Lionbackers.com

The CFL has given fans an early Christmas present: The 2018 schedule has been released.

https://www.cfl.ca/schedule/

With an extra bye week in the 2018 schedule, everything moves up. The first preseason game is May 27. The first Lions' preseason game is June 1 in Calgary. That's usually the week when players are just reporting to training camp.

B.C. LIONS 2018 SCHEDULE

PRESEASON
Friday, June 1 at Calgary, 6 p.m.
Friday, June 8 vs. Winnipeg, 7:30 P.M.

REGULAR SEASON
Saturday, June 16 vs. Montreal, 7 p.m.
Friday, June 29 at Edmonton, 7 p.m.
Saturday, July 7 at Winnipeg, 5:30 p.m.
Saturday, July 14 vs. Winnipeg, 7 p.m.
Friday, July 20 at Ottawa, 4:30 p.m.
Saturday, Aug. 4 at Calgary, 6 p.m.
Thursday, Aug. 9 vs. Edmonton, 7 p.m.
Saturday, Aug. 18 at Toronto, 1 p.m.
Saturday, Aug. 25 vs. Saskatchewan, 7 p.m.
Friday, Sept. 7 vs. Ottawa, 7 p.m.
Friday, Sept. 14 at Montreal, 4:30 p.m.
Saturday, Sept. 22 vs. Hamilton, 7 p.m.
Saturday, Sept. 29 at Hamilton, 1 p.m.
Saturday, Oct. 6 vs. Toronto, 4 p.m.
Saturday, Oct. 13 at Calgary, 5 p.m.
Friday, Oct. 19 vs. Edmonton, 7 p.m.
Saturday, Oct. 27 at Saskatchewan, 4 p.m.
Saturday, Nov. 3 vs. Calgary 7 p.m.

On first glance, it looks like a good schedule. There are 5 home games after Labour Day for the third straight year.
Six of the Lions' 9 regular season home games will be played on Saturday nights. There are two Friday games and one Thursday game (every team is required to have one Thursday home game, apparently).
All regular season home games start at 7 p.m. except a Saturday, Oct. 6 game against Toronto, which will be played at 4 p.m.
The final 4 games, including the final 2 home games, are against divisional opponents.

https://www.bclions.com/schedule

What I really like is that there are no back to back home games!
Never liked that in the past.

Overall I like it for the dates of the Lions' home games and 5 post-Labour Day games.

Downsides:
I don't like or see the need for the 3rd bye week other than it eliminates the need for 1 team to play 2 games within the same week to balance everything out..
Lions will be home 4 times in the first 12 weeks and 5 times in the final 9. It means they will play at home once every 3rd week up to Labour Day instead of a more normal once every 2nd week. They have 1 game in Week 1 then not back home for 4 weeks with 2 road games and a bye in between. Then it's off again for another 4 weeks with 2 road games and a bye before finally playing their 3rd home game in Week 9 of the schedule. That's a lot of time without a home presence in the market.

dtrain wrote: ↑

Thu Dec 14, 2017 11:31 am

What I really like is that there are no back to back home games!
Never liked that in the past.

Personally I looked forward to the back-to-backs because they made for a great opportunity to get back to the island to see family. I could catch the first one on my way down to the coast, head over to the island for a week then catch the second one on the way back home to PG.

This has got to be the earliest the sked has ever been released--Ambrosie must have started work on it the same week he unveiled the bye week balancing initiative last summer. With the extra week we are getting closer to his proposal for 2019 to have the regular season start at the beginning of June.

When I was a young CFL fan I used to wait impatiently for all the (seemingly endless) pre-season games to end and the games that count to begin at the end of July (up to 1972). By 1975 it started July 20th, and July 12th in 1976.

Fitting last game of season & Bouno's career will be @ home vs Stamps and his ol sidekick Mr.Dickenson

Fanatastic to see the schedule realrased this early. Long overdue but why is Edmonton here twice again for the 2nd straight year? Is there not some kind of s rotation?

would have like to see more 4pm saturday starts in fall only.

... but saw on twitter that the CFL will having some triple header saturdays this year after labour day (and every week in the fall if Halifax joins) which means lions have to play at 7pm those days

Why not 1:00pm Eastern time game, a 4:00pm game in Vancouver, and 8:00pm local start time in Edmonton or Calgary? That's do-able.


DH

I love the 7 pm. Saturday starts but the Lions may have to rethink their priorities for next year if there is a big update on discounted kids' season tickets. The 4 p.m start times seemed to attract more families with young kids.

Would like to see more 4pm games on Saturday. And by more, I mean all of them.

Don't see a need for the 3rd bye week, what's worse is BC has all three in the first half of the season.

B.C.FAN wrote: ↑

Mon Dec 18, 2017 7:06 pm

I love the 7 pm. Saturday starts but the Lions may have to rethink their priorities for next year if there is a big update on discounted kids' season tickets. The 4 p.m start times seemed to attract more families with young kids.

This doesn't make any sense to me.

* Build off-season marketing initiative around an $85 season ticket for kids. Check.
* Promote the hell out of it online and to ticket base. Check.
* Schedule several afternoon games to compliment the program. Oh wait...

Only one 4:00pm game for the entire year. Somebody dropped the ball or didn't think this through.


DH

Rocko604 wrote: ↑

Mon Dec 18, 2017 8:13 pm

Would like to see more 4pm games on Saturday. And by more, I mean all of them.

Don't see a need for the 3rd bye week, what's worse is BC has all three in the first half of the season.

its player saftety related, plus BC has the most travel time in league. A few teams only have 2 byes