Photo credit: Hamilton Honey Badgers
The FirstOntario Centre renovation plan will be delayed by a couple of weeks due to Grey Cup festivities.
The arena was scheduled to close for renovations after the Canadian Country Music Awards in September.
But with Hamilton hosting the Grey Cup this year, the private consortium that is taking over FirstOntario Centre operations has decided to keep the arena open for the football-related November festivities that accompany the game.
The Grey Cup will be played on November 19 at Tim Horton’s Field.
The Canadian Football League (CFL) championship game always comes with a Grey Cup Festival. This year’s festival will be held November 16 to November 19.
Locals will remember that the Hamilton Tiger-Cats recently hosted the Grey Cup in 2021, but the pandemic reduced the size of some of the events.
As a result, the CFL decided to award Hamilton the 2023 Grey Cup so that the complete version of the event could be realized.
The FirstOntario Centre was supposed to be used as a part of the 2021 Grey Cup Festival, but capacity restrictions forced multiple events to be held on a smaller scale at the Hamilton Convention Centre instead.
It is expected that the FirstOntario Centre will be used for the major concert series and fan get-togethers for this year’s festival.
The Grey Cup trophy arrival, CFL Awards, head coaches conference, and commissioner’s state of the league address are all a part of the regular events as well.
The full Grey Cup Festival schedule is expected to be released before the start of the CFL season in June.
In 2021 the Grey Cup trophy arrived to Hamilton by helicopter at Bayfront Park. Most of the other events were held at the Hamilton Convention Centre which can hold approximately 2,000 people.
The FirstOntario Centre can hold up to 19,000 people for concerts.
The indoor events in the 2021 Grey Cup Festival also required proof of vaccination to attend. That will not be the case this year.
It remains unclear exactly how long the FirstOntario Centre renovations will take, but the delayed closing will likely delay the project timeline by at least a couple of weeks.
The renovations of the FirstOntario Centre were originally expected to be in the range of $50 million (funded privately by the involved groups at no cost to the taxpayer).
However, in 2022, the total investment for stadium refurbishment was raised to somewhere between $100 million to $200 million, due to the added involvement of global sports and entertainment company Oak View Group (OVG).
The three teams that normally played at the arena have all been forced out for at least two years. The Hamilton Honey Badgers of the Canadian Elite Basketball League decided to permanently relocate to Brampton.
The Hamilton Bulldogs are temporarily moving to Brantford for at least three years in a move that might also become permanent.
Meanwhile, the Toronto Rock are still analyzing their temporary options, although their owner has said that they will for sure be returning when the arena revamp is complete.
Based in Hamilton, he reaches hundreds of thousands of people monthly on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter. He has been published in The Hamilton Spectator, Stoney Creek News, and Bay Observer. He has also been a segment host with Cable 14 Hamilton. In 2017, he received the Chancellor Full Tuition Scholarship from the University of Ottawa (BA, 2022). He has also received the Governor General’s Academic Medal. He formerly worked in a non-partisan role on Parliament Hill in Ottawa.
