As the dust settles from the 109th Grey Cup in Regina, event planners in the city look back at the impact it made on the Queen City.
Craig Reynolds, president and CEO of the Saskatchewan Roughriders, said volunteers brought the event together.
“I can’t talk enough about our volunteer planning committee and the number of volunteers that were working on this festival and made it come alive,” Reynolds said.
He added 1,200 people volunteered to help bring the festival together, noting at least 100 of those were part of the planning committee who have been working on the event for three years.
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Reynolds noted there was a “tremendous turnout” at Mosaic Stadium on Sunday.
“We saw thousands of people out on the concourse. The drink rails were three-deep.”
“When you have a cold-weather game like that with some people maybe not as vested in the score, they don’t spend as much time in their seats,” Reynolds said.
He added the no-show rate was similar to what you’d see at other major events, but that the game was sold out.
Reynolds said the Team Party rooms at the festival were at capacity on Saturday night with more than 10,000 people.
“There’s emotions, because you’re sort of sad that it’s over, we’ve been talking about it so long, we’ve been looking forward to it for so long, but you’re also just so overwhelmed that it went so well and people enjoyed themselves.”
Tim Reid, president and CEO of the Regina Exhibition Association Ltd. (REAL), said it was a great week, and that it was the largest event Regina has hosted since the beginning of the pandemic.
“From an employment standpoint it meant that hotels were full and bars were full. From a REAL standpoint, it was the largest month of employment that we’ve had since 2019.”
“It was a great tourism month, it was a great economic development month, but most importantly, I think it was a great time to celebrate Saskatchewan and invite the rest of Canada here to do the same,” Reid said.
He said the highlight event for him during the week was when all the buildings were at capacity on Saturday night, noting that one site had 24,000 people.
Reid said that November is probably the busiest month they’ve had this year, and that it’s nice to see the district get busy again.
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