Hamilton Tiger-Cats Cheerleaders Pre Moncton Game

Here's the Tiger-Cats cheerleaders going to get changed before the game. They had been out and about hawking their playing cards. Oddly I've seen no sign if the Montreal Alouettes cheerleader. Maybe the Alouettes cheaped out and didn't bring them. Shame. 

BC at Hamilton Gameday 2013

Who's in and who's out for the Ticats this week? Giguere is still out, with Stala in for his non-import spot amongst the receivers. Boudreaux is out at one of the defensive end spots, with Norwood and Scott as the defensive ends. Hage is back in after a few games injury as the centre.

Johnson is the middle linebacker, with Lawrence and former Argo Issac as the other linebackers. Murray and Davis are the corners, with McCollough and Webb as the halfbacks and non-import Stephen as the safety.

For BC the most important injury is middle linebacker Solomon Elimimian is missing, which has to help the Cats. Will the Cats try and run without him? I'm guessing no, because the Cats hardly run in 2013, but who knows.

The Cats were burned a few times by the long ball last week. Will they drop more players into coverage compared to the blitzes they did last week? Again who knows. They only had one official sack last week, although their coverage of the run game was excellent.

Who am I looking for to make a big contribution this week? Ellingson on offense and Bulcke on defence.

Finally the red uniforms the Cats will use to honour the Flying Wildcats will be strange as a spectator.

Ticats Lose Morencie off Practice Roster to Winnipeg

A bit of a strange story here from the Windsor Star, about Ticats offensive lineman Matt Morencie getting picked up off of the practice roster by Winnipeg. Sad to lose a young offensive lineman, although the Cats could have moved him to the active roster if they wanted to keep him bad enough. Did the bad behaviour at the Windsor Lancer game affect the Cats decision? Maybe, although Winnipeg being totally out of it gives them more roster flexibility for the last couple of games. Interesting that Morencie is a J.P. Metras award winner for best university offensive lineman in the CIS, but still only practice roster material.

Ticats Game Day, Alouettes Edition, We've Got a Shot!

Tigercatatonia is stuck on another continent and hoping to get some sort of internet feed of tonight's game against the Alouettes. The spread is down to 2 points in favour of the Als, no doubt due to Vegas realizing that the game doesn't matter much to Larks and are sending out some scrubs.

On to the starting Ticat offensive line. Gauthier and import Jimenez as the tackles, Dyakowski and Rottier as the guards and Hage as the centre. Surprise surprise.

Mann and Bruce are the wideouts, with non-import Stala and McDaniel as the slots. Glenn in at quarterback, Cobb as the running back and San Diego State product Steve Schmidt as the starting fullback. Darcy Brown what happened to you? Deangelis kicks and Wilbur punts.

The defensive ends are Hickman and Baggs, with Bolden and McIntyre in the middle. Knowlton, Floyd and Johnson are the linebackers.

Non-import Hinds and Smith are the corners with Dennis and Tisdale as the defensive backs. Non-import Barker starts at safety, provided he doesn't suddenly quit to join the fire department. So the Cats end up starting eight Canadians again.

The Alouettes start an all Canadian offensive line, Bourke and Perrett as the tackles, Woodruff and Flory as the guards and Brodeur-Jourdain as the centre.

Bratton and Green are the wideouts. Richards and non-import and Mormon Cahoon are the slots. Note that Cahoon only has 618 yards so far this year. Cobourne is listed as the running back and I don't think that's right. Non-import Carter is the fullback, with Calvillo obviously starting. That's seven Canadians starting on offence right there.

Bowman and Stewart are the defensive ends, with Wilson and McElveen in the middle.

Guzman, non-import Emry and Cox are the linebackers.

Dix and Estelle are the corners. Parker and Brown are the defensive backs, with non-import Proulx as the safety. That's nine total non-import starters.

The backwardsly named import Colt David punts and kicks in place of the injured Duval.

Hopefully the Cats can take this one and step closer to locking up the home semi-final. If the Cats win and the Argos lose, the Cats marketing department can start selling and maybe Bob Young buys the rights from the league for the game. With the Argos as the opponent, that should mean a few more opposing fans will come to the game than last year's tilt with BC. I'm not sure the Cats will get quite as many home fans as last year, which was close to a sellout, but it is possible. Hopefully they don't set the prices at a crazy level that keeps the casual fan away.

CFL Previews, Week 17, Part A

Montreal at Hamilton,

The Alouettes are favoured by 2.5 on the road and have beat the Ticats both previous games and in fact are riding a six game win streak against the poor Tabbies. Both are riding two game win streaks. The Alouettes are only 4 and 3 on the road as opposed to 7 and 1 at home, so they are almost two different teams. The Cats are 4 and 3 at home, which isn't particularly impressive considering they went 6 and 3 at home during the regular season last year. There is some hope for the Cats though in this late season engagement. The Alouettes have already locked up home field for the East division final so they don't really have a lot to play for and won't take many chances injury wise. The Alouettes won't have running back Avon Cobourne, linebacker Diamond "the Pimp" Ferri nor kick returner Tim Maypray and still no Kerry Watkins nor kicker/punter David Duval. It helps to have a veteran booting the ball late in the season at Ivor Wynne.

The Cats on the other hand still need to beat out Toronto to host the East semi, so they should actually care somewhat. The Cats also picked up linebacker Kyries Herbert (who I was shocked to learn was actually in the NFL the past couple of seasons with Cincinnati) who probably won't do much apart from special teams this week. Stevie Baggs should make things more difficult for Anthony Calvillo, who probably is on a pretty short leash anyways, being pretty crotchety and all.

Hopefully the Cats can get a decent crowd out this game, as the Cats should beat the Alouettes this week. However the Cats could end up sucking as usual versus Montreal.

Ticats 29 Montreal 25

BC at Calgary,

Calgary, unlike Montreal hasn't quite locked up the Western final home field advantage. Calgary, unlike Montreal is also at home this week. Plus BC is a lot worse than Hamilton. So it isn't really a surprise the Stampeders are favoured by 9.5 points. The Lions are a surprising 3 and 4 on the road, but the Stamps are 6 and 1 at home. BC has lost 2 while Calgary won last week. In theory BC should be desperate, considering they are life and death with Edmonton and the Peg for the final spot in the West, but they are a bad team starting the mediocre Travis Lulay who apropos of nothing reminds me of former Hamilton quarterback Timmy Chang. Barring a small Brother Andre sized miracle, the Stamps easily take it , even covering the spread.

Stampeders 31, BC 22

Hamilton Ticats Noteworthy Stats for 2010

Bruce still leads in receiving yards with 1291 and is in second with 85 receptions. With three games to go Bruce has a shot at breaking Tony Champion's 1656 yard receiving record although he needs 365 yards to do it. Bruce is already in the top ten for single season receptions since three were tied at 8th with 80. Darren Flutie holds the record with 98 in 1998. So Bruce only needs 15 in three games to break that Ticat record.

Dave Stala is tenth in receiving yards with 920 and looks pretty likely barring injury to break 1000 yards receiving. I have no idea what the Ticat non-import receiving record is. Could be held by Mike Morreale with 1076 yards in 1998, could be held by something else. The tenth best year was 1213 yards and I don't think any of the top ten is held by any non-imports so the record must be less than that. Stala is also tied for fourth in receptions with 74.

McDaniel has 886 yards so also has a really good shot at 1000 yards receiving. When have the Ticats last had 3 1000 yard receivers. Tigercatatonia has no idea. Some year with Danny Mac?

Cobb already has 1030 yards rushing, breaking the 1000 mark twice now (barring losing a ton of yards over the next few games). Tenth all time for the Ticats is Jimmy Edwards with 1046 yards, so Cobb is pretty much guaranteed to move up the top ten list. Troy Davis' 1628 yard mark in 2004 is in no danger, but Ronald Williams' third overall mark of 1,264 in 2000 is. Porter is second this year with 227 yards rushing for the Cats.

So some things to watch offensively over the last few regular season games of the year. Maybe a marketing opportunity for the Cats for the last game against BC.

Hamilton Ticat Cheerleaders, Season Ticket Pickup Day 2010

Hamilton Ticat Cheerleaders, Season Ticket Pickup Day 2010
Originally uploaded by philinator

Here's a photo I snapped of the 2010 Hamilton Ticat cheerleaders at the season tickets pickup party (unlike last year, the tickets were actually in the envelope). The full version is massive, so maybe I'll get some page views. I forgot my camera at the opener, which is the only game I have managed to make this year, but I'll be at the next home game, hopefully camera in hand.

West Harbour Stuff

There's an article in the Spec about the expropriation of homes and businesses at the West Harbour stadium site. Things look like they are moving forward there although the possibility exists for something else to go there if the stadium doesn't end up going there. One wonders with the city getting its ducks in a row in terms of acquiring all the necessary land, how difficult it will be to go to a different site where the process hasn't started and potentially bigger, wealthier landowners could have different designs on their properties. As far as I know the Cats don't own any properties of their own. One other thing about the article, it seems a bit cheap for the city to only give $5000 over the assessment. Doubling this would seem more reasonable.

I didn't comment about the Ticats preseason loss to the Argos (13-10) as all I heard was a bit of the halftime interview on CHML with O'Billovich. Too bad Brannigan didn't do much as the Argo quarterback. Hopefully they keep him around, even if it is just on the practice roster. Surprising the Cats ended up losing the game, but it is the first preseason game, which is pretty random. I just thought the Argos would be quite disorganized after this offseason. Winnipeg should be a tougher test, especially if Buck Pierce plays well.

Yet More Ticats Harbour Stuff

Well I speculated a few days ago that maybe LuLu not going public was an issue for Bob Young. Now here's a story from Spec restaurant critic John Kernaghan basically saying the same thing.
Obviously a LuLu IPO would have freed up a chunk of cash for Young, although would depend on exactly how it was done. It would certainly make Bob's LuLu share more liquid.

In other stadium news, Bob Young wants a facilitator for the stadium issue. My solution, the city gives Young parking revenue for Ticat game day (and possibly USL game days), with parking being the parking at the stadium, whatever you can squeeze into Bayfront Park's parking lot and the new parking garage at the West Harbour redevelopment. Throw in some future rights to other redevelopment at the site, plus naming revenue, plus maybe whatever else the city can come up with that doesn't really cost them anything and everyone goes away happy. That's what I'm hoping.

Ticats Stuff

Drew Edwards had a good article about Obie's future moves. Probably the most interesting part of the article for me was the possibility that the Cats would start eight Canadians rather than the mandated seven. Whenever I've done posted about the Ticats game day depth chart, they have always used only seven, while a few teams would use eight or sometimes nine regularly (Montreal). Starting the bare seven always is generally indicative of a poor team (Argos), which the Cats until this year were for quite some time. Last year the Canadian starters were the four on the line, plus Stala and Bauman plus Beveridge on defence. I'm curious to see who the Cats end up going with for eight.

The Argos in the new Braley era have started to make some moves, shipping Canadian receivers Andre Talbot and Brad Smith for import defensive tackle Eric Taylor and a 2011 draft pick. Talbot I can see, because he was injured and caught one pass last year, so now the Argos won't have him to not play for them this year. Smith turned out to be not too bad on a rather feeble offense. Not sure why the Argos moved two Canadian receivers when injuries hit them hard there last year, but I'm sure there is some washed out former first round NFL draft pick receivers available this year, just like the Argos every year.

Tying these two paragraphs together, if the Cats are looking at maybe starting an eighth Canadian, that must mean the teams are assuming that the number of Canadian starters will stay at seven with a new agreement with the players. Conceivably Cynammon and the other Argo owner whose name I now and will probably forever more forget were probably the main proponents of the reduction in the number of Canadian starters and with them gone and their vote taken by Braley may mean it is a dead issue. I hope so.

CFL Schedule, Non-Ticat Teams East

I already analyzed the Ticats schedule in a previous post so I'll go over the East teams in this post.

Montreal starts with three road games due to McGill stadium renovation. Montreal was a decent road team last year (6 and 3) so this may not matter. Some Thursday home games in the summer. Since sellouts are guaranteed for the Alouettes this helps the league since TSN seems to want some Thursday games in the summer and it is probably a negative for most other teams (the Cats for sure). Montreal gets a Thanksgiving Day game at home, which doesn't really make sense from an attendance optimization across the league standpoint (assuming a Thanksgiving Monday game would raise attendance), but probably helps for a big combined TSN/RDS television audience. Almost all Sunday home games after Labour Day, which probably matters less for the Quebec television audience competing against NFL games.

Toronto begins with their first home game on a Wednesday. Weird and maybe Jay related. Two Fridays and a Saturday the rest of the summer. I have no idea what days and times are best for the Argos, although I'm sure Wednesday is not one of them. Some Sundays after Labour Day, including their late September game against Edmonton at Moncton, which is the only noon start of the season. Good choice of opponent from a drawing standpoint, and probably a reasonable date. Plus the fans in Moncton seem enthusiastic and hopefully will bump the television ratings, although the Argos may well be horrible and out of it by that point. The one issue I do take with the Argos home schedule is the fact their home game in early October is one week after the Riders play the Ticats at Ivor Wynne. That seems particularly moronic, as the Riders are a huge draw for both teams. Putting these games consecutively wastes a lot of potential tickets sold to Rider fans in the Golden Horseshoe who may not want to go to consecutive games, but might go to both if one was in the summer and the other was in the fall (especially if the fall game meant something like the game near the end of the season in Hamilton last year).

For Winnipeg nothing really jumps out at me. We'll see how many fans show up for their home opener against Hamilton, but canning Mike Kelly over the offseason has to help. Week 2 at home against the Argos gives them a shot at an early victory if they lose in week 1. Not sure how all the Hamilton games in the first half of the season will help either team attendance wise. Certainly moving one of those games into the second half of the year would have made sense. Winnipeg at least gets a Thanksgiving Monday game against BC and the Banjo Bowl against the Riders in September should be successful attendance wise.

Cats Schedule

We already knew the Cats open in Winnipeg. The home opener the next week is Calgary on Saturday afternoon. Calgary was a pretty crappy draw last year (19448) in a game after Labour Day so it makes sense for the Stamps to be the opponent as the opener is its own draw. If Hamilton can win the week before in the Peg hopefully it will be a decent crowd. I personally will probably try and pick up a few extra tickets for that game and try and get some people out early.

The following week it is Winnipeg at home on a Friday. Do not like back to back home games. Bad for attendance, but maybe the Cats can grab two early from the Bombers. Not sure if Friday night games or weekend day games do better in the summer attendance wise. That's followed by Montreal and then Saskatchewan on the road, probably both tough games and then Winnipeg at home again. Probably no so great for attendance with two Peg games so close together. The Cats then go to Winnipeg. That's a lot of the Peg in the first half. Sadly Mike Kelly is not around for our amusement in 2010.

Next it is Hamilton at Toronto, bye week and then the Labour Day game. I suppose maybe the Argos didn't want the Cats on the following Friday after Labour Day like last year as the Cats only drew 26,421 fans, but are instead travelling to BC. Hopefully the game in Toronto can attract some Cat fans, especially with the bye week following immediately after.

Hamilton then hosts the Alouettes. No doubt the Cats would prefer a road game in between for drawing purposes, but if the Cats are doing well and the Alouettes presumably, it could be a grudge match that draws. If the Cats are really lucky, maybe an aged Anthony Calvillo is out. One can only hope.

This is followed by Hamilton in BC at their crappy temporary stadium and then probably the second biggest draw after Labour Day, the Riders on a Saturday night. An afternoon game would probably be better for the maximum amount of Saskatchewan fans, but should be good for a second half of the season game. We'll see if the Cats can draw a non-Labour Day crowd over 25K.

Hamilton then has a back to back with Edmonton, with the first game being in the city of dirty oil. Probably a crappy draw. That is followed by Hamilton in Toronto, which might not be a bad game to go to. Hamilton then hosts Montreal for hopefully a meaningful late season game.

The season ends with Hamilton in Calgary, with Hamilton inexplicably hosting the Lions at home. Likely not a great draw, especially compared the home closer last year with the Riders.

For the preseason games, Hamilton is on the road the first week against the Double Blue, followed by Winnipeg at home. Good for the totally crazed Cat fans if they want to see both preseason games.

Not a terrible schedule for the Cats both draw wise and standings wise, although I would argue that probably the Cats would like it most from the competitive aspect, especially the first couple of games against Winnipeg. In terms of attendance, there is some good and some bad, the bad being the back to back home games and BC at the end. Hopefully the Cats sell more season tickets this year bumping up their attendance and end up with a better record.

I'll make another post later, commenting on the games not involving the Ticats. There's one in particular that seems flatout moronic.

Ticats Opener, July 2nd At The Peg

Hamilton opens in Winnipeg on Friday, July 2nd. Montreal travels to Riderville for a rematch of the last game of 2009 on Canada Day, while Toronto goes to Calgary the same day, no doubt to get massacred. BC goes to Edmonton on the Sunday for some Printers versus Ray action.

This is a pretty decent matchup for the Cats as their first game. They get a chance for a valuable road win against what will likely be a weak Bomber team, especially earlier in the year. Major coaching changes, plus having Michael Bishop as the starter probably will lead to a feeble offence. Of course the players could be so glad to get rid of Mike Kelly they could actually play well. We'll see what the opening line is.

The full schedule is out on Monday and I will have an analysis when it comes out, although it might not be much more than "hey the Cats are at home on Labour Day against the Argos." One thing to look for is where the league places the away Rider games. For pretty much every team in the league this is a guaranteed draw so the other teams will probably want to have the Rider game on a good day. For instance, the Cats would probably like the Riders game to be later in the year (like last year's final home game, which drew 24586 fans, the second most after Labour Day), when drawing can be tough. The Cats would probably prefer the Argos not be their home opener, as the opener is a draw itself. From a ticket selling perspective, the Lions wouldn't be a bad opponent, as they tend to draw poorly, especially if the Cats can win in week one.

Pigskin Pete, Earlier Incarnation

Pigskin Pete, Earlier Incarnation
Originally uploaded by philinator

Here's a picture of the previous Pigskin Pete that I snapped near my seat at the Halloween Saskatchewan game. Still capable of getting the crowd riled up. Also received an email from the Cats today as a season ticket holder. Forty percent off in the store in February for season ticket holders, plus they announced the "In the Trenches Seats,", available as a pair for $2250 each. They seem to be located at field level between the player benches. Nice, but I think the box seats are a better value.

Also the league apparently wants more rule change suggestions, specifically the overtime format. Pushing the teams back a bit initially might not be bad, but I'm OK with overtime format as it is, notwithstanding the loss in the playoff game to Casey Printers of all people.

CFL Attendance 2010 Analysis

New warning! The new 2011 CFL attendance analysis post is here!

Warning! This post actually analyzes the CFL attendance for 2009. For analysis of the 2010 season including the best road drawing teams, go here.


Last year Tigercatatonia made several posts analyzing the 2008 attendance for CFL teams. Time has come around again to have a look again. We'll start out with the average home regular season attendance for each team in 2009:

1. Edmonton 37,164
2. Calgary 36502
3. Saskatchewan 30606
4. BC 28610
5. Toronto 26374
6. Winnipeg 25720
7. Hamilton 22532
8. Montreal 20202
Total 227,710
Here's the numbers from the previous season:

Edmonton 37383
BC 34083
Calgary 32617
Saskatchewan 29758
Toronto 29189
Winnipeg 27151
Hamilton 20784
Montreal 20202
Total 231,167

Thus 2009 was not a particular banner year for the CFL. BC was way way down, with both Winnipeg and Toronto seeing declines. Edmonton had a slight decline, despite a monster attendance game of over 62,000 against Saskatchewan. Saskatchewan had a bump, as did Calgary with the extra capacity for the Grey Cup available late in the season.

Surprisingly Hamilton had a decent 8.4% jump. Probably the cheap tickets the team made available at the end of the 2009 season helped, as did the Labour Day sellout with over 30,000, plus a much better team. Likely the Cats could have done better with a better economy. With momentum of a better team and a slowly recovering economy hopefully the Cats can boost season tickets sales over last year and get another bump in attendance.

Montreal stayed the same, due to selling out their capacity yet again. With an added 5,000 seats this season at McGill stadium, Montreal will likely beat Hamilton in attendance this year.

Overall the CFL saw a 4.1% decline in attendance in 2009, which isn't too bad considering the economy and the performance of other professional leagues in North America. Baseball for instance had a larger 6.5% decline in 2009.

In a future post, I will look again at which teams drew the best on the road. Here's my analysis for the 2008 season. I'm going to go way out on a limb and predict Saskatchewan will again lead this category.

New Stadium Location

I happened to be listening to Billy Kelly's show on CHML recently and he was discussing the new stadium with regards to the city having to get moving if it is going to be complete for the Pan Am games. Kelly has always liked Confederation Park as the site and frequently goes on about that site not even being on the current list of possibilities. That got me thinking about an issue that probably doesn't interest anyone but Tigercatatonia, namely which hotels CFL teams use when they visit Hamiliton. A lot of teams use Burlington hotels even though they have to get to Ivor Wynne, although I do remember Winnipeg staying at the Sheraton last year, mainly because Mike Kelly said something stupid there. With Confederation Park as the site, it is pretty much guaranteed that CFL teams would use Burlington hotels, not helping a very weak Hamilton hotel market, plus any fans that might be staying overnight would too. If Hamilton is going to help fund the stadium, the city should be looking for maximum spillover benefits. Fixing up the brownfield former Rheem property that otherwise will lay undeveloped for years is another bonus

Glenn and Porter Sign Extensions

The Globe and Mail reported that the Cats signed contract extensions with the Cats, so that this year is not there option year. What I wonder is what happens in relation to what Glenn was supposed to be paid this year? He signed last year if I recall for pretty much backup money, so now that I assume he is the de facto starter going into this season he will want to be paid closer to the $400,000 range that quality CFL starting quarterbacks get. Does he get a bump for this season or next season? How does that affect the salary cap for next year in terms of going after free agents?

One thing about Glenn being the starter at beginning of the 2010 season, if he goes cold for the first few games, what happens with Porter? Does Glenn have a huge leash? Will Cat fans suddenly start chanting for Porter (or Tafralis?) A long way away, but next season could have a lot of quarterback drama.

Tillman Story Goes International

Erstwhile Saskatchewan Rough Rider general manager Tillman's has pushed the last week of the regular season for the NFL to the back of the sports pages in the Canadian papers, which in a bad publicity is still better than no publicity way is sort of a win for the CFL. Now the CFL just needs a bunch of wacky things to happen for the next five weeks through the Super Bowl, hopefully culminating with Mike Kelly causing a disturbance in an airport on Superbowl Sunday. Anyways, here's an article from the Phildelphia Daily News with the Tillman story buried at the bottom below such items as Evander Holyfield fighting Francois Botha. Or not fighting, as the match has been postponed due to the fact both fighters are incredibably crotchety.

On a lighter note, here's one person's take on the top CFL players of the past decade. The only Ticats were Joe Montford, and uh, Corey Holmes. Can't really argue with that. It was a sad, sad decade.

Ticats Fined for Boat Celebration

Sad. When did we become the NFL? And apparently Casey Printers is starting on Sunday. Makes for a good story, starting against his former team. A better story is the fact he uses a "Life Coach."

Something Else the Cats Haven't Done Since 2001

This week's game against BC is the first home playoff game for the Cats since 2001. What else have the Cats done this year since 2001? Score more points than they gave up during the regular season. The Cats scored 449 points while giving up 428 in 2009. Compared to last year, the Cats gave up 441 and allowed an ugly 593. In 2001, the Cats scored 440 and gave up 420.