Ottawa to host 2017 Grey Cup, coincides with Canada’s 150th anniversary

OTTAWA — The 2017 Grey Cup will take place at TD Place Stadium in Ottawa.

Canadian Football League commissioner Jeffrey Orridge made the announcement prior to Sunday night’s matchup between the Ottawa Redblacks and Toronto Argonauts.

The 105th Grey Cup will coincide with Canada’s 150th anniversary of Confederation and take place on November 26.

“I think it’s a perfect confluence of circumstances,” said Orridge. “We’re celebrating 150 years of the nation coming together. It’s the 105th Grey Cup, it’s a great stadium, great environment, great ownership group and certainly the fan base is incredible. All those things came together to make it the perfect choice for 2017.” 

The 1976 Grey Cup winning Ottawa Rough Riders were also honoured prior to kick off for their victory 40 years ago and were on the field for the announcement.

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A pre-game video montage featured Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Hon. Catherine McKenna. The video led into the on-field ceremony where the Royal Canadian Mounted Police handed the Grey Cup off to former Rough Rider Tony Gabriel.

Gabriel had the winning touchdown reception in the ’76 Grey Cup and carried the trophy to the centre of TD Place Stadium on Sunday.

“I won’t lie, I teared up,” said Jeff Hunt, the president of the Ottawa Sports and Entertainment Group.

“It’s pretty special to see all this come together and to be able to announce it in front of fans is very special. We don’t want to just host it, we want to win it.”

Hunt also said the plan is to add about 10,000 addition seats at TD Place for the game, bringing the capacity to around 35,000.

The last time Ottawa hosted the Grey Cup was in 2004, during the second coming of football in the nation’s capital when TD Place was known as Frank Clair Stadium and the team was known as the Renegades. 

The Redblacks went to the 2015 Grey Cup in just their second season, but lost to the Edmonton Eskimos.

Toronto is set to host the 2016 Grey Cup at BMO Field.

The Canadian Press