game like it’s diseased.

But the fact tickets are moving slower than rush-hour traffic does raise a question some may find a tad troubling: is this a lousy sports town?

Like it or not, it’s going to look that way on national television, when the Blue Bombers take on Montreal in the East semifinal. At the current pace, the crowd might hit 21,000 or 22,000, probably the worst turnout of the year — for the biggest game of the year.

PUZZLING?

Not when you look back. Over the last 10 home playoff games, the Bombers have often drawn in the low 20s, averaging just north of 23,000.

When the stars align — the team gets on a roll and the weather hangs in there — as they did in 2001, the place sells out. But watch out when the Bombers stumble into the playoffs, as they are this season, having gone 3-4 down the stretch. At that point, a spot on the living room sofa in climate-controlled comfort, instead of on a frozen, plastic seat in wind chill that would test a Popsicle’s sticks, looks mighty good.

“It’s everybody’s prerogative whether they’re here or not,” Bombers president/CEO Lyle Bauer said. “We appreciate everybody who’s bought a ticket. I don’t think it’s going to matter how many are there … they’ll play their asses off.” But a lot of people won’t freeze theirs.

Does that make Winnipeggers fair-weather fans?

Compared with those in Regina, you bet. It’s going to get some attention in the rest of the country, too. Already has.

Got an e-mail from the “Centre of the Universe,” also known as Toronto, this week. You know, the place we prairie dwellers like to mock for its lack of support for the CFL.

The guy writing was a big-time football fan, with season-tickets to both the Argonauts and the NFL’s Buffalo Bills. But he’s a three-down guy at heart. It’s his NFL-crazed buddy who’s looking westward and wondering what’s going on in the ‘Peg.

And he made a good point, the letter began. If the CFL and the playoffs aren’t a big deal in freakin’ Winnipeg, why should they be a big deal in Toronto? Why should we get lectured about not backing the CFL? We have Major League Baseball, NBA and the NHL, and Winnipeg has none of that for competition and they still won’t fill up their tiny stadium.

To sports fans across the country who sneak a peak at the broadcast … it does send a message … that the CFL isn’t even “big-time” in Winnipeg.

Touche. Aren’t we the ones, too, who love to take shots at places like Nashville and Phoenix when they can’t fill their buildings for the NHL?

Pot-kettle-black, I’d say.

When it gets right down to it, Winnipeg, right now, might be the CFL’s softest market, come playoff time. Put a semi-final game in Hamilton or Toronto, you’d probably get close to 30,000. Montreal, assuming the Als would use the Big-O, would draw even more.

Out west, the Stamps and Eskimos wouldn’t play a sudden-death game before fewer than 30,000, would they? Nor the Lions. And we don’t even have to debate the following of the good, old Riders.

So it looks like we’re it, Winnipeg. Bottom of the rung.

I’m not saying we don’t have our reasons, or that the Bombers deserve more.

But maybe the next time we point fingers at the fickle sports fans somewhere else, we should start in the mirror.

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WHERE’S THE PLAYOFF FEVER?

Year Game Opponent Att. Weather

2003 Semifinal Saskatchewan 22,110 -12C

2002 Semifinal B.C. 22,508 -6C

2001 Final Hamilton 29,503 4C

1994 Final Baltimore 25,067 -1C

1994 Semifinal Ottawa 18,888 7C

1993 Final Hamilton 23,332 -8C

1992 Final Hamilton 27,033 -1C

1991 Semifinal Ottawa 22,799 -12C

1990 Final Toronto 29,192 4C

1988 Semifinal Hamilton 12,210 0C

Average Crowd (last 10 games): 23,264