I attended the pre-season game on Wednesday. Generally, despite the loss I was happy with how the team looked. Burris looked good when he was in and the receiving corps is strong, both import and non-import although Aaron Kelly was his usual inconsistent self. Running game was decent with Walker and Berezik looking good. Porter played poorly. I think he needs to talk to Danny Mac and learn his quick release. LeFevour looked good as the third string quarterback, and Forcier looked crap and is apparently now released.
Hamilton outgained Toronto 524 yards to 317, but the turnovers were a problem. The linebackers looked good, but the defensive line looked weak.
The Cats at one point had third and 46 (to which I yelled go for it) which made me wonder, what's the record for the longest third down in the CFL? Probably a lot longer than third and 46.
Argos didn't look bad with Ricky Ray in, but I question their depth. They did manage to win six games last year with complete fools at quarterback, so a nine win season is not impossible.
With regards to the game day experience, I wasn't surprised to see tall boy beer prices rise to $9.00 from $8.75 last year. That probably hurts tips for the attendants. Who knows what the prices will be in the new stadium. With regards to beer service, I noticed that on the North side concourse, the all you can eat section near section five has been replaced by a regular food and beer stand, which wasn't busy at all.
There's a Smoke's Poutinerie on the South side now which is an improvement. I saw someone with a full sized pizza box from Pizza Pizza. I can't imagine how much that costs. There was also something called "Three Minutes of Madness" sponsored by Pizza Pizza which seems to consist of jump cuts of fans on the big screen with no apparent purpose.
The cheerleaders had their last centre field performance at 9:28 of the third quarter which strikes me as somewhat lazy. The Cats appear to have a DJ, located somewhere, but I could never figure out where sitting on the North side.
There was a nice hit by linebacker Jamall Johnson but rather than a replay, we saw a Poole Shoppe commercial. That was somewhat annoying.
Finally there was some new mascot that seemed to be a tiger, but in some weird spherical form. I found it disturbing and would appreciate it if it didn't make a return appearance.
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