The CFL’s first Touchdown Pacific game in Victoria in August will expand Royal Athletic Park onto parts of Pembroke Street so that it can feature a historic capacity crowd of 14,000.
B.C. Lions president Duane Vienneau told reporters Tuesday the park will be completely transformed on game day into a “field of dreams.”
“You’ll look at something that you’ve seen forever and ever and ever, and you’ll look and go — where did Royal Park go?”
The city-owned facility has permanent seating of 3,800 in the main grandstand and midfield areas for soccer and 2,867 in the corner section for HarbourCats baseball.
It had previously expanded to 10,500 seating capacity for FIFA U-20 World Cup soccer games in 2007, but temporary seating areas, including a 37-foot tall grandstand will push the venue beyond its limits for a capacity of 14,000 on Aug. 31.
The game between the Lions and the Ottawa Redblacks has been dubbed Touchdown Pacific, a nod to the Touchdown Atlantic CFL games previously held in Halifax, Moncton, N.B., and Wolfville, N.S.
Tickets were sold out in about 50 minutes, said Lions vice-president of sales and service Colby Fackler, adding that a limited number of tickets in the party and VIP zones will continue to be released in the coming days.
For the grandstand to fit along the northern side of Royal Athletic, one lane of Pembroke Street will be taken over for a concourse area, he said.
On Tuesday, Lions announced a free two-day festival at Ship Point on Aug. 29 and 30 with food, entertainment, and meet-and-greet sessions with CFL players to celebrate all things football.
“There’s going to be a whirling tailgate party, and it’s going to be fun for the whole family,” said tourism minister Lana Popham, who attended the announcement. “I’m going to be here for both days 24/7 and I look forward to seeing all of you.”
Popham said an estimated 25,000 people will be travelling to Victoria and spend more than $20 million during the three days Touchdown Pacific festivities are happening.
Jordan Dowler-Coltman, the team’s manager of game presentation and events, said the Lions will be bringing all of their usual bells and whistles that accompany a home game to Victoria, including its own sound system and a sports video board that will be the second-largest in the province when built.
“I could go on and on about these details, but I don’t want to give away all the surprises,” he said.
The Lions are also going to gift a pair of football uprights to the city in the hopes that more games can be held in Victoria in the future, he said.
Players are looking forward to playing on a grass field in Western Canada as the only other venue that they can do that is in Ontario, Dowler-Coltman said.
“That’s Toronto grass. This is Victoria grass, so it’s going to be a lot more exciting,” he quipped.
Due to demand, the Lions are hosting a ticketed watch party at Central Park on Aug. 31 where upwards of 2,500 people can watch live feeds of the game, he said. “Demand was just so high, we didn’t have enough space for everybody in Royal Athletic Park.”
Dowler-Coltman said the Lions are anticipating traffic-flow challenges on game day and are working with the city on a transportation plan.
Vienneau said the Lions take the B.C. part of their name very seriously and are committed to bringing the game to more people in the province.
The commitment to host a game in Victoria instead of their home stadium in Vancouver, where the Lions are averaging 30,000 game attendees this year, represents a big commitment from Lions owner Amar Doman, he said.
“If we were to just put on a game here for 14,000 people, it wouldn’t make sense to us. We’re not making any money, we’re essentially breaking even,” he said.
Vienneau said the number of season ticket holders from Vancouver Island has doubled in the last two years, though he declined to say exactly how many season tickets were sold on the Island.
Since a shift to 4 p.m. game times, fans can attend Vancouver games and return to the Island in one day, he said.
B.C. is contributing about $700,000 for the game and the City of Victoria has been providing in-kind and in-service contributions, he said.
Mayor Marianne Alto, a longtime Lions fan who has attended every home-opening game with her son in the last 20 years, said she is delighted to be able to bring a CFL game to the Island.
“It’s been hugely successful, Touchdown Atlantic, and we know that we’ll do better here because we do everything better in Victoria.”
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