What Happened To Greg Ellingson in the Moncton Game

Update: I see from this Scratching Post blog entry that Ellingson was out injured for this practice.

I was at the Moncton game and noticed that Greg Ellingson had no catches in the game. According to the score sheet he had a tackle so he at least played some. I'm not sure if he was covered heavily by the Alouettes or was injured. Hopefully not injured, but a little odd considering Ellingson is amongst the CFL leaders in receiving yards.

Picture of Moncton Stadium

Seventy five minutes before kickoff in Moncton. The new Cats kicker is having trouble kicking into the wind. 

Lots of Alouettes Fans in Montreal

Flying to Moncton there's a lot of Alouettes fans on the plane and a couple of Tigercat fans. I'm concerned for home field advantage. 

Thoughts on Where the Cats Play in 2013

Now that the Cats know that they can't play at Mac this year, where will the team play? The Cats would like to keep the team as close to Hamilton so fans can continue to attend live games. I can understand this rationale, but with television and a new stadium I'm not sure if this is a potentially big problem getting fans to come back the following season. The Cats would also like to not be too financially burnt in 2013. Cat fans attending games will probably buy more high margin merchandise, both at games and around town.

However there's a tradeoff with locations that potentially might make it worth the Cats while to play. At last year's Moncton game the league made sure the Cats didn't lose out financially from playing a home game there. There's no Moncton game this year after two years of games, so I'm sure Moncton would like another game next year under similar terms. The Cats could play two games there early and late in the season so that the cost of extra seats added could be spread over two games. Not great for local Cat fans, but perhaps good for the Cats financially. Montreal would probably work as an opponent for one of the games.

The Labour Day Classic could be played at the Rogers Centre, however the Argos might want that as one of their home games. If it was a Cats game, I'm sure a decent crowd would show up, but booze and merchandise wise, I'm not sure how it would compare to Labour Day, which the Cats traditionally make a lot of money off of.

PEPS Stadium at Laval University is a possible venue for a one off game, with the Alouettes as the opponent. According to Wikipedia the largest attended game there was 19,500 and there was an exhibition game between the Als and the Renegades in 2003. Perhaps the consortium who runs Laval's football team could guarantee money like Moncton, although I wouldn't bet on it. The game could be a test run for interest in Quebec City for a future CFL team. I haven't heard many rumours about PEPS though.

That leaves the TD Waterhouse Stadium at Western in London. Wikipedia claims it can be expanded to 16,000. One assumes the Cats would like to get to at least 20,000. The Cats could run bus and ticket combos, individually and as part of season ticket packages for Hamiltonians. Hopefully local London area fans would come out too. Assigning the Rider game would probably help for boosting attendance too.

I would doubt Western would offer the incentives that Moncton would, however they and London probably wouldn't mind the publicity, especially the big television audiences the games would bring.

I think at least one Moncton game is a given. Western will probably host the majority, with the question of how many? Potentially it could be eight regular season games, or as few as five, if two games are in Moncton, the Cats host Labour Day in Toronto and a game in Quebec.

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.

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.

Moncton Ticat Weirdness

So the Moncton paper is pretty sure the Cats are playing one game in the city this year. That's a bit odd, because the Cats have already been selling their season ticket packages without a reduction for one less game. I'm pretty sure the Argos lowered their season ticket prices last year when a game was played in Moncton. Somewhat weirder in the article is the possibility of the Cats playing two games in Moncton this year. Haven't heard that myself, but who knows. One thing I hope is that Ticat season ticket holders are offered the chance to buy tickets for the Moncton game, because I might go.

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.

Where's the 2011 CFL Schedule?

I looked through some posts from last year, trying to ascertain when the 2010 CFL schedule came out, and found this one on February 1st, 2010. So now it is February 6th and still no schedule. It will probably come out this week, but I wonder if there's any holdups. The league would probably like to know if the NFL has a work stoppage this year.

For Ticats, the main concern is whether the Cats play in Moncton this year. I'm inclined to bet against that, partially because the Argos will probably still be weak attendance-wise and could use the game to boost revenues. Plus the Cats in 2013 will inevitably play at least one game and maybe more in Moncton during the rebuilding of Ivor Wynne. Although maybe the Cats play in Moncton in 2011, don't play there in 2012 and then play there again for 2013.

CFL Schedule Out Next Week?

There's an article in the Globe about when exactly BC Place will reopen and allow the Lions play again. The Grey Cup will be there this year, but regular season Lions games beyond a couple at the end seem in doubt.

However, was is interesting is that the article mentions the 2011 CFL schedule could be out next week. The big question for Hamilton is who has the home game this year in Moncton? My guess is still Toronto, because let's face it, they will probably still be weak this year ticket-wise and Hamilton could really use a Moncton game during the seasons that Ivor Wynne is rebuilt (assuming that happens). Having a Moncton game during a non-rebuild year would probably be a good thing for profits. The Cats get rid of their weakest draw of the year (BC?) and cram their group sales into the other eight home games (or more likely seven, because the Labour Day game has few group sales). Merchandise sales might be lost, although maybe the league compensates them as part of the overall package.

CFL Power Rankings, Week 13

1. Montreal

There, I did it. Montreal back on top. Sure it was close against the Bombers, but you're not going to win every game with a bitchslapping.

2. Calgary

Obviously still a great team, but getting pounded by 19 points by the Lions doesn't inspire a lot of confidence.

3. Saskatchewan

Weathered an early storm and beat the Ticats with bombs and some convenient turnovers by Hamilton.

4. Hamilton

Had their chances against a good Rider team. Doesn't have the killer instinct like the top teams in the rankings. Secondary appears to smell too.

5. BC

Beats Calgary and suddenly not so crap. We're pretty sure that Printers will soon get some silly injury and they'll start to suck again, but for now they're the best of the mediocre.

6. Toronto

Sure they lost somewhat pathetically against the Eskimos. Still they have good defence and special teams and if they could get back Cory Boyd they would be reasonable.

7. Edmonton

Not the worst team in the league. We'll see if they're sort of for real this week.

8. Winnipeg

Somebody had to be the worst team this week and despite playing the Alouettes tough, there's not a lot of wins this year for a team that was freed from Mike Kelly.

These photos of Calgary Stampeder quarterback Henry Burris posing in a bra, with a woman also wearing a bra are a bit puzzling. Surely there will be some signs in the stands in the next couple of weeks.

Here's an article suggesting the Cats be the team to be the home team in Moncton next year (I'm sad that I've never included Ticat Boogaloo as a post title). Attendance hasn't been bad this year, but it hasn't been great this year either. It makes sense for Bob Young financially. The Cats spread their group sales over one less game and potentially lose one of their poorer performing home draws. I still would bet on the Argos being the team next year though.

Moncton Game and Milanovich Stays

Since the schedule comes out tomorrow, I thought I would try predicting Toronto's opponent in the Moncton game. It definitely won't be Saskatchewan due to their drawing power, and similarly won't be Hamilton or Montreal, even though Moncton might prefer the Alouettes. That leaves the Peg, Edmonton, Calgary or BC. I'm not sure if the league is willing to have an interdivisional rival as the opponent, other wise it could well be Winnipeg since they drew poorly at Dead Ted's Dome last year. I will guess BC, mainly because the timezone difference will be humorous.

Also on the CFL main page it now says Montreal offensive coordinator Scott Milanovich will stay with Montreal. So now I have no idea who Toronto is going to hire. Weird, but Toronto is a pretty messed up team right now.

Winnipeg Stuff

Here's an article about who might fill Winnipeg's three open positions, president, general manager and head coach. Compared to Hamilton's record prior to 2009, the Bombers 7 and 11 record under Mike Kelly wasn't that bad, especially considering they tried using Stefan LeFors as their starting quarterback. Marshall seems to have the inside track on becoming the head coach, but stranger things have happened (i.e. Mike Kelly).

Speaking of Kelly, here's a transcript of his infamous, "handled internally," media scrum after a scout was caught spying on a Ticat practice. I will miss Kelly. Marc Trestman is an excellent coach, but he doesn't say much.

Finally, an article on Moncton's CFL game next year. At least they seem enthusiastic.

CFL Preview, Week 17, Part 2

Montreal at Winnipeg
Montreal is favoured by 3.5 points in Winnipeg. Montreal has won six straight, while Winnipeg has lost one as Michael Bishop came back to earth. The big question is whether Anthony Calvillo will play, and if he doesn't, how will the backup McPherson play. Montreal is 5 and 2 at home, while Winnipeg is at 3 and 4. Will Montreal let up on the accelator with no need to win? They didn't do it against Calgary or Hamilton the past couple of weeks. With Hamilton winning last night, the pressure is on the Bombers to keep even. For some reason, I think this may be the week that the Alouettes trip up.
Winnipeg 23, Montreal 19

BC at Saskatchewan,
BC has definitely been a hot team of late, coming off three wins, while the Riders tied last week. The Riders are only 4 and 3 at home, with the Lions even at 4 and 4 on the road, so there's probably not a huge amount of home field advantage effect. The Riders are still missing star receiver Weston Dressler, out with a broken leg, however last week in Calgary the Riders Canadian receivers had a great game. The story of the game though is that former Cat quarterback Casey Printers could start, with Pierce, Jackson and Lulay all injured. The Riders are favoured by four, which probably has a lot to do with Casey Printers starting. Having watched a lot of mediocre Printers play with the Cats, I'm going with the Riders.
Riders 35, Lions 25

Moncton!

It was already pretty much known that Moncton was going to get a series of CFL regular season games, but New Brunswick premier Shawn Graham let the cat out of the bag. Drew Edwards is reporting that the Cats will not be the team losing the home game next year. Likely the Argos will be the team giving up a home game in return for guaranteed revenue from the league for the event. The Argos will probably choose an opponent that doesn't historically draw well, which probably means the Riders and Cats are out. Winnipeg is a possibility, as is BC, which would be humorous from a time zone perspective. The Argos giving up a game likely makes things more flexible for them with regards to sharing the dome with the sad sack Jays and one would expect that the home game chosen would be one where two home games in a row are scheduled. Plus the other benefit for the Argos is that they are likely to still be a mediocre team next year, with a better possibility of improvement the following year.

For the Cats, it would not shock me for them to the team to have their home game in Moncton in 2011. Considering the attendance from the past two home games against the Stamps and Alouettes which were on consecutive weeks, losing one of these games would reduce Bob Young's losses by increasing attendance for the other eight games, especially removing a back to back game. Burlington Minor Football had a huge turnout to the Calgary game, moving these tickets to the Montreal game would have made for a relatively big number. For opponents, the Cats shouldn't have the Argos (obviously), the Alouettes, or the Riders. Winnipeg, BC or Calgary would seem to be the logical choices. I have relatives near Moncton, so I would even consider getting on a WestJet flight from Hamilton airport to spend a few days out there and catch the game.

Incidentally, the 60,000 plus crowd last week for the Smos at home against the Riders is a remarkable accomplishment. I looked at which team was the best road draw in 2008 in a blog post, with Saskatchewan the clear winner. With this crowd, the Riders will be even farther above the next best team for 2009.