Calgary to host 2026 Grey Cup

Calgary will play host to the 2026 Grey Cup, officials announced Friday.

The 113th edition of the Canadian Football League (CFL) championship will return to McMahon Stadium on Sunday, Nov. 15, 2026.

CFL Commissioner Randy Ambrosie says the league is thrilled to bring the Grey Cup back to Calgary.

“We were blown away by the Stampeders’ bid and we look forward to seeing their incredible vision transformed into reality,” he said.

This will be the sixth time Cow Town has hosted the Grey Cup — the game was previously played at McMahon in 1975, 1993, 2000, 2009 and 2019.

When the city last hosted the festival, Ambrosie said it would likely be the last of its kind at the aging stadium.

“I won my Grey Cup here, I started my career here, and I have a strong affection for the feeling you get to run on to the field at McMahon,” he said. “But I also have walked through the stadium now and experienced the backend or the bowels of that stadium and it’s not up to the standards of modern sport. I’d like to see us start a conversation about a new stadium here, I think Stampeder fans deserve it.

Ambrosie mused about the construction of the new Mosaic Stadium in Regina, and what a building of that level could do for sport in southern Alberta.

“I’d like to say this is the last time we’ll have a Grey Cup at McMahon and maybe looking into the future we’ll be playing the next one in a big, beautiful, new stadium,” he said in 2019.

No plans of any sort have been made public in regards to constructing a new stadium.

Calgary’s first professional women’s soccer team, Wild FC, will also call McMahon home.

The stadium was built in just 103 days in 1960. There have been various renovations to the building over the years — 1975 saw the installation of artificial turf, and in 1978 7,000 more seats were added, as was an underground tunnel and a new press box.

More recent changes, around a decade ago, included fitted seats replacing aluminum benches, a new scoreboard, and additional washroom facilities and concessions.