It has recently been reported that the CFL is looking for ways to build off of their success with the Touchdown Atlantic games to explore fan interest in the CFL on the east coast. Victoria, BC is interested in hosting the BC Lions in a similar event that would be called “Touchdown Pacific”.

The motivation for adding this game is the economic boost that communities have experienced by hosting the Touchdown Atlantic game.

“We have talked to the (B.C.) Lions about it in the past and it’s an obvious kind of thing that just would make too much sense,” said Keith Wells, executive director of the Greater Victoria Sport Tourism Commission. The game would be played at Starlight Stadium in Langford, BC, but currently, the stadium only has a capacity of 6,000 seats. The CFL has made it known that the stadium would at least need to have a 10,000-seat capacity. The process of expanding the seating area of Starlight Stadium has been initiated.

CFL Commissioner Randy Ambrosie has used the Touchdown Atlantic game as an opportunity to assess a communities ability to support potential future CFL teams. Ambrosie explained his rationale “Take a game there, have great success, and create a lot of energy. You also have an opportunity to create an economic benefit to those communities, which speaks well to the long-term opportunity to potentially bring a football team to those markets.”

Adding a CFL team is not necessarily the vision that Victoria has for its future, but it would like to seek out opportunities to build a closer connection to the BC Lions. The Lions have shown interest as acknowledged by BC Lions president Duane Vienneau “It’s always about the stadium. You need a minimum capacity of about 10,000 to make it work and their stadium is going through an upgrade. Once that gets to the capacity you need, that’s probably when it would happen.” It will be interesting to see if the CFL continues to work towards adding this new event to future CFL schedules.

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