The Province of Manitoba and the City of Winnipeg are putting in a bid to the CFL to host the Grey Cup in the next two or three years, and it has Bomber Nation buzzing.
“We so deserve that. We should have the Grey Cup here,” said Kristina Cruz while shopping at the Bomber Store Wednesday.
“Especially after winning two back-to-backs, that’s awesome, I’m so excited.”
The province is offering up to $5.5 million to the Canadian Football League in the bid, while the city is expected off up $1.5 million.
“I think it’s awesome, I think it will be a lot of revenue to the city and province and coming from out of town it’s something that we would look forward to,” said Dan Motheral, a life-long Bomber fan who says he’ll be driving in from west of Brandon for the festivities.
Economic impact
Get breaking National news
The province estimates hosting the Grey Cup would bring $90 million to the economy and about $8.2 million in provincial tax revenue.
“This is big dollars when we’re looking at the numbers,” Manitoba Chambers of Commerce president and CEO Chuck Davidson told Global News.
“We’ve seen that it’s close to a $90 million investment that comes back to Winnipeg and Manitoba through people staying in hotels and people going into restaurants and going out and coming to our community. That’s terrific.”
Davidson says the economic impacts even go beyond the week-long festivities.
“And then (the) things you don’t take into consideration, things like what it does for that exposure for both Winnipeg and Manitoba. It puts us on the map for a week,” he said. “People come and they visit, people come to see things in our community, and we always know when that happens you get repeat visitors as well.”
“It’s just a great opportunity for Winnipeg and Manitoba.”
Comments