According to a report from Farhan Lalji, the CFL won’t hold a neutral site ‘Touchdown Series’ game next season.
“There will not be a touchdown game, Atlantic, Pacific, anywhere there’s not going to be a touchdown game this year,” said Lalji on The SportsCage.
“One of the reasons for that is Toronto actually saw a bit of an uptick in their attendance, they’re usually a team that gives up a [home] game, they didn’t last year when it was B.C. and Ottawa, but you find that happening when it was an Atlantic game that it was always the Argos that gave up a home game. But they’re seeing an uptick in attendance now and they necessarily don’t just want to hand that game over.”
“No Touchdown game this year, but I do think you will see it back within the next couple of years somewhere.”
There has been a ‘Touchdown Series’ game for three straight years, with Nova Scotia playing host to the Saskatchewan Roughriders and Toronto Argonauts in 2022 and 2023. Last season marked the event’s first time on the West Coast, when the B.C. Lions and Ottawa Redblacks squared off in the first ‘Touchdown Pacific’ game in Victoria, B.C.
‘Touchdown Atlantic’ games were also held in Moncton, New Brunswick, in 2010, 2011, 2013, and 2019.
This comes on the heels of the delay of the entire CFL schedule, which has still not been released. For reference, the 2024 schedule was unveiled on Dec. 14, 2023, while the previous year’s schedule was released on Dec. 13, 2022. The league provided an update to 3DownNation via a front-office spokesperson:
The CFL and its teams are actively working on a 2025 schedule that will optimally balance a variety of competing factors. That schedule will be announced to its fans in the coming weeks.
This is the latest the schedule has been released in recent memory, but according to Lalji, it’s on its way soon.
“Part of this is a result of not having a commissioner in place, he’s the guy that can go to other teams and can nudge them a little bit and say, ‘Hey guys, let’s figure this out’ if there’s a little bit of a battle between two teams for a certain weekend or getting off a Saturday date or something like that. I think that’s part of it,” said Lalji.
“I think you want to get this thing done before Christmas — it should have been done before Christmas. I do think it will be done by the end of next week, everybody’s going to be in Carolina for the league meetings.”