CFL taking collaborative approach to Grey Cup planning
The ol’ saying goes that the Canadian Football League season doesn’t really get started until Labour Day.
With the focus turning to the annual back-to-back provincial rivalries set to kick off this weekend in Alberta, Ontario and whatever backwater banjo-pickin’ places lie in between, Nov. 25 seems like a long way off.
But for league officials and organizers of the Grey Cup at Commonwealth Stadium, it’s been full go since even before the season kicked off.
“It kind of cycles,” said CFL commissioner Randy Ambrosie, who was in Hamilton to see the Edmonton Eskimos fall 25-24 to the Tiger-Cats last week. “I went through a really big Grey Cup phase spending a lot of time with Edmonton and then with Calgary (the 2019 host) early in the year.
“We’ve been changing our model, there’s a lot more collaboration between the league office. We’ve installed a consultant, Duane Vinneau, who is actually working on the Edmonton Grey Cup committee as a consultant to the 2020 bidding process.”
Vinneau, who is the executive director of Grey Cup 2018 and also led the charge in Edmonton during the 2010 event, was in Hamilton last week to speak with three teams in line to put in a bid for 2020. Hamilton is believed to be a shoo-in to hold one soon.
For this year’s Grey Cup, Ambrosie said things are about to ramp up. “About the back half of September, you’ll kind of feel it and all eyes will start turning to Edmonton and I’m really looking forward to that,” said Ambrosie. “I think Ottawa set a high bar and what we’re talking about with Edmonton, Calgary and the three cities that are bidding is that you have to think bigger.”
While the league is certainly being visionary in its collaborative approach to 2020 and future bidding, hindsight is also proving to be 20-20. “What Ottawa is doing now is sitting at the table when we are talking about Grey Cup and they are bringing that retrospective view,” Ambrosie said.
FREE MATCH FOR KIDS
Kids get in free to the Labour Day rematch against the Calgary Stampeders on Sept. 8 (5 p.m., TSN, ESPN+, 630 CHED).
It will be CFL Family Day at Commonwealth Stadium with appearances by the Paw Patrol, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Dora the Explorer and SpongeBob SquarePants and a halftime performance by Josh Bogert from the Family Channel’s Backstage.
Anyone 17 and under who has parental permission can get a free youth ticket at ticketmaster.ca with details at esks.com/kidsdeal.