Mosaic Stadium will play host to the 2020 Grey Cup. (file photo/CJME Staff) : Tyler Marr

By Ian Hamilton

RIDER NATION

Regina awarded 2020 Grey Cup

Feb 21, 2019 | 6:13 PM

The CFL has decided to stage another celebration in Rider Nation.

CFL commissioner Randy Ambrosie announced Thursday the 2020 Grey Cup will be played in Regina. The Saskatchewan Roughriders’ bid to play host was selected over ones from the Hamilton Tiger-Cats and Montreal Alouettes.

It will be the fourth time the Queen City has staged the CFL’s championship and its accompanying festivities, joining the Grey Cups of 1995, 2003 and 2013. But those games were played on Taylor Field; the 2020 contest will be the first to be staged at new Mosaic Stadium.

That facility is expected to be the site of all of the week’s events, including nightly parties staged by the league’s teams. Banquet rooms, an indoor soccer facility and various hockey rinks on the site could play host to events, and the Brandt Centre is a potential location for concerts.

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The Roughriders were eager to land hosting rights for the 2020 Grey Cup because that year will mark the 110th anniversary of the franchise.

Hamilton was hoping to be the site of a Grey Cup game for the first time since 1996. The Tiger-Cats moved into Tim Hortons Field during the 2014 season, but the league has yet to hold its title game in that stadium.

That will change in 2021.

Shortly after announcing that Regina is getting the 2020 game, Ambrosie revealed that Hamilton had been awarded the 2021 Grey Cup game.

The last time Montreal served as the Grey Cup’s host city was 2008. The Alouettes play their home games in Percival Molson Stadium, but the CFL’s season-ending contest would have been played in Olympic Stadium.

In 1995, a crowd of 52,564 packed into an expanded Mosaic Stadium to watch the Baltimore Stallions defeat the Calgary Stampeders 37-20 in the Grey Cup game. It was the first and last time that an American-based team won the CFL title.

In 2003, the Edmonton Eskimos downed Montreal 34-22 in front of 50,909 patrons at historic Mosaic Stadium, which had been expanded for the occasion.

In 2013, the Roughriders recorded a franchise first when they won a Grey Cup at home for the first time. A gathering of 44,710 watched Saskatchewan beat Hamilton 45-23 on Taylor Field.

The 2020 Grey Cup contest will be the third straight CFL title game played in Western Canada. Edmonton was the site of the 2018 championship game and the 2019 contest is to be played in Calgary.