More than six months after the Canadian Finals Rodeo (CFR) rejected the final joint bid from the City of Edmonton and the Oilers Entertainment Group (OEG) to keep the event in Alberta’s capital and three months after it made a deal with the City of Saskatoon to relocate there, Global News has learned the rodeo will remain in Edmonton after the upcoming season after all.
Late Monday afternoon, a source told Global News the CFR – which is set to get underway in Alberta’s capital next month – will stay in Edmonton beyond what was supposed to be its farewell edition in 2016, although they declined to say for how long.
Another source confirmed with Global News the CFR deal with Saskatoon has fallen through but declined to provide further details.
“It’s intriguing that talks have continued,” Edmonton Mayor Don Iveson said Tuesday.
“They have not included the city because we’re not in a position to actively promote any event – because of the Master Agreement with OEG – we’re not in a position to actively promote any event going into the Coliseum. It does raise some questions because we’re actively considering re-purposing that building … I don’t know how realistic it is as a long-term venue for CFR but this may open up some interesting conversations again.”
READ MORE: Canadian Finals Rodeo heading to Saskatoon
A news conference is scheduled for Wednesday at Northlands’ Expo Centre at which officials with the Canadian Professional Rodeo Association will be in attendance.
After Edmonton lost the CFR, the OEG announced in August it was bringing in a 10-day western culture event with Professional Bull Riders (PBR) in the fall of 2017.
READ MORE: Professional Bull Riding brings 10-day event to Edmonton
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Watch below: After the Canadian Finals Rodeo announced it was leaving Edmonton for Saskatoon after 2016, the Oilers Entertainment Group announced a five-year partnership with Professional Bull Riders to bring a major event to Alberta’s capital. Vinesh Pratap filed this report on Aug. 3, 2016.
The event is to be held at the new Rogers Place arena.
Tony Caterina is an Edmonton city councillor and also sits on the board for Northlands. He said he’d love to see the CFR continue in Alberta’s capital.
“Regardless, it’s pretty good news. I’m extremely happy that CFR is once again … the possibly of hosting it here for a number of years,” Caterina said.
“As you know, it’s been over 40-some-odd years that it’s been in Edmonton and the tens of millions of dollars that it injects into the local economy was surely going to be missed. I’m glad to see that there’s some progress here.”
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Caterina said the possibility of CFR returning long-term would give Northlands a boost.
“This obviously provides some revenue that Northlands is certainly desperate for, with the restructuring and the downsizing that’s gone on in the last number of months. This is welcome news to an event that is so extremely important for Edmonton, partnered with Farm Fair, this is nothing but good news for Edmonton,” he said.
“I don’t know what the circumstances were in Saskatoon but even earlier on it seemed like a stretch that Saskatoon could support such an event, but the decision was made by CFR initially and now it looks like they’ve obviously looked at it again and Edmonton now is in play again.”
READ MORE: Northlands’ Vision 2020 doing too much with too little: City of Edmonton
Caterina believes Edmonton could support both the CFR (at Northlands) and the PBR (at Rogers Place), but said it was ultimately up to the city to decide.
“This is something that was part of the 2020 Vision,” Caterina said. “Hall D was the venue that something like CFR could continue on, about 6,000 or 7,000 seats in that particular bowl … I think that there’s a good future. I can’t give you any details … I don’t know the terms at this point, whether it’s a year, five years, 10 years.
“The six-plex in Northlands Coliseum is viable too,” Caterina said. “There’s nothing conflicting here that I can see. Obviously the pro rodeo that OEG has attracted to the city, that’s going to be another question for the city to see if they can complement each other rather than compete with each other. I think anything is possible at this point in time. I think everybody has the best interests of the city at heart.”
Iveson said Northlands’ suggestion of re-purposing the Coliseum into a community rink facility was very well received by Edmontonians.
“I was, quite frankly, hoping we’d be able to move ahead more quickly with re-purposing of Rexall,” the mayor said.
“This does add some tension to that ongoing work but I’m just reading about this … so I’ll need to follow up with Northlands at some point and understand what , if any, representations they’ve made about venue, location, longevity.”
“We’re interested in rodeo but we have to find a sustainable strategy for this,” Iveson added. “A one- or two-year one-off is interesting but it’s not conclusive, it’s not sustainable and it could cause more challenges in terms of the re-purposing of the building.”
Edmonton has hosted the Canadian Finals Rodeo since 1974, which draws thousands of visitors yearly.
READ MORE: Edmonton decides not to bid on Canadian Finals Rodeo
The 2016 edition of Canadian Finals Rodeo, which offers one of the richest purses in Canada, will take place in Edmonton Nov. 9-13.
-With files from Global News’ Emily Mertz and Dave Giles, 630 CHED and The Canadian Press.
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