Thoughts on Touchdown Atlantic in Moncton

Just finished the drive back from Moncton after attending the Touchdown Atlantic
game. Certainly coming from Hamilton, seeing the 55 to 26 victory over the Calgary Stampeders made for a better drive home that's for sure. The stadium itself wasn't bad. I sat in one of the endzone sections. The view was worse than a seat between the goal lines, but acceptable. Concessions were a little understaffed, but you really can't expect much for a one off game. Regular cans of Canadian and Coors light were $6. Didn't seem like beer sales ended at the beginning of the fourth quarter.

The crowd wasn't super into the game, likely due to most fans not having a true home side to root for. The crowd was excited for the various big plays that occurred in the game, but probably hoped for a tighter game towards the end. A good number of Hamilton fans made the trek to Moncton, but the vast majority of people seemed to locals (or relatively local). The Stamps also had a surprising number of supporters. Weather was superb, sunny and realitively hot for late September. The grass was in excellent condition and didn't seem to be a huge factor in the game. Flyby was two helicopters.

I also attended the Saturday night Tigertown in the Empress theatre which turned out to be an intimate venue, with Pigskin Pete MCing. A lot of Hamiltonians were in attendance. CHML colour commentator John Salavantis spoke, as did Mayor Bob Bratina (I resisted the urge to yell out LRT forever while he was talking). The cheerleaders performed briefly and then a few hung around selling their charity calender. We were promised that Ticat president Scott Mitchell would speak, but I left pretty late and I never saw him so I'm not sure what was up with that. Molson cans were $4.50 which was good considering I consumed a solid number. The band Pogey was excellent. Tigertown to me seemed quite well done, so props to the team.

I'll have another post about the game itself tomorrow. Which was most enjoyable.

Already 14,000 Tickest Sold for Touchdown Atlantic 2, Belli Retiring?

From this article from the local Moncton paper, news that over 14,000 tickets for Touchdown Atlantic 2 have been sold by 5 pm yesterday during the pre-sale. With just over slightly 20,000 seats that doesn't leave much when tickets go on sale to the public today. Maybe I should have ordered more than just two tickets.

Looks like Adriano Belli is retiring, announcing it Lonely Island style. Always good for a quote or a kiss, he was a decent non-import tackle. Arguably his best year was 2005 in Hamilton, with 27 tackles and 7 sacks (if you like sacks as a statistic, which I do, especially for defensive tackles).

Moncton Ticat Tickets Bought

Just now I used the Ticats season ticket holder promo code to buy 2 red zone tickets ($39) for the second Touchdown Atlantic between Calgary and Hamilton in Moncton. Took a couple of tries to get through to the tickets Moncton website, but eventually I was able to do it. Tickets go on sale to the general public tomorrow at 9 am. Hopefully a quick sellout again this year.

I'll be interested to see what the stadium is like, especially considering how the Ticats could potentially play some games there when Ivor Wynne is being rebuilt. Can Moncton support and expansion team? Initially I'm sure they could, but the real test is how the fans respond when your team has back to back 3 and 16 seasons.

Hopefully they'll publish somewhere the number of tickets bought by Hamilton and Calgary season ticket holders. Should be easy to do via the promo codes. I'm guessing there will be more Cat sales this year than Argo sales last year mainly because they suck.

Here's a Moncton Times and Transcript article on the pre-sale. Looks like the CFL pre-sale started at 10:00 am today.

Details of Moncton Game Pre-Sale for Ticats Season Ticket Holders

Finally details have been released for the Ticat Moncton game for tickets for season ticket holders. An excerpt from the email sent out today:

Dear Tigercatatonia,

Scotiabank Touchdown Atlantic ticket sale details have been announced today by the CFL.

As a valued Tiger-Cats Season Seat Holder, you will receive an opportunity to purchase tickets to this event before the public on-sale date.

Season Seat Holder Pre-Sale: Monday, May 9th, 9:00 a.m. eastern time until Wednesday, May 11th, at 9:00 a.m. eastern time.

To purchase your seats during the pre-sale, click here and enter the promo code XXXXXXXXXX.

Inventory is limited and seats will be assigned on a first come, first served basis. Limit of eight (8) seats per person will be sold during the pre-sale. This pre-sale is only available online. Tickets will be available to the general public on Wednesday, May 11th, at 9:00 a.m. eastern time.

To book travel or accommodations through the Tiger-Cats official travel agent, please contact Red Tag Vacations directly at:

Red Tag Travel: Janet Kuzmich - 1-866-573-3824 ext. 2054 or Janet@redtag.ca

I won't publish the promo code, because it appears that anyone could use it. I'm sure it will get out anyways, but I'm not really sure what the team could do to absolutely make sure only season ticket holders can use the offer. Last year the game sold out and it is likely it will this year. Potentially a season ticket holder could buy at the presale and then resell them, but that would seem a bit of a douche move.

Touchdown Atlantic 2: Electric Boogaloo Confirmed, Still No 2011 CFL Schedule

So Touchdown Atlantic 2 has been confirmed for Moncton, with no date or teams announced. No details of federal funding, but Scotiabank is the title sponsor again. Still no full CFL schedule, although one hurdle has obviously jumped.

The Spec has an article about former Ticat Bobby Kuntz passing on. Sounds like someone we could use today.

Finally wide receiver Chris Bauman signed with Edmonton and according to Drew Edwards for $125,000. Didn't really see that coming, but maybe the Eskimos didn't have as many problems with the salary cap as other teams. That's a awful lot of money, but he's still relatively young and at 6'4" is a big target.