Sports

BC Lions play first of two home openers in 2011 tonight

by Jeff Paterson on July 8th, 2011 at 9:14 AM

It doesn’t happen often in professional sports, but the BC Lions find themselves in the unique position of having a pair of home openers on their Canadian Football League schedule this season. Tonight they host the Calgary Stampeders at Empire Field (7:30 p.m.) and on September 30—construction deadlines willing—they’re set to move back downtown into their refurbished digs at BC Place Stadium.

So tonight’s game is the team’s ”˜outdoor’ home opener and is one of five games the Leos will play at Empire over the next two months. The Lions are back in action after a 30-26 loss to kickoff their season last Friday in Montreal. There was much to like in the team’s second-half rally against the Alouettes, however they put themselves in a position of having to play come-from-behind football after watching the Als jump out to a 27-10 halftime lead. The Lions need a better start tonight.

B.C. and Calgary both enter tonight’s game coming off losses last week (the Stamps were beaten 23-21 at home by Toronto), so one of these teams will leave the stadium tonight winless in its first two. After going 1-7 a year ago and managing to win just three times in nine tries on home turf in 2010, the Lions can hardly afford another slow start this season.

One thing to watch tonight will be to see which team’s offense can put the ball in the endzone. Both the Lions and Stamps squandered opportunities to score touchdowns last week and had to settle for field goals—one of the main reasons they both came up short on the scoreboard.

Comments

1 Comments

ursa minor

Jul 8, 2011 at 11:25am

It's also happening for Vancouver Whitecaps FC. As a season ticket holder, I've been very disappointed with the grudging soccer acknowledgement from B.C. Place. They can't be bothered to mention the 'Caps in their promotional materials - they're referred to as 'Vancouver Major League Soccer' and images of players no longer with the team, such as Martin Nash, are used.

It's shoddy treatment given the fact that the Whitecaps will be playing more than twice the dates than the B.C. Lions will once the Nutralife Cup and international friendlies are thrown in. The Whitecaps are getting a steady 20,000 at Empire Field and that figure could go up to the 35,000 Seattle Sounders FC pulls in at CenturyLink Field once the 'Caps are over their growing pains and firmly established at a permanent home.