BC to Host Grey Cup in 2014

An announcement is expected Friday to confirm that the Canadian Football League will move the destination of the 2014 Grey Cup from Winnipeg to BC (Vancouver).

This will be BC owner David Braley’s third time hosting the annual championship in four years.  Braley’s BC Lions played host to the game in 2011, and the 2012 100th-anniversary championship was hosted by his other team, the Toronto Argonauts.  A pretty good run for members of the “Braley CFL empire” as both teams won championships on their home turf.

The Grey Cup is widely known as a substantial payday for the host city, and it’s rotation around the League makes the losses incurred during non Grey Cup hosting seasons bearable for some financially strapped organizations.

Numerous delays in the opening of  Winnipeg’s new stadium (Investors Group Field) are being blamed for the change of venue.  While all account’s have the stadium as dazzling and ready to open for the upcoming season the Bombers organization want’s to work out the “kinks” before hosting the championship game.

“What is factual is that it is sometimes better for the overall status of the organization when you are dealing with a brand new facility, to work out the kinks and get fully acclimated to the new facility before hosting a major event such as the Grey Cup,” said Bombers spokesperson Darren Cameron. “But financial drawbacks on us possibly hosting in 2014 were not and are not a concern whatsoever. We are in a great financial position to host this event whenever it is appropriate for us to do so.”

“Only the Bombers could find a way to lose a Grey Cup without playing in it,” wrote one commenter on a Winnipeg story about the day’s developments.

Originally, the 2014 Cup had been provisionally awarded to Ottawa after the Jeff Hunt group was granted a franchise in 2008, but it might be 2014 before the team plays a game in its new Lansdowne Park/Frank Clair complex.

The 2015 game will likely go to Winnipeg, while the 2016 edition looks to be a show down between the expansion Ottawa and Hamilton whose new 24,000-seat PanAm soccer stadium is currently under construction.