VANCOUVER — The Canadian Football League (CFL), the BC Lions and the City of Victoria are proud to announce an exciting next step in growing the game across Canada: Touchdown Pacific.
Interestingly, the article does not exclude the possibility of an Atlantic Touchdown game as well.
I tried to find a stadium called Royal Athletic Park using Google Earth. This is what I found (data dated for 2023). Is this where it is going to be played? There will have to be a lot of work to make this hold 10,000 people and a professional football game.
Perhaps a full “pop-up” stadium is an option.
Perhaps, but they only have 9 months to get it all set-up and arranged. Why not expand the stadium at UVIC? I would be interested to see the logistics plan even though it really does not concern me.
Yes, that is the location. They can add temporary seating and have done so in the past. In 2007 for u20 soccer world cup they added seats on the North side to get to 10,500. If they also add seats on the East side they say they can get to 14,500. It will probably end up somewhere in that range.
Considering its a baseball field…I would agree
It hosts soccer and baseball.
I can’t see the logic of this. Is the cfl considering putting another team in B.C. or is this just to increase the attendance at Lions games?
what a load of garbage! why are they not using Starlight stadium which is 100 x better? Royal Athletic park is a dump! I won’t be going. My guess is the league coudn’t work out a deal with Pacific FC or something.
It looks like Victoria just wants the tourism. It doesn’t hurt to have another venue for the 2026 season while the world cup is going on.
The initiative appears to be spearheaded by Victoria. Langford although part of the Greater Victoria area probably wasn’t interested in negotiation. Obviously your assessment of Pacific FC not wanting to co-operate is very likely.
Doesn’t hurt that the current mayor of Victoria is a Lions fan and I think a season’s ticket holder who travels across for games.
That would be funny if the mayor said they brought the game to town to save money by not taking the ferry.
Amar Doman has been trying to show that the BC Lions are truly BC and not just Vancouver. It could also help increase the fan base on the Island and get more people to travel for games. They won’t be trying to get a permanent team in Victoria. I don’t think they could get enough regular fans.
Why is Royal Athletic Park a dump? The grounds? The area? The people there? Bojacks?
This sounds like what Mean Titanium Ted stated that it is mostly a tourism ploy.
Isn’t tourism already doing well there though?
I’ll definitely be interested in hearing more from the locals as the date approaches.
Royal Athletic park seems to have hosted quite a few people.
I am local, within walking distance of Royal Athletic. I dont feel it is a dump, but it is old and feels old. It is still used regularly for festivals and big events as well as baseball and soccer.
Tourism is pretty strong, but another 10 million in economic impact, if we get the same value as TD Atlantic did, is still big here. I think I read somewhere that sports events bring in about 100 million a year for the Greater Victoria area in tourism money. So another 10% is solid.
I live 10 minute walk from Starlight Stadium and there is no comparison. I’ve gone to many events at Royal Athletic Park. That part of town is is a bit rough now too.
I definitely agree that Starlight is a much better location and it would have been nice if they could have had the game there. Maybe they could have it there in a future year. I just don’t think of Royal Athletic as a dump. Just outdated.
