Normally, CFL fans (and dual sport bloggers, hello how ya doin' folks!) have a few days of turnaround time to refocus their gaze on a new season of Canadian Football, but this year the two seasons cross over with almost but hours to spare.
With barely time to restock the fridge and clean out the chip bowls, a new year beckons for the CFL!
The path to Regina and the 101st Grey Cup set to begin in Winnipeg tonight, the regular season debut of a fancy state of the art stadium to greet the Bombers and Als as they kick off the season. A full house guaranteed as the Sold Out sign went up earlier this week in anticipation of the season opener.
Opening night in River City is the first of four games to launch the CFL in 2013, as the Grey Cup Champion Toronto Argonauts seek to win back to back cups.
Towards that task, the Argos open up their 2013 campaign with a home date against long time rivals the Hamilton Tiger Cats, the Tabbies who will call Guelph home for the year while they await their own new stadium, look to spoil the celebration of last year's championship win on Friday evening.
Friday night will also find the CFL in Calgary, a home opener for the Stampeders as they take on the BC Lions, a season opener that comes but a week after the devastating floods of the Bow and Elbow rivers in Calgary and other locales across Southern Alberta. While Calgary seeks to recover from the flooding and with an eye to the Stampede but weeks away, Friday nights game may provide some idea as to the challenges of big events moving ahead, while at the same time provide for a refuge from the hard work of the week past and that of the weeks to come.
Week number one wraps up in Northern Alberta on Saturday afternoon as the Edmonton Eskimos host the Saskatchewan Roughriders, a match up that always makes for entertaining football. This season opener for both teams offers the Riders the chance to get things off on the right foot as they head towards hosting the Grey Cup in November.
A game which the Rider Nation is no doubt hoping the home side is not only organizing, but is destined to be a participant on the field as well.
The 2013 season marks the last one of the recent era of CFL football featuring but eight teams, the league moves into Ottawa once again in 2014, the plans already in place to field the RedBlacks once again at Lansdowne Park, another stadium that will be brand new to the league and provides another signal as to the strength of the CFL after some lean years of the past.
While the CFL moves up to 9 teams again in 2014, there is already more talk of the long desired tenth franchise for the league, still more of the long range plan than anything else, expect the discussion to grow more vocal as this season moves on and Ottawa rejoins the league next year.
But, that's all talk for later.
Right Now, it's kick off to 2013, the launch of week number one can be found below:
Thursday, June 27-- Montreal 38 at Winnipeg 33 ( 33,500)
Friday, June 28-- Hamilton 34 at Toronto 39 (29,852 )
Friday, June 28-- British Columbia 32 at Calgary 44 (26,625)
Saturday, June 29-- Saskatchewan 39 at Edmonton 18 (35,869)
All games on TSN, MTL/WPG on RDS as well
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