Poor weather forces kickoff delay of more than an hour to Toronto-Hamilton CFL game

TORONTO — Mother Nature forced a later kickoff for the CFL game between the Toronto Argonauts and Hamilton Tiger-Cats on Saturday night.

The game began at 8:07 p.m. ET following a weather delay of one hour, seven minutes.

Rain began to fall as both teams were on the field warming up, with claps of thunder. But lightning forced players and coaches from both sides to their respective dressing rooms and fans were told to leave their seats for the concourse at BMO Field.

Then, roughly 10 minutes before the scheduled kickoff, the public address announcer at BMO Field said there would be a delay of between 60 and 90 minutes. Moments later, the CFL issued a statement that due to lightning in the area the game would not begin for at least 60 minutes.

The announcement that lightning had moved out of the area drew applause from the BMO Field gathering. But that grew to wild cheering when both teams returned to the field at 7:50 p.m. ET. Fittingly, AC/DC’s Thunderstruck played on the loudspeaker as players conducted their warm-up, which was limited to 10 minutes because the delay didn’t force a stoppage in play.

Halftime was slated to be reduced from roughly 14 minutes to 12 minutes although halftime Saturday was going to run 16 minutes because the Argos were inducting former players Kevin Eiben and Carl Brazley to their all-time team.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 22, 2026.