A touchdown for the city of Guelph Tuesday as a Canadian football team decides to make a temporary move to the Royal City.
The Hamilton Tiger Cats will play at least some of their home games at the University of Guelph’s Alumni stadium
This is the inititial agreement and there still some details to work out. Most of which involve traffic and parking concerns between the University and city of Guelph.
But as far as the Cats are concerned the Gryphon’s will soon have company on Guelph’s turf.
Offensive lineman for the Hamilton Tiger Cats, Marwan Hage says, “I was happy we finally have a home to play and a place that's very near to Hamilton for our fans to come up and I think we did good.”
Brenda Whiteside from the University of Guelph says “We’re really pleased the TiCats have recognized our facility as being the premier facility that it is, We've invested in it and we're pleased.”
The Tiger cats will continue that investment covering all costs to make the facility game-day ready.
One of the major concerns from the Tiger Cats was the seating. Currently the grandstand only holds about 4,000 people, but the university says for homecoming it hosts 10,000 fans.
Temporary seating will be installed along the east side of the field to accommodate a CFL size crowd. Which the Ti-Cats say is likely to follow them north
“We’re going to bring a big show here and hopefully after we go back to our new stadium we bring all the fans from Guelph down to Hamilton” says Hage.
While the Tger Cats are in Guelph, Whiteside expects the team and the fans to have a major impact on the local economy. “Just the national exposure is significant to the university, to be on national TV, it will help both the city and the university to raise its profile” says Whiteside.
Scheduled for demolition next month Ivor Wynne stadium hosted its final game in October. After more than 80 years in operation. While the Ti-Cats say their stay in Guelph is just temporary they plan to make the most of it.
Offensive lineman Peter Dyakowski says, “It’s great to know what the plan is and to see that it's coming together so well. Guelph is so close this is a terrific facility it's a great field I think it's going to be accessible for the fans.”
Is there enough space for two home teams?
Part of the deal with the Ti-Cats is that the Gryphon’s get to keep their own dressing room. The Tabbies will be bringing in temporary locker room space for themselves.
The Cats are still expected to practice in Hamilton and may take one or more games to other facilities as well; those details are still being discussed.
