CFL.ca
Mike Hardill
Ticats.ca
The Hamilton Tiger-Cats are packing their bags and heading East this weekend, leaving the familiar confines of Ivor Wynne Stadium behind. But this isn’t your run of the mill road trip to an opposing stadium in a rival city. On September 25, the Ticats are taking over Moncton, New Brunswick.
For one game this season, the Cats are swapping Steeltown for Hub City, Lake Ontario for the Atlantic Ocean, and hotdogs for lobster. On Sunday at 1 PM, the designated home team Ticats and the Calgary Stampeders kick off the second annual edition of Touchdown Atlantic at Moncton Stadium.
“We’re very proud to be back in Moncton for another special celebration of our league and its bond with the passionate fans we have here in Atlantic Canada,” said Mark Cohon, Commissioner of the Canadian Football League in a league-wide press release. “This year’s match-up has all the makings of a classic East-West shootout”.
For the Canadian Football League, Touchdown Atlantic offers an ideal opportunity to expand the game of Canadian football from coast-to-coast. For Hamilton middle linebacker Renauld Williams and the rest of the Ticats, the game in Moncton is an opportunity for the team to clear the slate in their new home away from home.
“It will be good to get away and re-focus,” admits Williams. “We have a couple of days together as a team to regroup. It will be good for us.”
Williams and his teammates are also naturally excited to head back to Moncton, the city in which a handful of Tiger-Cats spent their bye week facilitating minor football camps.
“From what the guys said, we’ve got a lot of support out there,” said Williams. “For a city of people that aren’t here at Ivor Wynne with us every game, the Black and Gold sure got a lot of love when we went down there during the bye week.”
Tiger-Cats defensive end Justin Hickman was one of those players that made the trip to Moncton during his time off in August and witnessed, first hand, the football fever that exists in the Atlantic province.
“We had a good following at those football camps. I would hope that every one would be cheering for us on game day,” says Hickman. “With the neutral location and the sold out crowd, it’s going to have a bit of a Bowl Game type atmosphere.”
Hickman explains that a quick start for the Tiger-Cats will be influential in getting all 20,725 in attendance behind the home squad.
“Being a defensive player, we need to go out there and shut them down and get off the field. Get the crowd into it.”
Cats kicker Justin Medlock, who played in last year’s rendition of Touchdown Atlantic as a member of the Argos, can attest to the importance of harnessing the loyalty of the raucous crowd.
“The fans are all into it. They pack that stadium and it gets pretty loud. They’ve got a good set up out there,” tells Medlock of Moncton Stadium. “They’re big on hockey, like all Canadians, but they get excited for football too.”
The Hamilton Tiger-Cats will paint Moncton Black and Gold this weekend, bringing many of the key, Ivor Wynne gameday elements along with them, including a two-night TigerTown party, Pigskin Pete and the cheerleaders and of course, the oversized Canadian Flag. But when the game itself gets underway on Sunday, with all of the festivities and hoopla aside, Renauld Williams says the trip to Moncton won’t affect the way the Ticats approach the contest.
“Bottom line it’s a business trip. We have to go out there and win the game. And we’re looking forward to that.”
