Photos by Aaron S. Terry, Stadium Journey
This past Labour Day weekend in Canada marked the CFL’s first ever visit to Vancouver Island, when the Ottawa RedBlacks took on the BC Lions at Royal Athletic Park in Victoria. Touchdown Pacific follows past successes with Touchdown Atlantic, the CFL pre-season and regular season exhibition games held in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, which have occurred every few years since 2005.
The CFL game in Victoria follows a recent trend of different leagues scheduling their football contests in faraway locations, for example the NFL hosting games in England, Germany, and Brazil in the past few years, and United States college football hosting games recently in Australia and Ireland.
Touchdown Pacific, presented by WestJet, was more than just a football game, and included 3 days of fun for the whole family – the festivities included a BC Lions open practice, the Touchdown Pacific Festival at Ship Point Inner Harbour on Thursday and Friday, and of course the game itself on Saturday, August 31st.
The game itself, won by the Lions 38-12, broke a 5-game losing streak for BC, who came into the game 5-6; the game served as a sort of revenge for BC, who lost by 7 to the same RedBlacks one week earlier in Ottawa.
The Lions dominated in all phases of the game during Touchdown Pacific, outgaining the RedBlacks by almost 200 yards, and going into halftime with a 31-6 lead. The RedBlacks came into the game 7-2, 2nd in their division behind Montreal, while the Lions came in tied for 1st place in their division with Winnipeg.
The game in Victoria was covered by TSN and had a reported attendance of 14,727. It is not yet known whether there will be additional Touchdown Pacific games in the future.
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