{"id":49282,"date":"2026-05-17T18:57:04","date_gmt":"2026-05-17T18:57:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/49282\/"},"modified":"2026-05-17T18:57:04","modified_gmt":"2026-05-17T18:57:04","slug":"no-timeline-for-ottawa-grey-cup-hosting-bid-but-redblacks-will-get-creative-amidst-lansdowne-construction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/49282\/","title":{"rendered":"No timeline for Ottawa Grey Cup hosting bid, but Redblacks will ‘get creative’ amidst Lansdowne construction"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPhoto: Bob Butrym\/3DownNation. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n

It has been nearly a decade since the last Grey Cup was played in Ottawa, but there is no clarity regarding when fans in the nation\u2019s capital will next get to party at home.<\/p>\n

In an appearance on TSN 1200 radio on Friday<\/a>, Redblacks president Adrian Sciarra was unable to put a timeline on when the city would next be able to bid for hosting privileges, citing the upcoming Lansdowne 2.0 project.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re working on different scenarios, trying to figure out, working with the construction, when things will be in a state of readiness that we can host,\u201d Sciarra said. \u201cWe\u2019ll look to get creative to put a game here as soon as we can. We\u2019re already at nine years since 2017, so a lot of scenarios going through that we\u2019re working on right now. In the next few months, we\u2019ll have, I think, a good strategy on which year we think we can get a game.\u201d<\/p>\n

In November, the Ottawa city council officially approved the $418.8 million revitalization of Lansdowne<\/a>. The expansive project, which is centred around the construction of a new hockey arena and events centre to replace the current outdated venue, will continue with the demolition of the north stand of TD Place Stadium following the 2027 season.<\/p>\n

It is expected to take two years for the stands to be rebuilt with improved seating and amenities, in addition to a retail podium and extended parking behind it. As a result, capacity for Redblacks games\u00a0will reportedly be reduced to just 14,000 for the 2028 and 2029 seasons<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 10,000 less than the building currently holds.<\/p>\n

Work on the stadium will continue until 2030, when construction will begin on a nearby residential development. That would seemingly render an Ottawa Grey Cup impossible until at least 2031, but Sciarra indicated that his team is still attempting to find viable workarounds.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would say nothing\u2019s ruled out in terms of we\u2019re still looking at is there a way to do it before everything is done,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m not sure if that\u2019s possible, but we look at literally every year, construction timelines, what\u2019s open and ready and what\u2019s not. The next bid cycle, I think, is for 2028, and then it goes year by year after that, so we\u2019ll keep looking and trying to figure out as soon as we can to get a game here.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 105th Grey Cup, in which the Toronto Argonauts defeated the Calgary Stampeders, was the last to be played in Ottawa. The city has hosted the big game on seven occasions, though just four of those have come in the modern era and only one during the Redblacks\u2019 existence.<\/p>\n

Putting another Grey Cup in Ottawa as soon as it is feasible should be a priority for the CFL, as the franchise is expected to experience financial hardship as a result of its reduced stadium capacity during the renovations. Fan interest in the city has also declined as a result of the team\u2019s consistently poor performance, with an average attendance of 18,136 last season.<\/p>\n

The 2026 Grey Cup is slated to be played in Calgary, while Regina has already been awarded hosting rights in 2027. Ottawa has the third-longest hosting drought in the league, trailing Toronto, which last had the game in 2016, and Montreal, who have not hosted since 2008.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Photo: Bob Butrym\/3DownNation. All rights reserved. It has been nearly a decade since the last Grey Cup was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":49283,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[1591,349,350,21948,351,352,354,13956,21949,21950,355,61,1593],"class_list":["post-49282","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ottawa","tag-rnation","tag-3down","tag-3downnation","tag-adrian-sciarra","tag-canadian","tag-cfl","tag-football","tag-grey-cup","tag-hosting","tag-lansdowne-2-0","tag-league","tag-ottawa","tag-redblacks"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49282","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49282"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49282\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49283"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49282"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49282"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49282"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}