Lionbackers.com

We could sit here and nit-pick the schedule from now until next week, but no team or its fans is ever 100% satisfied, and there's nothing we can do about it now anyway.

All that being said, I am with B.C. Fan in that it's ludicrous for a dome team to play the bulk of its schedule pre-Labour Day (for the second year in a row I might add!).

If I had my wish, a traditional poor draw in Hamilton would be here early, as I think Casey will be a big storyline with the media having a field day with his return (especially in the slow summer months). Instead, we get him here - barring injury of course and you just never know with Casey - on September 27.

DH 8)

A good Ol' Roughrider whooping in the home opener. Can't wait.

only 3 of those on a Saturday

Makes me glad I didn't renew my season's tickets. Would have been a complete waste of money this year. Right now it looks like I MIGHT get to 1 game this year.

LFITQ wrote:

only 3 of those on a Saturday

Makes me glad I didn't renew my season's tickets. Would have been a complete waste of money this year. Right now it looks like I MIGHT get to 1 game this year.

Ahh that sucks, who is going to help out on those close 3rd down gambles? Sorry to see you depart, but understandable considering the distance you have been traveling.

Rammer wrote:

LFITQ wrote:

only 3 of those on a Saturday

Makes me glad I didn't renew my season's tickets. Would have been a complete waste of money this year. Right now it looks like I MIGHT get to 1 game this year.

Ahh that sucks, who is going to help out on those close 3rd down gambles? Sorry to see you depart, but understandable considering the distance you have been traveling.

Well my dad kept his 2 tix behind you. And of course you know what will happen now don't you? Murphy's Law will kick in and I will actually get down there to most games!

But if I don't, then that just makes those games I do attend that much sweeter! I know I have Sept 27th circled on my calendar.

As a non-ST holder due to distance from the Dome maybe I shouldn't comment. However I don't find too much wrong with this year's schedule and think it's an improvement over 2007. First of all I consider the exhibition game a non-factor. If you live in the lower mainland you likely take it in regardless of day. And if you live outside the area it's tough to justify the travel expenses to watch some backups play a meaningless game regardless of it being on a weeknight or weekend.

As for the part of the schedule that matters this year isn't a whole lot different than the schedule has been for the past 6 years. Every year they've had 4 home games after Labour Day and 5 prior to it. This is a year where that could've been split differently with Labour Day being early (Sept.1) and a domed GC meaning the usual 1st weekend of November season finale. In most years there are only 8 weeks left after the Labour Day weekend so 4 post LD home games should be normal.

The only thing that seems to change one year to the next has been the game-night splits. This year there are 6 Fridays and 3 Saturdays, which I believe makes it identical to 2006. Last year it was 2 Thursdays, 3 Fridays and 4 Saturdays. So we traded 2 Thursdays and 1 Saturday for 3 Fridays. To me that's a net gain for the out-of-towners as all 9 games are now attached to a weekend. A 5-4 or 4-5 split Friday vs Saturday would've been even better yet for out-of-towners, but I think the 6-3 split is better overall than the 2-3-4 Thur/Fri/Sat of last year.

I sympathize with LFITQ an hour downstream from me as Saturday night games are the ideal for us up in the north. However I can't quite understand the lament of only being able to make maybe 1 game since while we've lost the one Saturday we've gained some ground by losing 2 Thursdays. The one post-LD Saturday loss was replaced with a Friday night on the Thanksgiving Long Weekend which to me becomes quite attractive to make it into a 4 day weekend.

For those who don't like Friday night games get used to them. They aren't going away. TSN is the flag ship station for all things CFL. Friday Night Football is their signature CFL "event". The Lions are arguably the premiere team in the league. The Pacific Time Zone dovetails nicely with the Eastern Time Zone for doing Friday night doubleheaders. The TSN contract is worth at least $1 million annually to the bottom line of each team. I would suggest that a) TSN has more influence on the Lions schedule than does the CFL and b) the Lions like the money the TV contract provides. As a former co-worker of mine used to say "What interests my boss fantasizes the hell out of me". In that regard what interests TSN as being beneficial to them has to interest the Lions. Anything that helps grow TSN's revenue stream helps the Lions and ultimately the fans as increased TV revenues lead to increased cap which leads to a better calibre of play.

David wrote:
All that being said, I am with B.C. Fan in that it's ludicrous for a dome team to play the bulk of its schedule pre-Labour Day (for the second year in a row I might add!

David, you are absolutely right. I have grumbled to similar effect in the past and I think this imbalance goes back more than just a couple of years. Why would the CFL not want to take greater advantage of the only climate-controlled facility in the Western Conference (as it used to be known, and as I still stubbornly insist on calling it) later in the season? We get 5 (6 if you count the preseason) summer season home games and 4 fall season home games. WTF? You have to think that if you canvassed everyone on the Lions and the Stampeders if they would rather play the August 22 game in Calgary and the November 1 game in BC, rather than the other way around as it is, every one of them would say something like: DUH!!, even if it meant for the Lions that they would play 3 road games in a row.

CatsEyes wrote:

Lets hope it is just an appetizer. We need to save room for a season long feast, culminating in dessert served in a Grey Cup.

Having to drive in from Kamloops, I like the Friday night summer games. The traffic on Saturday afternoons is awful from Abbotsford to the Port Mann. We may actually be able to get thru to downtown with only a few traffic delays instead of sitting on the tch for 1.5 hours.

Other than the home opener against Saskatchewan, there is not much I like about this sked. The CFL keeps making the same stupid mistakes...
1. too many summer month games indoors including back to back home games in July
2. Friday "afternoon" games vs. Toronto and Montreal (these should be played on Saturday night or Sunday afternoon). Yes, FNF may be the big ticket on TSN, but you are throwing away your second largest English TV market when you schedule this way. Plus if Toronto is blacked out locally then you have really reduced the potential audience.
3. at Edmonton in October allowing another "wet grass" advantage for the Evil Empire
4. Final home game is against a team from the east, killing any chance of big time "playoff type" game to decide seeding in the west.

At least we only have one Thursday home game, and it is on the road in Edmonton so the time difference won't be too bad for the TV audience. I'm not crazy about playing Edmonton 4 times, but I guess it may actually be to our advantage as the Esks don't look like they are getting any better any time soon.

Not that scheduling is the CFL strong point (right behind officiating), but is there any logic behind having teams play their second pre-season game and first regular season game against the same opponents? I think this happened to us 2 years ago (against Calgary), and this season it's happening with all 4 west teams. The pre-season can be boring enough without scheduling games in such a manner that encourages teams to keep it vanilla in the final pre-season game, lest they show their hand to next week's opponent.

The only thing that would be worse is if we opened at home against Calgary next week. Shhh, don't let the CFL schedule maker hear that idea!