CFL commissioner Randy Ambrosie. (CFL)

By CJME News

COVID-19 forces CFL to change plans for 2020 season, Grey Cup

May 20, 2020 | 3:25 PM

The CFL has announced the 2020 Grey Cup game won’t be played in Regina — unless the Saskatchewan Roughriders earn the right to host it.

In a statement Wednesday, the CFL announced it was changing its plans for its championship game this season due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

If the 2020 season goes ahead, the team with the best record during the regular season will play host to the game.

The Roughriders were slated to be the host team for the 2020 Grey Cup game and festival. The league noted that, in light of Wednesday’s news, Saskatchewan now will be the host team for the 2022 Grey Cup game.

“CFL fans from coast to coast to coast wanted to go to Regina this year for the national celebration of our great game and to be there in the heartland of our game on the prairies, but with all of the things that have been happening around the pandemic, having a traditional Grey Cup just wasn’t possible,” CFL commissioner Randy Ambrosie said during a virtual town hall. “We made the decision that we would shift the Grey Cup away from Regina this fall.”

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“The COVID-19 pandemic continues to cause uncertainty across the country and across the world, and the ability to host the 2020 Grey Cup to the scope and scale that our fans expected was becoming less and less likely,” Roughriders president-CEO Craig Reynolds — who also is the Grey Cup Festival’s co-chair — added in a media release.

“Pair that with the need to allow for as much time as possible to have a 2020 season, and we know this is the right decision for the CFL, our club and for our fans.”

The CFL is also looking at pushing back the Grey Cup game from November and into December.

Ambrosie said the league didn’t want to wait to make a decision about the 2020 Grey Cup because the event is more than just a football game.

“If all we were doing is planning to play a game in Regina in November we may have been able to wait, but the Grey Cup is so much more than that,” Ambrosie said. “It is such a part of what has made the CFL such a legendary event.

“With what we know today, it is virtually impossible to host an event the way CFL fans and Canadians have become accustomed to.”

The 2021 game will be hosted by the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, as was previously announced.

The CFL said if the 2020 season can be played, it likely would be a shortened campaign that would start in September at the earliest.

That decision would be made after consultation with federal and provincial governments and health authorities.

“We are aware that the very real possibility exists that we won’t play this year but as they say, hope springs eternal, and we’re going to try and keep a positive attitude and hope that somehow, someway we will play in 2020,” Ambrosie said.

The Roughriders also won’t be playing the Toronto Argonauts in Halifax as part of Touchdown Atlantic as had been planned.

That game, which was scheduled for July 25, has been cancelled.

Ambrosie said the league continues to ask for advice and look into multiple scenarios for the season, including hub cities.

He said the league will re-evaluate its business model and find ways to succeed and thrive in the future.

“We are looking at all possible ways to ensure that we survive this crisis and that we come back bigger, stronger and better than ever in 2021,” Ambrosie said. “It’s survive the crisis — that’s our strategy — and then set ourselves up to thrive in the future.”