Touchdown Atlantic returns as Argos, Riders write new East Coast CFL chapter

Touchdown Atlantic, the Canadian Football League's trip to the East Coast, returns Saturday as the Toronto Argonauts face the Saskatchewan Roughriders in Wolfville, Nova Scotia.

Saturday’s game (TSN, 2 pm ET/ 3 pm AT) at Acadia University marks the first time the event has been held on the East Coast in three years.

While today it’s referred to as the "Touchdown Atlantic Series,” the idea of playing neutral site games is a concept that’s not new to the CFL or restricted to Canada’s East Coast.

The idea has roots dating back to 1986 when Saint John, New Brunswick, hosted an exhibition game between the Montreal Alouettes and the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. The following year saw the Hamilton Tiger-Cats and the Alouettes make the trip to the Picture Province.

Quebec, the provincial host of the Alouettes, also got in on the non-traditional site craze in 2003 when the Als hosted the then Ottawa Renegades at the The Pavillon de l'éducation physique et des sports de l'Université Laval, affectionally known as PEPS.

The year 2005 saw the first installment of the "modern-day" Touchdown Atlantic Series. It was played at Saint Mary's University's Huskies Stadium in Halifax, N.S., when the Tiger-Cats and Argonauts, again, made the trip out east for a preseason game.

A second game was slated to be played in 2006 between the Renegades and the Alouettes, but the Renegades franchise was suspended only to be revitalized as the Redblacks in 2014.

That particular trip out east was different for the league and the motivations were deeper than just putting on a football game as the league considered expansion.

While the game ended in a 16-16 tie, the visit was to test the waters for the potential plotting of a 10th CFL team, later pitched as the "Atlantic Schooners," which was to pay homage to the 1984 franchise that never materialized due to lack of stadium funding.

In 2009 it was announced that Atlantic Canada would play host to their first regular-season game in 2010 between Edmonton and Toronto in Moncton, New Brunswick.

The announcement generated a palpable buzz. So much so that the game sold out with 20,725 in attendance.

Ricky Ray and Edmonton would go on to win 24-6, largely due to their six interceptions – four of which were tossed by Argos quarterback Cleo Lemon.

The following 2011 season Moncton was awarded their second Touchdown Atlantic game, this time between the Tiger-Cats and the Calgary Stampeders, which ended in a 55-36 shootout.

In 2012 the game went into its first hiatus as no event was held, but it returned in 2013 with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats masquerading as the home team due to ongoing renovations of Ivor Wynne Stadium (now Tim Hortons Field).

The event's second pause was a longer one, spanning four years (2014-18) due to lost momentum for the game.

To the joy of those in Moncton, Week 11 of 2019 marked the return of football to the region as the Alouettes and Argonauts returned and were greeted by a sellout crowd of 10,126.

With momentum picking up on both expansion to the east and popularity of Touchdown Atlantic, the league was met by something that’s not in any playbook: the COVID-19 pandemic.

The coronavirus swept across the globe penetrating border after border.

The National Basketball Association's season screeched to a halt in March of 2020 after Utah Jazz centre Rudy Gobert tested positive moments before tipoff versus the Oklahoma City Thunder.

While the NBA did finish their season, packing up bags for a Walt Disney World bubble in Florida, the CFL closed its doors on a 2020 season as well as a 2020 Touchdown Atlantic game that was scheduled to return to Huskies Stadium.

A year later, the CFL returned for its pandemic-shortened, 14-game 2021 season where the Winnipeg Blue Bombers captured back-to-back titles (2019, 2021). However, fans in the East Coast were left without a visit from any CFL teams.

But Touchdown Atlantic finally returns Saturday afternoon as the COVID-19 grip on Canadians has loosened.

The return was immediately welcomed by fans as the league reported the game sold out in just an hour.