It shows Ivor Wynne in September of 1980 and they still had the 25 yard endzones, I can't remember the year they reduced them to 20 yards.
As well, it you look at the picture that's when they renovated the press boxes, the 2 spotter's boxes are gone and are in the process of being rebuilt.
Here's the web site that the picture came from: http://photogallery.thestar.com/photogallery/919736
They've got a couple other interesting pictures of the stadium over the years.
I have no end of problems trying to post pictures on this site, I'm not sure why. But if you just go to the web site I posted you can have a look and you will be able to see the photo there that I am talking about.
I believe end zones were reduced in 1983 or 1984 due to an engineering gaffe at the newly constructed BC Place, which left room for only 20 yard endzones instead of the traditional 25 yarder.
To ensure league uniformity and fairness, all endzones were simultaneously reduced across the board.
The first reduced size CFL end zone was located in Vancouver when the Lions moved into their dome. That was 1983 I am pretty sure. All the other stadiums were reduced to match that. I'm not sure if there was one year when only Vancouver had the smaller end zone before the others were changed, or if they all were reduced at the same time. When Toronto's dome was built, it had to be smaller too, but by then the depth was 20 yards everywhere.
CFL fields weren't all identical in the 25-yard zone era. A few, Hamilton's included, had the back corners of the end zones cut off to accommodate a running track. As your photos show, the shape of the curve around the back of the dead ball line varied at Civic Stadium/ IWS over the years. Edmonton, Vancouver (at Empire Stadium), Montreal (l'Autostade... strangest looking stadium ever) and perhaps Regina (memory is foggy on that) had similar end zone shapes, each slightly different depending on the configuration of the stands and any perimeter track.
In fact, Commonwealth Stadium in Edmonton still has the cut off end zone corners. So they aren't all identical now either.
Excellent! That solves something I was not sure about. There were a couple of seasons when BC had the smaller 20 yard end zone (they had to, that’s all that would fit) and the rest of the league still had 25. Thanks for the update.
1995 -- Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium -- Home of The Memphis Mad Dogs -- 9 yards deep in the middle, tapering to 7 yards near the sidelines. It wasn't the only short CFL endzone, south of the border but none, other than this one, were under 15 yards deep.
Here is a link to youtube video from Memphis. In addition to the small endzones, the field consisted of both natural grass and artificial turf. The stadium had an American sized grass field that was surrounded by artificial turf. Made for some tricky footing near the sidelines.
The stadiums whetehr they be pro or college for CFL fields that have stadard ointernational 400 meter tracks all have the corners of the endzones cut slightly. If I recall this also had something to do with shortening the End Zones to 20 yards. It meant that any stadium that was built with a 400 meter track could accocmaodate the 20 yrd endzones with only the slight cut at the corners. Durig the 70's 2 major stadiums were built in Canada one in Montreal for the Olympics and the other in Edmonton for the Commonwelath games and both were to be the new homes of the CFL franchises. So reducing the endzones to 20 yards would make any new stadium built for track and field would be condusive to CFL size end zones with only the slight cut at the corners.
So when thinking of stadiums in the US that could accomodate the CFL size fields it would be stadiums that have 400 meter tracks. Like Montcon, however, the turf does not usually extend all the way to the track where the long jump pits usually are but like in Moncton the turf can be extended over that area for the endzones. Montcont was just odd because it was a natural grass field and the extended was artificial turf.
With this in Mind if Hamilton were to consiser playing a game in the US next season the University of Buffalo has a 30,000 seat facility with a 400 meter track which is home to their football field. The field is artificial turf so the turf could be extended over the track area where the long jump pits are.
Maybe I will start a thread about Hamilton playing one game at the University of Buffalo next season against Saskatchewan. Drew Willy played for the U of Buffalo and in his SR year he lead the Bulls to their only bowl appearance ever, coincednetally it was the Canadian Bowl played at Rogers centre. One of the reasons that they were chosen was the proximity of Buffalo to Toronto along with their record of course
I’m not sure if this picture really is from September 1980 because I attended the Labour Day game that year (my first game ever) and I don’t remember those stripes in the endzones. Also the gap between the North East corner contained a kind of ramp and seating for people in wheelchairs. I remember because there was a torrential downpour and I went to go hide under these handicap stands. Those stands don’t seem to be in this particular picture. By the way the Cats beat the Argos that game 23-2.
Can anyone confirm or remember if this picture is indeed accurate?
