CFL Announces 'Touchdown Pacific' For 2024

By Chris Lawton

The CFL has announced the launch of ‘Touchdown Pacific’ for 2024. This is the first game to be put under the ‘Touchdown Pacific’ banner and will see the BC Lions host the Ottawa REDBLACKS at Royal Athletic Park in Victoria on the 31st of August 2024.

You can see a full press conference on this here.

The timing means the game will be part of the Labour Day Weekend series in the CFL. Prior to this teams from BC and Ottawa have met 12 times in Labour Day games. The first coming in 1981 as the Lions beat the Ottawa Rough Riders 17-7, and the latest in 2002 when the Lions defeated the Ottawa Renegades 28-4. BC has a 10-2 overall record against Ottawa teams on Labour Day so it will be interesting to see how this one plays out.

Touchdown Pacific is being marketed as “the latest instalment in the Touchdown Series, following five Touchdown Atlantic events that celebrated Canadian football and deepened its imprint throughout the East Coast”.

Which, for UK fans, requires a bit of history. So, let’s look back at what Touchdown Atlantic was all about. The latest edition of that was held in Halifax Nova Scotia. Going back to 2003 the CFL was testing the waters for expansion in the East, centred around Halifax and Moncton. The first TD Atlantic foray was a preseason matchup that saw the Argos and Ticats play to a 16-16 tie.

Since then, six Touchdown Atlantic games have been played. Over that time support for an Atlantic team has waxed and waned and now that the league is looking west you must wonder if that means they have moved on for this idea once again. Or are they planning to make this a mobile celebration as we move forward? Time will tell.

As ever, it will be fun watching it all unfold as the games are played in the future.

Touchdown Atlantic: A History

Preseason, 2005: Hamilton Tiger-Cats 16-16 Toronto Argonauts

Regular Season, 2010: Edmonton Eskimos 24-6 Toronto Argonauts

Regular Season, 2011: Calgary Stampeders 36-55 Hamilton Tiger-Cats

Regular Season, 2013: Montreal Alouettes 26-28 Hamilton Tiger-Cats

Regular Season, 2019: Montreal Alouettes 28-22 Toronto Argonauts

Regular Season, 2022: Saskatchewan Roughriders 24-30 Toronto Argonauts

Regular Season, 2023: Saskatchewan Roughriders 13-31 Toronto Argonauts

Touchdown Pacific 2024: BC Lions ???-??? Ottawa RedBlacks

CHRIS LAWTON

CFL ANALYST

Chris originally started following the NFL with the ‘first wave’ of fans when it was shown on Channel 4 in the 1980’s. He has been a keen supporter of the Miami Dolphins since 1983. Chris first encountered the CFL in 2016 and instantly fell in love with the Canadian game. He has been writing about the CFL 2017. Chris has a degree in history, postgraduate degree in librarianship and can be found on twitter as @CFLfanUK

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