The 2014 Panda Game is set to take place on Sept. 20, but this time the biggest Ottawa university football game is going to be on a bigger stage.
The event, which features the Carleton Ravens football team taking on their cross-town rivals, the University of Ottawa Gee-Gees, will be held at TD Place.
The recently-opened stadium, which can seat up to 24,000 fans, is home to the Ottawa Redblacks and Ottawa Fury FC, but for one day it is going to play host to one of the biggest football events of the year.
The facility is going to be the new fighting ground for a rivalry re-sparked last season with the return of Ravens football.
In 2013, the Gee-Gees beat Carleton 35-10 in the first Panda Game since 1998, but this year the Ravens will act as hosts of the event.
Ravens second-year receiver Dexter Brown said it’s going to be a great experience for him.
“We’re all just really excited to play in [TD Place] knowing that it’s a new stadium,” he said. “Plus, against [U of O] we lost to them last year by more than 20 points, so it’s going to be nice to get out there.”
Ravens head coach Steve Sumarah agreed, highlighting how huge it is to be playing there for his team on one of the Canadian Interuniversity Sport’s (CIS) biggest stages.
“It’s fantastic. What better way to kick off the biggest rival at the CIS than to have it at a pro stadium. TD Place is definitely first-class,” he said.
But Sumarah said they will approach this game just like any other.
“There may be a bit more emotion involved with it, but really, they’re all the same,” he said.
Sumarah said winning this game and redeeming last year’s loss would be a great step forward, even though his team is not there just yet.
“To win [the Panda Game] would go a long way, where our program is, but we’re still a long way from that,” he said.
The Ravens, after being blown out in last year’s game, have history working against them. Of the 45 Panda Games played since 1955, Carleton has only won 12 times.
Brown said he just tries to focus on the present rather than getting bogged down with the history.
“This is a new Ravens team,” he said. “The old ones are historic, but this is the new team . . . We’re going to start winning these games.”
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