2024 B.C. Lions Schedule

[David]

Preseason Week 2
Sat May 25 1:00 PM PST
BC @ CGY
Preseason Week 3
Fri May 31 7:00 PM PST
EDM @ BC
Week 1
Sun Jun 9 4:00 PM PST
BC @ TOR
Week 2
Sat Jun 15 4:00 PM PST
CGY @ BC
Week 3
Fri Jun 21 5:30 PM PST
BC @ WPG
Week 4
Thu Jun 27 7:00 PM PST
EDM @ BC
Week 5
Sun Jul 7 4:00 PM PST
BC @ HAM
Week 6
Sat Jul 13 4:00 PM PST
SSK @ BC
Week 7
Sun Jul 21 4:00 PM PST
BC @ CGY
Week 9
Thu Aug 1 5:30 PM PST
BC @ WPG
Week 10
Sun Aug 11 4:00 PM PST
BC @ EDM
Week 11
Sun Aug 18 4:00 PM PST
WPG @ BC
Week 12
Sat Aug 24 4:00 PM PST
BC @ OTT
Week 13
Sat Aug 31 4:00 PM PST
OTT @ BC
Week 14
Fri Sept 6 4:30 PM PST
BC @ MTL
Week 15
Fri Sept 13 7:00 PM PST
TOR @ BC
Week 17
Fri Sept 27 7:30 PM PST
HAM @ BC
Week 18
Fri Oct 4 7:00 PM PST
CGY @ BC
Week 19
Sat Oct 12 4:00 PM PST
BC @ SSK
Week 20
Sat Oct 19 4:00 PM PST
MTL @ BC

Grey Cup @ BC Place
Sun Nov 17 3:30 PM PST
TBD @ TBD


DH

[David]

Of note:

* We play Winnipeg and Calgary 3x each, and Edmonton and Saskatchewan 2x each (with a full interlocking schedule this year).

* Regular season home games break down as follows: 4 Saturdays, 3 Fridays, 1 Thursday (vs. Elks on June 27), and 1 Sunday (vs Bombers on August 18).

* The Leos' 3 byes weeks occur in Weeks 8, 16, and 21, which is the final week of the regular season. It sucks because you don't want to have to rest when you could be building rust heading into the playoffs.


DH

[SammyGreene]

Does the league put any thought into what last year's schedule looked like? Second straight year we play the Bombers twice in Winnipeg. And we are the only Western team to be doing so.
Just makes it that much harder trying to chase down first place as we already know 1 win will be needed at IG to take the season series tiebreaker. Bombers 8-1 at home last year with lone loss to us.
Also Calgary coming to BC twice for the 2nd straight year.

[Toppy Vann]

Byes in Week 8, 16 and 21 might not be a bad thing if unless you're in first place at the end of the regular season and then you get the Toronto problem but they were so far ahead that more likely was the cause of their fall at the end - that and Montreal peaking having not played in all 3 phases all year long except for the Grey Cup game.

The challenge with a bye like that would be players losing focus going back home. Don't think stats back that up though.

[B.C.FAN]

I like having four Saturday home games in summer at 4 p.m., including the Victoria game on Aug. 31. This should attract fans from outside Vancouver. but it’s not quite as good as last year’s schedule, which featured six Saturday games at 4 p.m. I used these to commute from Kamloops without needing to stay overnight. I’m not sure about attending the Victoria game. It’s a lot harder to get to from the Interior.

I hate having three straight Friday night games after Labour Day before a final Saturday afternoon game against Montreal, a non-traditional rival. In fact, most of the rivalry games against Western opponents occur in July and August. The only Western team to visit B.C. after Labour Day is Calgary.

[Hambone]

Some general observations for the entire schedule. The CFL is doing a much better job of setting and standardizing game days and times.

Every week there will be a game at 7pm Eastern/4pm Pacific on Saturday.

With the exception of Week 7 from Week 1 thru Week 12 there will be a game on each of Thu, Fri, Sat & Sun. On Week 7 the Thu & Fri will be replaced by a FNF double-header. All Sat & Sun games will be played at 4pm Pacific.

34 of 81 games (42%) will be played at 4pm Pacific on Sat or Sun.

After Labour Day there will be Sat double-headers at 1pm and 4pm on all weekends except Week 18 when there is a FNF double-header but only 1 Sat game. In effect the Sun 4pm games move into the Sat 1pm slot after Labour Day. Half of the CFL schedule is now played at 1pm Sat, 4pm Sat or 4pm Sun.

Naturally the TNF and FNF start times are a little bit all over the map due to the simple fact they are week nights and played in any of the 3 time zones.

[squishy35]

Already booked the hotel for Grey Cup. Just waiting until June for the GC tickets to go on sale.

[Toppy Vann]

Shawn Lemon on X is asking how come if the two Grey Cup finalists play in week 1, then why is his team on the road for that game? Valid question.

For the first time it seems he actually has a team to go to as they re-signed him and Darnell Sankey rather quickly post GC.

[don corleone]

Shawn Lemon on X is asking how come if the two Grey Cup finalists play in week 1, then why is his team on the road for that game? Valid question.

How stupid can the CFL be?

I think the Als should still insist on a 10 minute ceremony and presentation of the Cup to the league champions regardless of the location and it will be interesting to see how that one flys.

Also shows extremely poor sportsmanship by the Bombers which is typical. It was likely a battle getting them to agree to play the Als at all similar to how they avoided Toronto last season. I see the rematch is the last game of the year in what will surely be a rest your starters game.

No doubt air horns will not be allowed.

Some say what goes around, comes around. Time will tell.

[Toppy Vann]

Shawn Lemon on X is asking how come if the two Grey Cup finalists play in week 1, then why is his team on the road for that game? Valid question.

How stupid can the CFL be?

I think the Als should still insist on a 10 minute ceremony and presentation of the Cup to the league champions regardless of the location and it will be interesting to see how that one flys.

Also shows extremely poor sportsmanship by the Bombers which is typical. It was likely a battle getting them to agree to play the Als at all similar to how they avoided Toronto last season. I see the rematch is the last game of the year in what will surely be a rest your starters game.

No doubt air horns will not be allowed.

Some say what goes around, comes around. Time will tell.

I'm not sure how/why this is the case other than scheduling logistics.

If you're the visiting team you want certain types of ceremonies in front of your own fans anyway as home fans are loud.

I don't think we can lay blame on the Bombers other than if they push to start at home. Their fans are passionate as all fans are and their organization is not looking to denigrate any team except on the score board.


Here's an article from 2021 on the CFL scheduling. Post covid it was all about saving teams money. Others like BC Fan, Hambone and David who pay closer attention to the schedule might be better to answer this one.

“The first 75 per cent of this job is actually quite easy but getting the last 25 per cent takes most of the amount of time, the art part of this,” said Hardy. “Once you have a set of schedules that you can work with then it becomes a matter of, can we get this across the finish line? Every club has a vested interest in their own schedule and it seems that every year, I think the running joke in the league is if every team is upset with the result you know you’ve got a schedule that could work.

“What you don’t necessarily want, is you don’t want to have four teams that are ecstatic with the result and five teams that are not happy at all. What you really want is everybody to have the same level of unhappiness because that’s the best way to make sure it’s fair.”

https://www.cfl.ca/2020/12/06/look-cfl- ... s-process/

The ’24 schedule is a balanced one as teams will visit each market. And games during the summer will be played Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

Montreal will raise its championship banner June 20 before its home game against Ottawa.

https://winnipegsun.com/sports/football ... d-schedule

[B.C.FAN]

I'm not sure of the Alouettes' schedule requests but I've seen some griping from Montreal fans that their home opener and two of the next three home games are on Thursdays. Their home games are all over the calendar, with one Friday game against B.C., three Saturdays, one Sunday and one Monday on Thanksgiving.

[cromartie]

In the gate dependent days, teams would schedule the more expensive road trips up front, because they would have the season ticket revenue to fund them. In three season sports travel and logistics in relation to weather still matter somewhat. So the longer east/west trips still tend to happen earlier, rather than later.

Not cool about the unbalanced Winnipeg visits though. That should alternate from year to year.

[Hambone]

I was just revisiting the schedule as I try to see if there's good opportunity to take a cross-Canada road trip that causes me to miss the fewest BC home games. Well this year does set up nicely thanks to a really unbalanced mix of home and road games. The Lions will have to make some road hay in the middle 1/3 before a home heavy final 1/3.

First 6 games are a balanced split of 3 on the road and 3 at BC Place. After that start it's like the old Willie Nelson (I think) song "On the Road Again". Following their home date with the Riders on July 13 until the Argos come calling on Sept 13 the Lions will play in BC Place only once with a 2nd home game being held in Victoria. Over the 7 game 2-month long stretch they will play 5 on the road, 1 in BC Place and 1 in Victoria. Starting with the Argos 4 of their final 5 will be in BC Place.

[don corleone]

Kind of an odd thought and wondering if it would work to schedule a complete bye week in week nine or ten and fill the void with a skills style competition similar to what they did years ago. It would all have to be non contact and so forth but fun for the fans to know who the fastest, strongest players are. Players competing would need to be compensated

Not sure if a complete bye week would shorten the season or not. Main concern would be days between games.

[B.C.FAN]

Kind of an odd thought and wondering if it would work to schedule a complete bye week in week nine or ten and fill the void with a skills style competition similar to what they did years ago. It would all have to be non contact and so forth but fun for the fans to know who the fastest, strongest players are. Players competing would need to be compensated

Not sure if a complete bye week would shorten the season or not. Main concern would be days between games.

There are several problems with the idea of a midseason skills competition.

1. Players are not paid for bye weeks. They're paid for 18 games over 21 weeks, and often leave town and visit family during bye weeks. Someone would have to pay players to participate, and it would have to be enough to entice star players to attend.

2. Players would have to be insured against injury during such an event, and teams would have to accept the risk of their star players being injured. Non-contact injuries can occur in any high-level competition. A number of high-profile CFL players have had their seasons cut short due to non-contact Achilles injuries. Hamstring, ankle, groin and shoulder injuries often occur without contact.

3. The league hopes that it can add a tenth team, which would allow it to shorten the schedule and move the Grey Cup up earlier in November. Adding another bye week and extending the schedule would be a non-starter.