The offseason has been a bit busy in the CFL. Henry Burris is now one of 3 quarterbacks for the Ottawa RedBlacks. Winnipeg finally got a quarterback in former Roughrider Drew Willy. Montréal has a coach that is not named Jim Popp AND has CFL experience: Tom Higgins hasn't coached in awhile, but he knows the CFL has three downs.
The schedule is also out. With 9 teams, we have a bit of creativity spread out for the schedule. Ottawa doesn't even play in Week 1 and won't see its new stadium until Week 4.
The Rough Riders, er, Renegades, er, RedBlacks will host Toronto in their home debut at TD Place in July 18.
Hamilton has a new stadium — Tim Hortons Field — and so the Tiger-Cats return to Hamilton is also delayed until July 26. Paranoia can be a factor but Winnipeg's new stadium had delays that pushed its new stadium debut, and with a rough winter, paranoia doesn't exist when the concern is real.
The Toronto Argonauts go all of September without being home, but at least the Argos have only 1 Tuesday home game. As miserable as those dates were to Toronto's attendance, they fit in well with NBCSN's open windows.
That single Tuesday home game falls in Week 8, the only week with 5 games, including 2 Toronto home games. The Argos will host Winnipeg on August 12 and BC on August 17. A travel tip: you could see an Ottawa home game on August 15 and a Hamilton home game on August 16. Not too much travel to see 4 CFL games in the span of a week.
As for the holidays, the Ticats-Argos will be back in Hamilton for Labour Day but no revenge game in Toronto. The Banjo Bowl and Battle of Alberta will follow in their usual traditions. Thanksgiving Day offers Saskatchewan @ Montréal and Winnipeg @ Edmonton.
The CFL will stay out of the Maritimes in 2014. The 2013 Touchdown Atlantic game didn't quite sell out even with reduced capacity. We had gorgeous weather for the game, but those tickets were really expensive.
For a link to the 2014 CFL schedule, click here.
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