Lions hope for $100m boost hosting Grey Cup
By Lowell Ullrich, The Province
February 27, 2009 2:02 PM
David Braley did not try to suggest there was armed combat in the boardroom when the CFL’s board of governors voted to award the 2011 Grey Cup game to Vancouver.
“There was a little struggle, a little arm-twisting,” the owner of the Lions said Friday. “But we prevailed.”
That may account for the fact Braley looked composed as ever after it became official at a downtown Vancouver news conference. After all, Braley said he has known the game would be coming to B.C. Place Stadium for better than four months.
“I can keep a secret, you know,” he said.
It was definitely a case of style over substance. You had Lions cheerleaders, B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell and a host of other dignitaries on hand.
You might have had the chairman of the Grey Cup committee for 2011 in the room, too.
Four of the original Waterboys, the business group that helps Braley locally, were on hand. They included Canwest Publishing president/CEO Dennis Skulsky and Pacific Newspaper Group marketing vice-president Jamie Pitblado.
When someone asked if the next chairman was in the room, Braley said: “There’s a 50-per-cent chance he’s in the room.”
The goal for whoever is asked to run the show for the Lions owner, who paid around $3.5 million for the rights to stage the game, will be to top the 2005 affair, which was sold out eight weeks in advance and derived an estimated $76 million in economic benefits for the province.
Braley said the goal this time is $100 million, and to do it he said the majority of events connected to the Grey Cup Festival this time will be staged at the new downtown Trade and Convention Centre.
They are lofty goals. The trick for the Lions will be not to raise ticket prices past an acceptable pain threshold. Last time the game was held at the dome, the top ticket was $225. It was $274 in Montreal last year and is $375 this time around, when the game will be played at a smaller McMahon Stadium in Calgary.
What became clear Friday, however, was that the fact the Lions are about to be playing in an upgraded facility had a direct effect on the board of governors decision.
It would logically follow that the 2011 game would go to Hamilton, but commissioner Mark Cohon said Vancouver has the right stuff.
“In today’s modern Grey Cup you need a facility,” said Cohon.
In three years Vancouver should have everything it needs to stage another party.
lullrich@theprovince.com
Prev
Linear Mode
