Photo: Shaun McLeod/3DownNation. All rights reserved.
The Toronto Argonauts have only six true home games scheduled for the 2026 CFL regular-season as the World Cup has taken over BMO Field for the first-half of summer.
While some would consider this a disadvantage, star receiver Damonte Coxie is relishing the opportunity to play more games as a visitor.
“I’m ready. I love away games. I like being on the road, go to somebody else’s house and chill in their backyard, get on their grill. I like going to people’s cribs because people are defensive about their backyard, so let’s get over here and be disrespectful and kick some stuff around — make them mad, ruffle some feathers up,” Coxie told 3DownNation.
“I like it. I feel like a lot of the guys on the team feel the same way, it’s just basically another way of coming together and figuring it out because when you’re on the road, it’s just you versus them. Nobody else here to cheer us on, even though it might be a home game. We’re in somebody else’s stadium. Once you understand that, that’s going to pull everybody together and we start gelling, and ain’t nothing you can tell us.”
The Argonauts initially announced they would be “hosting” three games at away stadiums, though their recent announcement of 2026 game themes dropped this delusion.
The first two “home” games, which are scheduled for June 26 at Mosaic Stadium in Regina and July 10 at Princess Auto Stadium in Winnipeg, were not mentioned in the announcement. The third “home” game, which is set for July 18 against the Hamilton Tiger-Cats in Steeltown, was given the theme ‘Home Away From Home.’
Fittingly, the club’s first game at BMO Field, which will be played against the Calgary Stampeders on August 6, was given the theme ‘Home Opener.’
Like the Argonauts, the B.C. Lions have been displaced from their home stadium due to the World Cup. Instead of becoming CFL nomads, the team found an in-province solution.
B.C. will play two regular-season games at the Apple Bowl in Kelowna, which serves as the home of the CJFL’s Okanagan Sun. The venue will be expanded to accommodate at least 17,500 fans with a maximum possible capacity of approximately 20,000 fans.
Toronto hosts training camp at the University of Guelph every year, a venue that previously played host to the Hamilton Tiger-Cats for regular-season games during the construction of Hamilton Stadium. Though the Argonauts claim to have examined this option among others, they ultimately decided playing extra away games was the best choice for 2026.
“We didn’t want to host a game with 5,000 or 7,000 fans, that was predominantly why we made the decision,” Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment (MLSE) president and CEO Keith Pelley told 3DownNation in September. “We know that we could have probably easily have gotten 7,000 or 10,000 at a game, but we didn’t want to do that and we didn’t think that was great for the brand.”
Coxie, who caught 48 passes for 854 yards and six touchdowns over just 10 regular-season games in 2025, believes the extra time on the road should help the Argonauts develop team chemistry.
“It’s like throwing a group of men out in the woods. Y’all better figure it out,” he said. “If y’all don’t come back together, somebody ain’t coming back. It’s just like sending them boys out there to the woods. Y’all just gotta come back, come back together. Ain’t nobody gonna tell you. You gotta be strong like a chain.”
For what it’s worth, the Argonauts went 2-7 on the road in 2025 amid a disappointing 5-13 season. As a whole, CFL teams went 37-44 during regular-season play away from home.
Toronto opened training camp on Sunday, May 10. The team won 20-10 in its first preseason game against the Hamilton Tiger-Cats. The Argos will finish the preseason against Hamilton on Friday, May 29. Final roster cuts are due on Saturday, May 30, after which the team will play its first regular-season game against the Montreal Alouettes on Friday, June 12.
The Double Blue recently selected Queen’s offensive lineman Niklas Henning with their first-round pick in the 2026 CFL Draft, though he’s since signed with the Las Vegas Raiders. The team’s other major offseason additions include offensive lineman Dakoda Shepley, strong-side linebacker Adarius Pickett, and defensive back DaShaun Amos.
In 2025, the Argonauts finished third in the East Division standings with a 5-13 record, missing the playoffs for the first time since 2019. Mike Miller was promoted to the role of head coach following the departure of Ryan Dinwiddie.
