Ivor Wynne, Bulldogs Outdoor Game

Ivor Wynne, Bulldogs Outdoor Game, a photo by philinator on Flickr.

Here's a photo I took of Ivor Wynne during the recent outdoor AHL game between the Bulldogs and Marlies. You can't see the rink, but you can see some of the fans sitting on the North side.

Ticats Pan Am Stadium Plans

There's a city PDF document noting some zoning changes for the new stadium (hat tip to Hamilton Skyscraper Forumer Steeltown for pointing it out). There seems to be some interesting information in it, but I've only had a quick glance.

On page 28 there's a map of the site. I was surprised to see that the former (or soon to be former) Brian Timmis stadium ends up being only 220 parking spots. I thought it would have been more than that.

There's some mention of some retail, but I haven't looked into it too much. Some retail would be certainly good for the area. A Ticat themed sports bar incorporated into the stadium would be good too and the logical place to watch away games.

I'll go through it more on the weekend and will make another post if warranted.

Ivor Wynne Food and Beverage Pricing

I've always meant to do a post about the pricing of food and beverages at Ivor Wynne, especially to compare year to year. So this is that post.

All I can remember so far is that tallboys of Canadian and Coor's Light are $8.75. Note that you could go before the game to the Prince Edward Tavern and get a pint for significantly cheaper. I'll try on Friday's game to get the prices for as many other things as I can, to allow a year to year comparison. I'll try and include info from the Roger's Centre and the Moncton game too.

Where do the Cats Play in the Rebuilding Season?

Steve Milton in the Spec has an article in the Spec about where the Cats could play during the season where Ivor Wynne is rebuilt. Playing the Labour Day game in the Rogers Centre is a good idea, although that depends on the Blue Jays not playing that weekend. Arranging a special Labour Day Go train would help. Moncton is pretty much a given and a Quebec City game at PEPS against Montreal would draw well. All these away games would cause havoc with season ticket sales though.

If a playoff game is necessary, the team has the option to buy the game from the league, but if it was played at Ron Joyce the team could just stiff the league with it and spread the pain to the other teams.

McGuinty Saves the Day!

So the province has coughed up an extra $22.5 million for the Ivor Wynne rebuilding, according to this National Post article by Mark Masters. With Hamilton Mountain being a critical seat for the Liberals in October's election, Dalton was probably looking for something to help out MPP Sophia Aggelonitis. Interesting also that the province thinks the Cats should only miss season while Ivor Wynne is rebuilt. Certainly a string of early away games, plus maybe a home game in Moncton would free up a July for an extra month of building.

Hopefully now the stadium issue will be relatively settled and the Ticats can go back to trying to rebuild their brand.

Stuff

A strange story in the Spec about Ivor Wynne city employees getting fired for amongst other things, selling their own beer on game days (where did you have to go for that in that stadium) and razors. Did that eat into Ticat beer sales?

Drew Edwards also has basically a hagiography of Scott Mitchell in the Spec. Obviously someone has to look out for the team's interests, but I personally am not a big fan.

Toronto at Hamilton, East Semi-Final 2010

Toronto at Hamilton, East Semi-Final 2010
Originally uploaded by philinator

A bit late, but here's a few photos I took of the East semi-final against Toronto at Ivor Wynne. Some what depressing thinking about that game and losign to Cleo "the Party" Lemon.

Barker Sack, Edmonton at Hamilton

Barker Sack, Edmonton at Hamilton
Originally uploaded by philinator

Here's a set of photos from the Edmonton game, including this photo of Ticat safety Dylan Barker about to sack Edmonton quarterback Ricky Ray. This photo of the boxes at Ivor Wynne shows TSN commentators Chris Cuthbert and Glen Suitor with their green screen behind them if you look closely enough.

Ticats versus Bombers, Stat Rundown; Beer Prices

Hamilton managed to show that it was capable of playing a good game winning 28 to 7 and Winnipeg ended up playing like many thought they would this season. Plus Buck Pierce managed to make it to the third game of the season before being injured. All is right with the universe.

Glenn had an awesome game. 29 for 36 for 336 yards with three TDs and no interceptions. Usually with those stats one would expect even more offensive points, however one thing that does stand out is the average yards per completion, 11.6. That's actually pretty mediocre, but it is first down yardage. Which brings me to anothe point. Is it just me or do the Cats the past five years have terrible YAC numbers (yards after the catch)? Obviously with Bruce here now, who gets YAC yards, things have probably improved but historically the Cats haven't been great at it.

Buck Pierce before he was injured was 10 for 19 with 117 yards and a pick. No rushes either which was a vast improvement for the Cat defence from week one against Winnipeg. Jyles in relief was actually better, going 9 for 13 for 95 yards.

Cobb had an OK game with 53 yards on 11 carries and a TD, plus a two yard reception for a TD. Thigpen had four rushes for 18 yards. Reid had a good game for the Bombers in terms of rushing average with 8 carries for 84 yards. The Bombers were behind most of the game though.

Dave Stala didn't do much in the second half, but the overall total was impressive, leading all receivers with nine catches for 124 yards. Mann had a decent game with four catches for 54 yards and 2 TDs. Edwards had seven catches for the Bombers for 99 yards.

Deangelis missed two field goals and never even got a single out of it for his efforts. Ugly.

Johnson led the Ticat tacklers with five tackles. Otis Floyd had the only sack for the Cats. Kent, Stewart, Charlton and Glover all had six tackles to lead the Bombers.

Certainly a dominating game at home for Hamilton. Whether they can grab a win on the road in either Montreal or Saskatchewan is still an open question, but the probability of that happening has gone up after this game.

Also I just wanted to note beer prices for home games at Ivor Wynne are $8.50, which is the same price as last year I believe (Carling and Coors light tall boys). I'm not completely sure about that, but at least next year I can check this post for comparison. I wouldn't mind making a comparison post about beer prices across the league, but the only other stadium I'm likely to go to is the Rogers Centre.