Touchdown Atlantic returns to Halifax

Touchdown Atlantic

Canadian Press

1/26/2006 2:42:16 PM

TORONTO (CP) - Halifax will host another CFL pre-season game this June featuring the Montreal Alouettes and Ottawa Renegades, the league said Thursday.

The Toronto Argonauts and Hamilton Tiger-Cats played to a 16-16 tie before 11,148 fans at St. Mary's Huskies Stadium last June 11 and the success of that inaugural game convinced league officials to do it again this year.

The Als and Renegades will meet in the same venue June 3 in a game to be broadcast live on TSN and RDS.

''Our game found a new home in Atlantic Canada last year,'' CFL commissioner Tom Wright said in a statement. ''This region quickly embraced our sport and has since demonstrated an overwhelming passion for Canadian football.''

Last year's game was widely seen as an audition for Halifax as a potential expansion site.

Wright has said in the past that he'd like to add a 10th team to the league by 2010 and Halifax's victory as the Canadian bid city for the 2014 Commonwealth Games presents an opportunity to get a new stadium built.

A viable 25,000-stadium is of paramount importance for any potential expansion team. Quebec City, another city mentioned for possible expansion, also doesn't have a stadium.

''The community - fans, media and the corporate sector - all got behind the event last year, and I anticipate the same level of support this year,'' Fred MacGillivray, chair of Events Halifax, said in a statement. ''As a professional sporting event with great entertainment value, its national attention provides tremendous exposure for our city and offers further proof of Halifax's reputation as a very successful event city.''