October is right around the corner, which means a few things—colder weather, changing leaves and of course, the annual Panda Game. The cross-town football rivalry between the Carleton Ravens and uOttawa GeeGees will come to a head on Oct. 1 at TD Place.
Aside from being one of the biggest rivalry football games on the U Sports calendar, the game also creates millions of dollars in economic profit for surrounding businesses.
However, the accompanying Panda festivities have an extensive history of negative community disturbances. These mainly stem from the post-game parties that historically take place in various Ottawa residential neighbourhoods, which have escalated in the last few years.
The policing bill for the 2022 Panda Game was estimated to be as much as $500,000, according to a CTV News article. Thousands of students clogged the streets of Sandy Hill and Somerset, with reported charges of vandalism and assault on officers increasing throughout the night.
In 2021, a vehicle was flipped and destroyed, spawning calls for future iterations of the event to be cancelled outright.
Despite the controversy, the Panda Game is set to return this year for its 54th installment. Both schools are urging students to follow the law and not put themselves or others at risk.
Carleton University’s announcement ahead of the game read, “We have been assured by our partners at the Ottawa Police that there will be zero tolerance for disruption to public order or illegal activity and they are confident in their plans to support the neighbours affected by the events on Game Day,”
As for the football game itself, Carleton will be looking to wash away the pain of defeat from the last four Panda Games in a rivalry that has been historically dominated by uOttawa. The GeeGees have won 36 of the 53 Panda Games.
“[Carleton has] never won a [Panda Game] since I’ve been a student here,” said Caitlin McCallan, the Ravens assistant wide receiver coach and fourth-year Carleton student. “I’m hoping that me being on the field will break that mojo.”
On offence, the connections between the quarterback, running back and wide receivers have been firing on all cylinders.
Meanwhile, the defence has made it extremely difficult for the opposition to score, holding the nation’s top-ranked Western Mustangs to just 31 points on Sept. 9, compared to their team average of 45 in 2022.
On the other side of the city, uOttawa has also been strong in their first four regular season games, coming into the Panda Game with an identical 2-2 record.
With the eyes of the entire city on the game, Ravens head coach Corey Grant said he and the team are trying to block out the noise.
“There is the buzz and it’ll start happening but […] we do a good job of insulating ourselves and making sure the guys stay focused on what the task is at hand,” Grant said.
Ending Carleton’s Panda drought has been clearly marked as the task.
“It would be huge [to win],” McCallan said. “We deserve it […] we just need to put our heads down and work and I think we have a really good chance.”
The Panda Game will kick off Sunday, Oct. 1 at TD Place at 12 p.m. While the event usually takes place on a Saturday, a scheduling conflict with the CFL’s Ottawa Redblacks forced the date change.
Featured image by L. Manuel Baechlin.
