Maritimes set to host CFL game in 2019

The 2019 CFL schedule features a regular-season game in Atlantic Canada, continuing the drive to put a franchise in Halifax within a few years.

On Aug. 25, Toronto will face Montreal in a location yet to be determined.

The game will be presented by the leadership team behind the Atlantic Schooners, the organization hoping to become the CFL’S 10th franchise.

And they clearly have support throughout the league.

“As the oldest professional sports team in North America and one of the most storied franchises in Canadian football, the Argos feel a special responsibility to grow our great game,” Toronto’s president Bill Manning said. “That’s why we agreed to move one home game out east, to contribute to the momentum behind the Schooners’ bid to make a CFL dream come true by making ours a coast-to-coast league.”

The 2019 schedule features a few new wrinkles.

The number of short-week games — those with fewer than seven days between outings — drops to 40, down from 51 three seasons ago. That’s part of the league’s continuing efforts in the name of player safety.

In an effort to bolster TV ratings, the league will show 20 Saturday games at the prime time of 7 p.m. ET. There will be five triple-header Saturdays and a total of 40 games on that night throughout the season. The schedule features 12 games on Thursdays in the first half of the season and 24 Friday night games overall.

There will also be just three games on Mondays and two on Sundays before the playoffs start.

Those playoff races will be aided and abetted by the fact the 12 games scheduled for the final three weeks of the season will all be intra-divisional.

The 107th Grey Cup goes Nov. 24 in Calgary.

Postmedia News, with files from Canadian Press