CFL adds Moncton to 2013 season schedule

The Canadian Football League is returning to Moncton this fall to play its third regular season game in its Touchdown Atlantic series.

The Moncton event will be a designated as a home game for the Montreal Alouettes, who will be taking on the Hamilton Tiger-Cats.

The game will be held at the University of Moncton’s stadium.

Moncton Mayor George LeBlanc said the football game will bring about $6 million into the local economy.

"It'll be a Saturday game, so that will be a lot of fun. I think it will be a tremendous match, a tremendous weekend and it's going to be a heck of a lot of fun," he said.

The mayor would not say what the city offered the CFL in order to host the game in Moncton.

The CFL season will kick off on June 20. The 101st Grey Cup Championship will be held in Regina on Nov. 24.

"This is going to be an incredibly exciting time for the CFL, as we build on the momentum of the celebration of the 100th Grey Cup in 2012, by launching the next 100 years of great Canadian football," CFL commissioner Mark Cohon said in a statement.

Moncton sold out its first game in 2010 and sold 97 per cent of the roughly 20,000 tickets for its second event in 2011.

The CFL did not send two teams to Atlantic Canada in 2012 as the league was celebrating the 100th Grey Cup.

Mark Cohon said in Regina last week the league was still interested in expanding into Eastern Canada.

He specifically mentioned Moncton, Halifax and Quebec City as potential destinations.

But Cohon said each of the cities would need to build a new stadium or in Moncton’s case upgrade its facility to CFL standards.

The CFL commissioner said it could take $100 million worth of changes to meet the league’s standards.