The Canadian Football League has announced today that the 102nd Grey Cup will be played in Vancouver in November 2014.
“We’re very pleased and proud and thank the CFL for awarding us the Grey Cup,” said Lions owner Senator David Brailey.
This marks the second time in four years that the championship has been brought to B.C. In 2011, newly renovated BC Place hosted the championship, costing B.C. taxpayers $1.8 million.
For those that don’t remember, 2011 was also the season the BC Lions pulled off the Cinderella story comeback. After starting the season down 0-5, they won their next 11 of 13 games to finish atop the Western Conference, giving them a bye straight to the West Final at BC Place where they beat the Edmonton Eskimos. The 99th Grey Cup was played in front of a crowd of 54,313 at BC Place where the hometown crowd saw their team beat the Winnipeg Blue Bombers 34-23, winning the club’s sixth championship. The Halftime Show was played by Nickelback.
“We get to call home the best stadium in Canada and arguably the best in North America,” said Lions president Dennis Skulsky, who continued by thanking all the volunteers and support they had to help make this possible. “To BC Lions fans out there, thank you for your support. You continue to make us one of the flagship franchises in this league.”
Present at the announcement was Premier Christy Clark along with a handful of BC Liberal MLAs. Premier Clark said that when the government made the little over $2 million investment to bring this to B.C., they did it to bring jobs here.
“It’s a great investment economically and a great investment in pride,” said Premier Clark. “It’s because of this stadium that’s allowed us to win the Grey Cup. We’re not just going to win the rights to host it, our players are going to win the right to hoist the trophy on this field and give British Columbians something to cheer about.”
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