
Until this past trip, I had seen CFL games live in person in the three major Canadian cities: Toronto, Montréal, and Vancouver. This wasn't necessarily on purpose: happened to be in those cities.
But my impressions of the CFL is that the smaller cities have the most enthusiasm for the sport, and I thought it would be a good idea to see the game from that level.
Since I was already in Toronto, I wanted to see how viable it would be to get to Hamilton. And my timing was rather good in that the city is debating the fate of a new stadium, and depending on what happens with that, the fate of the team itself.
Turns out getting to and from Hamilton was the easiest part of the journey. The GO system — suburban buses and trains — runs an express bus from Toronto to Hamilton. And since I was traveling on Labour Day, the system was running a holiday schedule, but still ran buses on the hour going there and on the half-hour going back. I couldn't get that quality of service back home, even on the regular schedule.
If you are used to seeing big cities in Canada, Hamilton will bring you to a slower pace. Resting on Lake Ontario just like Toronto, Hamilton is a steel town, known for its industrial history, working-class people, and its sports. Hamilton and Toronto have a rivalry but it's mostly one-sided, with Hamilton having a "Toronto Sucks" mentality, and Toronto barely acknowledging Hamilton exists. And if you're offended by "sucks," I saw a few people in shirts in Hamilton that had that word in rather large letters.

But I am used to small towns, and have been in several smaller Southern Ontario towns in my life, including London, Stratford, and of course, Windsor. Downtown Hamilton was about what I thought it would be: where the action is in the city. There is a square that features the hockey arena (the city is a slim possibility for a NHL relocation), a spot for a farmers market, the public library. The city wants to build the new stadium downtown, and quite frankly, I can see why.
You have a city right on the lakefront but when you're in the heart of downtown, you have no idea you are on a Great Lake.
Shuttles and regular bus service runs to the games, because the current stadium is in the east side of town. My gastronomical debate was whether to have lunch downtown or near the stadium. Logically, stomach-wise, lunch was best dealt with at the stadium.
Turns out, there is nothing visible near the stadium. This place is in the middle of a residential area. They say Wrigley Field is in a residential area, but Ivor Wynne Stadium really is. If you go north to Barton Street, you can find a McDonald's and a Subway.

Ivor Wynne Stadium is the pickiest place on what you can and can't bring into their stadium, a more difficult task when you are one of the few people without a car. I hid everything well except the empty bottle. That's right: an empty bottle in a place where they sell bottles was a threat.
The stadium is a dump, but a charming dump. Both teams are on the same sideline, but the crowd is close to the action. Both would presumably disappear in a new stadium. The Tiger-Cats usually sell out the Labour Day Classic with their arch-rivals, which is possibly why the team sold me a seat that didn't exist.
Seat 28 was hard to fine when there are only 27 seats in the row in that section. Fortunately, eventually, the fans helped me out. Finding an usher was a rather difficult task but eventually one was found. He offered to move me, but I figured as long as I could sit in the section, that was the best solution.
Fighter planes flew overhead after the anthem. The sold-out crowd was pumped, and the home team won 28-13. We got to see a blocked punt in our end. I was surrounded by rabid and friendly fans. This felt, albeit under a few strange circumstances, a more life-like CFL experience.
This was actually the third Tiger-Cats game I had seen in person, having seen the team in Toronto and Vancouver. So I had seen how intense their fans were even before setting foot in Canada's Steel City. But being in Hamilton made me understand why they are the way they are.

Good luck to Hamilton in getting a new stadium, hoping the stadium leads to other business growth around the new stadium. And if they don't build the stadium downtown, maybe they can come up with something to bring people and help revitalize the downtown area (some U.S. Southern NHL teams would draw better up here).
photos credit: me