I just read this article in the London Free Press. President Scott Mitchell and others were in London on Thursday to try to expand the Ticats reach to this area.
[url=http://lfpress.ca/newsstand/Sports/2009/08/20/10537181.html]http://lfpress.ca/newsstand/Sports/2009 ... 37181.html[/url]There will be more on this story in Friday's London Free Press.
Could this turn into London getting some pre-season games in upcoming seasons?
Im not sure about pre season games but i heard that they are going to do some practices there and i know they have events at ivor wynne for people from london.
Good for Mitchell etc.
It's about time.
But....lots of Detroit Lions fans in London (or used to be) so it may not be that easy.
That's cool. I'm really hoping they have some pre-season games here. I don't see why they wouldnt, I mean, the game they played here in London in 02 was a sellout...
Would love to see a game out this way! Would be awesome
mr62, I like the Lions, well used to when I lived in London and also when I lived there I managed to come to Hamilton to take in games. It is possible for those of us who are not intellectually challenged by cheering for teams in both leagues to actually take in a game here or there on both sides of the border. Of course guys like Phil Lind, Larry Tannenbaum, Paul Godfrey and others don't have that prowess but some of us do. 
Why didn't they advertise this on Wednesday so that they could get people out on Thursday.
This is my issue with newspapers, they report on the things that happened in the past and very rarely (except for Britney) advertise for things coming up.
hope this link works,says ti-cats will practice in london in september.
October 6th at TD Waterhouse Stadium the Ti-Cats will be holding a practice. Anyone know the time or how much admission will be?
In yesterdays Spec, the wrong date was given. The Sept 27 date is when the Cats will visit
children in a London hospital.
All information regarding this practice will be announced by the TiCats very shortly, I would imagine.
The London Free Press had it right. 
Do you think admission will be free?
Hate that you can't buy ANY Ticats merchandise here also
At Masonville, Nothing, Whiteoaks, Nothing, Downtown, Nothing....
Yup sammy, I grew up and was raised in London and it always bugged me you couldn't buy Argo stuff if I remember correctly, in London, that was the time when the Argos were my favourite team. I think it's great the Cats are reaching out to London, Therese Quigley who went to the same grade school and high school as me is great as part of the Mustang family now and her and Greg Marshall will support the TiCats initiative a lot.
Man, I wish we had a junior team that could play agains't the Knights, arrrrrrrrrrrrrggggg. I know, I know Hamilton is getting an NHL team and all that, heard the story before, no need to talk about how Hamilton killed junior hockey, I know, I know, the story is old. Still what a shame. Hmmmm Copps Coliseum, hmmmm.... Ever heard of Boom Boom, you know the guy who played for the Habs way back when.
Anyone heard anymore details about the practice at TD Waterhouse? Time? Price?
If the Argos can't build a new football specific stadium and I think this will be a must soon or at least get into BMO which looks doubtful, maybe the Argos can move to London in an expanded TD Waterhouse, that would be ok I think.
Anyone heard anymore details about the practice at TD Waterhouse? Time? Price?
Credit the Cats for reaching out to the outlying areas to attract fans. London is a great sports market and has always gotten good support for Western football games and for the London Knights.
I agree that it’s good for the Cats to reach out but I don’t really know how much extra support this will attract from London.
I have found that in Ontario, that if you don’t live in the immediate city, you don’t really understand the hype around the CFL.
I used to work in Brantford and nobody I knew from there liked the CFL or attended Cat games because they just didn’t grow up with it.
They didn’t see the buildup in the paper during the week or understand the feeling on game day. That coupled with so many blackouts and non-televised games in the 90s, they are more into the NFL because all of the Bills games were on in their area.
I like the fact that the Cats are trying to reach out to communities outside of Hamilton. You are now marketing the Cats to 1.5 million people plus if you include Niagara region, Burlington, Guelph, Tricities and all the way to London.
Out of those people we get 20,000 per game. To me it’s kinda disappointing but then again we have been terrible for the last 5 years.
I hope that within the next 3 years that the Cats remain good and we become a hot ticket that more communities, besides Hamilton, gets that feeling of excitement.
I agree Alan generally with what you say. Around these parts yes, there is so much NFL and NFL news and with teams in Buffalo, Cleveland and Detroit no matter what, the TiCats will never be very popular outside of the city of Hamilton and even in Toronto with the Argos, so much NFL news it's very tough. Part of not "growing up" with the CFL is so much NFL dominated news and air time.
My advice to the Cats is concentrate as much as possible in Hamilton and Burlington and Stoney Creek and leave it at that. Don't spread the marketing too thin, people don't care in London, Brantford, Kitchener etc. communities as I say. The good news is the Cats are not maxed out in their own community, room to grow right here, that's good. Now maybe there is a hidden agenda trying to market in London besides trying to get an extra 100 people to come to a TiCats game, I don't know. With Greg Marshall there and maybe a bit of a possibility of London getting a CFL team with an expanded TD Waterhouse Stadium, maybe Bob Young sees a bigger picture for the CFL as a whole, acting as a commish in some unofficial way, who knows. So start getting people in London thinking about getting their own CFL team. Hey, maybe the Cats go there if no new stadium here and the city not putting enough money into IWS for Bob's liking if no new stadium. I don't know. But if it's just trying to get people from London to come to Hamilton for a TiCats game, wasted time and energy IMHO. Too bad we didn't have a junior hockey team in a nice 9000 seater and London had a CFL team, that would be a great rivalry between the 2 cities in two great Canadian leagues. But I'm dreaming of course. 