Vancouver businesses hope 2024 Grey Cup will kick off big earnings

The Winnipeg Blue Bombers are set to face the Toronto Argonauts at B.C. Place on Sunday in the 111th edition of the Grey Cup.

Prior to the kickoff of the CFL’s championship game, fans were able to take in a week-long Grey Cup Festival that included concerts, parties, zip lines, a drone show and —  thanks to a longstanding tradition among Calgary Stampeders fans — a horse walking into a hotel lobby.

B.C.’s tourism ministry says it expects the festivities to bring in 30,000 out-of-province fans and drive an economic boost of $125 million.

Diane Wensel rides Tuffy the horse into the lobby of a hotel in downtown Vancouver, on Thursday. The Grey Cup tradition of riding a horse into a local hotel started by the Calgary Grey Cup Committee is carried out as part of the festivities leading up to the CFL’s championship game. (Darryl Dyck/The Canadian Press)

Rob Coppens and his wife travelled to Vancouver even though their beloved Stampeders didn’t make it to the big game. Coppens said they have attended more than 20 Grey Cup parties and plan to spend somewhere in the range of $4,000 to $5,000 this year.

“There’s a lot of people, we only see them at Grey Cup because they’re from different parts of the country,” Coppens said. “We all meet up, have beers, cheer, and have a lot of fun.”

The arrival of football-loving visitors like Coppens is good news for the city’s hospitality industry, says Ian Tostenson, CEO of the B.C. Restaurant and Foodservices Association.

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“The last two years are probably the worst two years we’ve ever seen,” Tostenson said.

“Coming out of the pandemic, we came out quite strong. And then we were hit with inflation and we were hit with high interest rates, and so we lost consumer confidence. So spending is down.”

Is it worth it to spend public dollars on the Grey Cup?

B.C.’s tourism ministry spent $3.5 million on the Grey Cup Festival, and says it expects it to provide a $125-million economic boost in return.

The City of Vancouver said it helped pay for the party with some of its $500,000 Sport Tourism Development Fund, but didn’t specify how much.

Moshe Lander, a senior lecturer in economics at Montreal’s Concordia University, says Grey Cups usually provide modest economic benefits, and costs are relatively low.

B.C.’s tourism ministry says it expects Grey Cup festivities will provide an economic boost of $125 million. One academic says the benefits of the event are likely more modest. (Darryl Dyck/The Canadian Press)

“That’s a lot more than can be said for the Winter Olympics in Vancouver-Whistler, for the [FIFA] World Cup that’s upcoming, [or] for the Invictus Games,” said Lander.

Royce Chwin, the president and CEO of Destination Vancouver who was on the Grey Cup committee, argues that spending public dollars on big events like the Grey Cup is worth it.

“If you don’t do these things, if you don’t animate a city and if you don’t give reasons for people to come out and enjoy the city … then what drives economic resilience?”

Vancouver has hosted the league’s championship game 16 times in the past, most recently in 2014 when the Calgary Stampeders downed the Hamilton Tiger-Cats 20-16.

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