Moderator: Team Captains
Already conceding first place?Dusty wrote:and on Week 21..... You heard it here first!!!sj-roc wrote:I can confirm as I previously mentioned, the Esks play 17 weeks in a row. Their byes come in weeks 2 and 20.
We'll be facing them in Weeks 7 (home), 14 (away) and 17 (away).
Dusty
Wonder which one is Guarantee Win night ?sj-roc wrote:I've at least seen the Riders' portion of the schedule on their site and I see they're the ones who visit us twice this year. No doubt Skulsky is happy with this:
(1) Fri Jul 10. This is prob our home opener. 7pm kickoff.
(2) Sat Oct 3. 4pm kickoff. Might help entice fans from island and outlying areas who want to get home same night.
There'sTheLionKing wrote:Only one afternoon home game.
one 1pm kickoff: the Sun Sep 13 game vs Ott, two 4pm kickoffs: the 2nd Ssk visit on Sat Oct 3 and the final week of the season vs Cgy on Sat Nov 7, and the remaining six games all kickoff at 7pm.
Displaced by Women's World Cup, Lions seeking a place to play preseason contest
By Mike Beamish, Vancouver Sun February 13, 2015
David Sidoo Field at Thunderbird Stadium, on the campus of the University of B.C., is one of the proposed venues for a Canadian Football League pre-season game in June.
The B.C. Lions, displaced from BC Place Stadium because of the FIFA Women’s World Cup soccer tournament, are looking for an alternative arrangement for the friendly against the Edmonton Eskimos.
The date and location were both listed as to be determined when the CFL released its 2015 schedule on Friday. The Lions will play the Stampeders on June 12 in their first pre-season game, at McMahon Stadium in Calgary.
“Lots of factors go into staging the (Lions pre-season) game, obviously — impact on season ticket holders, suitable field, seating, media area, radio broadcast, dressing rooms, etc.,” said Lions spokesman Jamie Cartmell. “Right now, we’re in the early stages of that process.”
Kamloops, where the Lions train, Victoria and, possibly, Shell Place, in Fort McMurray, Alta., are also under consideration for the pre-season contest.
Blake Nill, UBC football’s head coach, however, is lobbying to have that game played on the Point Grey campus. Nill wants UBC home games to be “an event.” He says the natural drawing power of two professional teams, even if it’s a one-off, would establish “a vision” for UBC students and alumni of what the football atmosphere on campus could be.
T-Bird Stadium has seating for 3,500 in the main stadium. But grass seating, on the west side knoll, and temporary seating, beyond the end zones, could maximize capacity.
“I’ve been part of meetings discussing the reality of such an opportunity,” Nill said. “I would definitely like to see that game held here. Everything in my world is about recruiting. To have that game played at UBC — whether it was televised or not — would allow people to see the beauty of the campus and stadium. It’s like having a commercial, to promote your school and your facilities.”
The Lions’ pre-season schedule is not the only one affected by the Women’s World Cup. The Eskimos will play their first pre-season game in Fort McMurray, against the Saskatchewan Roughriders, on June 13, with Commonwealth Stadium unavailable.
Because TD Place Stadium in Ottawa also is in use for the World Cup, the Redblacks will be the home team for a pre-season game at PEPS Stadium, on the University of Laval campus, in Quebec City, against the Montreal Alouettes, also on June 13.
In the strangest scheduling quirk, the Argonauts are the “home” team in Fort McMurray for Toronto’s season opener against Edmonton on June 27. Because of the Blue Jays’ schedule and the 2015 Pan-American Games — Rogers Centre is the main event centre — the Argos will be displaced until Aug. 8.
B.C. has an opening week bye before its regular-season opener, July 4 in Ottawa. The Lions’ home opener is Friday, July 10, against the Roughriders.
It was clear as soon as the Whitecaps and WWC schedule was set, not to mention two summer concert events, that the Lions' home schedule was going to be a bit of a dog's breakfast. Few fans around the league are happy with the schedule. The Argos and TiCats don't have their proper home openers until August. The Esks, even though they get an extra de facto home game by playing (as technically the visiting team) the Argos at Fort Mac, have to play 17 straight weeks without a bye. Doesn't matter which team you cheer for; chances are you'll find something to dislike about this year's schedule.smphantom wrote:I almost barfed when I saw 2 Thursday night games! Are you serious? My job requires me to be in bed at 8:30 - 9 at night for a 4:45 am wake up call, so scratch those games off my season tickets. I called the Lions office asking to cancel my seats, but they will not, telling me the best they can do is have me be a Flex Pack holder or remain a STH and sell those two games at face value. Leaning towards a 3 game Flex Pack and watch the rest in HD at home.
Wish now that we can see the schedule before renewing Season Tickets.
Friendly ? Are we going to start calling the field "pitch" ? If the Lions shut out the opponent, does the defence gets credit for a "clean sheet?"The B.C. Lions, displaced from BC Place Stadium because of the FIFA Women’s World Cup soccer tournament, are looking for an alternative arrangement for the friendly against the Edmonton Eskimos.
I was thinking MB's use of that word might be read as a subtle sneer at how soccer seems to be dictating the Lions' comings and goings @BCP for much of this season.TheLionKing wrote:Friendly ? Are we going to start calling the field "pitch" ? If the Lions shut out the opponent, does the defence gets credit for a "clean sheet?"The B.C. Lions, displaced from BC Place Stadium because of the FIFA Women’s World Cup soccer tournament, are looking for an alternative arrangement for the friendly against the Edmonton Eskimos.
I'm probably going to miss four regular season games. Thursday nights and Sunday afternoons are almost impossible for me, especially in the summer months. I'm also scheduled to be out of town for the Hamilton game in October. I think I had to miss three games last year. Fans have made it clear over the years that they prefer Saturday and Friday nights, in that order, yet each year it seems we are getting more afternoon or midweek games that alienate the core fan base.smphantom wrote:I almost barfed when I saw 2 Thursday night games! Are you serious? My job requires me to be in bed at 8:30 - 9 at night for a 4:45 am wake up call, so scratch those games off my season tickets. I called the Lions office asking to cancel my seats, but they will not, telling me the best they can do is have me be a Flex Pack holder or remain a STH and sell those two games at face value. Leaning towards a 3 game Flex Pack and watch the rest in HD at home.
Wish now that we can see the schedule before renewing Season Tickets.
Not sure if I have the exact type of data you're looking for but I wonder if these increasing numbers of earlier kickoffs in recent years is as much on TSN and/or the league and their influence over the schedule as on the Lions. The Lions won't gripe too much publicly about the nature of the schedule as the negativity will just rub off on the market and make matters even worse.David wrote:I am wondering who at the Lions' office thinks afternoon games are a good idea? While it doesn't make much difference to me (personally), we have two 4:00pm games and a 1:00pm game. That's a third of our home game schedule. Not sure what I am missing here, but I have yet to see a cause-effect with an attendance spike by playing in the afternoon. sj-roc probably has the data to support this, but since the BC Place renovation was completed in 2011 and they introduced afternoon games in 2012, I don't think overall they could be characterized as 'an unqualified success' (last year's BC/Rider game notwithstanding).
DH
I hadn't been keeping track of kickoff times in any of the attendance data I've been compiling but since I found such data at stats.cfldb.ca I decided to see what was up. I've taken averages for each kickoff time of 1pm, 4pm and 7pm for every regular season game @BCP since the start of the 2002 season; I picked this starting point as it was when Ackles returned. The Tempire games have been axed out as the lower capacity hampers interpretation of the numbers; likewise, the 50k crowd from BCPII opening night (2011/09/30) is spurious and best omitted from the analysis.David wrote:I am wondering who at the Lions' office thinks afternoon games are a good idea? While it doesn't make much difference to me (personally), we have two 4:00pm games and a 1:00pm game. That's a third of our home game schedule. Not sure what I am missing here, but I have yet to see a cause-effect with an attendance spike by playing in the afternoon. sj-roc probably has the data to support this, but since the BC Place renovation was completed in 2011 and they introduced afternoon games in 2012, I don't think overall they could be characterized as 'an unqualified success' (last year's BC/Rider game notwithstanding).
DH
94 of these have kicked off at 7pm or later. Actually, one game in 2013 KO'ed at 6pm (vs Cgy) but I'm including it in this category anyway instead of "orphaning" it. 54 of these KO'ed at 7pm, 38 at 7:30pm (the last of which was the 2009 closer — the final game played under the old roof) and one lone game in 2003 (vs Ott Renegades on a Thu) had an 8pm KO. All lumped into one group. We've had six games that kicked off at either 4pm (all but one) or 3pm (last year's home opener vs Edm). Treated as one group of six. Opponents for the games: Mtl, Tor, Wpg, Edm once each; Ssk twice. Only two games, both against Mtl, had earlier KOs: a 1pm start in Sep 2012 and a 1:30pm start in Sep 2013 (this btw was the famed "cupid shuffle" game). Since these data only span the most limited set of opponents they might not offer much insight.
