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.