.
This may be my first and only post solely related to the CFL and updates to The List. In the professional football league up north, we note two changes to the perennially stable set of teams. In Ottawa, the CFL is back for a third stint and it will be another team nicknamed starting with the letter “R”. It is the RedBlacks and you will not see me putting that in all caps like the team wants. Historic Lansdowne Park is the site of the stadium and a complete renovation/rebuild has led to essentially new TD Place Stadium. Soccer will also be played here next season as the Ottawa Fury become part of the NASL. The whole complex along the Rideau Canal is interesting in that it also includes the Ottawa Civic Center (now branded as TD Place Arena), which is formerly the home to the NHL’s Senators and since they moved to Kanata, the OHL has played there. The Civic Center had a refurbishment and this is one of the architecturally more interesting arenas around as the building is actually part of the stadium’s north stands.
In Hamilton, they also built a new stadium on the site of their old one. After a year in a pseudo-temp facility all the way in Guelph, the Ti-Cats return home where Tim Hortons Field replaces Ivor Wynne Stadium. However, that replacement is not ready quite yet. While management says the facility will be ready July 26 for the opener, there will be plenty of work to go. For one, the scoreboard is not going to be up this season, nor will several bathrooms. And its not even assured that construction will crank enough to get the place ready for football in a few weeks. The more I read, the more it seems that problems have beset this place. I hope for the sake of the fans that had their team pulled away 45 minutes to the northwest last year, that they have a home opener to welcome back their team.
.
Stadium and Arena Visits 