Where I Was : Toronto, Hamilton and Brantford (!), October 21-23.

I just spent three days (October 21-23) in Southern Ontario, to spend some time with some friends and attend two CFL games.  A few thoughts: 

• We attended the Eskimo-Argo game at the Skydome (Rogers Centre) in Toronto on Friday night, and the Lions-TiCat clash at the historic Ivor Wynne Stadium in Hamilton on Saturday night.  This means that we watched half the CFL’s schedule for the week-end.  Now, granted the CFL is a small league, but anytime one can attend 50 per cent of a league’s game over two days, it is kind of cool.

• I had a great time sitting in Box J at Ivor Wynne Stadium.  Ivor Wynne is a pillbox of a stadium, sitting essentially in a working class residential neighbourhood.  One walks past houses to get to the front gate.  The stadium itself, while ancient, is the definition of cozyness, with fans bundled together and overhanging the field.  I was sitting in Row 17 in Box J, on the 35-yard-line and that was the closest I have ever been to the action.  The crowd is loud and raucous, with Pigskin Pete doing the rounds of the stadium leading rounds of ‘Oska Wee Wee’   One of my better CFL experiences.  My Argo fan friends even behaved…

• After seeing Saturday’s night game at Ivor Wynne, I have now attended CFL games at 10 different venues.  The list:  Université de Moncton Stadium; Stade Percival Molson and the Big Owe in Montréal; Frank Clair Stadium/Lansdowne Park in Ottawa; Skydome/Rogers Centre in Toronto; Ivor Wynne in Hamilton; CanadArms Stadium in Winnipeg; Commonwealth Stadium in Edmonton; McMahon Stadium in Calgary and BC Place in Vancouver.  So if you’re scoring at home, the only one I am missing is Taylor Field in Regina.  And Grey Cup 2013 should take care of that.

• As for the football, both games were essentially blow-outs, with the difference being that the Eskimos let the Argos back into Friday’s game by allowing three touchdowns in the fourth quarter.  It makes me wonder if they have developed enough of a killer instinct to make it through the West this year.  That being said, with two weeks to go in the regular season, the CFL playoff picture seems wide open right now.  The Lions just rattled off 8 straight wins, but did not look dominant in a win against the Green Riders last week and got manhandled by the Ti-Cat defence.  Calgary just made a QB change with three games to go in the regular season.  While Drew Tate has looked dominant in the past two weeks, he was playing against the league’s two also-rans.  His first real test as a starter will come this upcoming week-end in Montréal.  The situation is not much clearer in the East.  For the first time in years, the Alouettes do not look like a lock to represent the East in the Grey Cup; however, all three playoff teams can look dominant one week and pedestrian the next.  The next few weeks should be fun for CFL fans.
• Accommodation.  On Friday night in Toronto, I stayed at the Hyatt Regency, on King Street W, a few blocks East of Spadina.  The room was large and comfortable, with king size bed.  The room was great, and the hotel is upper-scale and in a great location, next to restaurants, theatres and the Skydome/CN Tower.  I had pre-booked on their website and prepaid $135 for the night, tax included.  This is a good deal, which is evidently not always available.  However, I had to deal with the front desk three times while I was there and twice the attendants were quite haughty and not entirely pleasant.  In addition, their software system appears to be overly-complicated, as both checking in and out took longer than it should have.