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.