101st Grey Cup Festival and Game had $93 million Economic Impact for Province

 The Saskatchewan Roughriders today released Economic Impact numbers from the 101^st Grey Cup Festival and Grey Cup Championship Game held in Saskatchewan.

The Grey Cup Festival alone attracted over 241,000 attendees over a four day period, including an estimated crowd of 10,000 at the Saturday morning parade.  The Grey Cup Championship game at Mosaic Stadium attracted 44,710 fans for a total of 285,800 site-specific attendees for the Festival and Game Day combined. Of this group, 107,200 were unique individuals and 35% traveled from outside of Regina to attend the events.

The Economic Impact on Saskatchewan from visitor expenditures, spending on operations and capital construction, as well as local resident expenditures was significant.  The total combined Economic Impact was quantified to be over $93 million, with the Regina region seeing an impact of over $68 million, the remainder benefiting the rest of Saskatchewan.  The Festival and Grey Cup game generated the equivalent of 400 full-year jobs and $21 million in wages and salaries, and over $14 million in new tax revenues.

The 101^st Grey Cup festivities also brought national recognition for the province.  The game was the most watched Canadian sports program in 2013 withmore than 11.5 million viewers, or approximately one in three Canadians, watching some part of the game on TSN and in French on RDS.

“We couldn’t be happier with the impact and benefit this event has brought to Saskatchewan,” said Jim Hopson, President and CEO of the Roughriders. “Clearly there was a significant and measurable financial impact for our province. Beyond that we had an opportunity to showcase Saskatchewan on a national stage.” 

Source: Saskatchewan RoughRiders Press Release

Editor’s Note: Regina’s next huge sporting event will be the 2014 North American Indigenous Games (July 20-27, 2014) which is also expected to attract millions into Saskatchewan’s economy.