Regina loses bid, Winnipeg tentatively chosen as 2020 CFL hub city

If the CFL is played in 2020, it’s going to be in Winnipeg.

The league announced Tuesday afternoon the league would play in Manitoba’s capital instead of in Regina or Calgary.

“We wanted to host this year in Regina not only because we love our football team and we love the CFL, we most certainly felt that there was an economic impact that the city of Regina could use,” Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe said as the news was made official during the province’s COVID-19 media update. “If we have to go to Winnipeg to win our Grey Cup, we’ll be happy to do that.”

If Regina was chosen as the hub city, the province committed to $3 million in funding. Now that the money will not be used for the hub model, Moe said they will need to look at what programs, including COVID-19 response programs, could receive the funding.

“We have a number of other sectors of our economy that continue to be challenged. We have the hotel and entertainment sector, the tourism sector. There are a number of continued supports that we continue to look at, work on with the leaders in that industry,” Moe said. “This decision (to put money towards the bid) was made in the isolation that the economic activity would far outweigh the investment that was made.”

Moe admitted there were some weaknesses with the Regina bid, one of which was the lack of direct international flights into the Queen City.

The CFL season has been put on hold due to the global pandemic. While the selection of a hub city indicates a positive step to football being played in 2020, there are still hurdles to overcome such as receiving federal government funding and a new collective bargaining agreement in place for the 2020 season.

“I would hope and would be supportive of the federal government in moving and making a positive decision there,” Moe said.