Calgary eyes 2026 Grey Cup as McMahon Stadium's last

CALGARY · Conversations have begun to make the 2026 Grey Cup the last one held at Calgary's aging McMahon Stadium. The 66-year-old venue hosts the Canadian Football League championship game on Sunday between the Edmonton Elks and Montreal Alouettes. It is the second-oldest professional football stadium in Canada and has been home to the Calgary Stampeders since 1960. The building also served as the site for the opening and closing ceremonies of the 1988 Winter Olympics.

"McMahon Stadium is pretty tired, I'm afraid," said Steve Allan, chair of the McMahon Stadium Society. "It's time for a new building." Allan said replacement parts for the stadium's seats are no longer available, and salvaging seats from the soon-to-be-demolished Saddledome is being considered as a stop-gap measure. "We're just trying to patch up an old dog, and we've been doing that for years, and it's not working," he said. "The guts of the building are just too old."

The Calgary Stampede has hired a firm to study adapting its GMC Stadium, home to chuckwagon races and rodeo events, to accommodate field sports like football and soccer. "We recognize that CFL football can't stay at McMahon Stadium indefinitely," said Jim Laurendeau, the Stampede's executive vice-president of park development and operations. He hopes to have an answer on the engineering feasibility of converting the rodeo infield by the summer of 2027. The City of Calgary is conducting its own feasibility study on major sports infrastructure. "This work is early-stage due diligence and does not represent a decision or commitment to build a new facility," the city said in a statement. It is working with the University of Calgary and the McMahon Stadium Society to support the stadium's safe operation for now. The university, which owns the land McMahon sits on, has raised about $23 million to build a new 5,000-seat multi-purpose stadium on campus.

READ MORE: Veteran kicker Rene Paredes announces retirement after 2026 season

READ MORE: Elks and Alouettes clash in 113th Grey Cup in Calgary

New turf installed at McMahon last year has an eight-year lifespan. "We don't want to put turf down in this building again, so we need a building for the start of the 2033 season," Allan said. While the Stampeders will remain at McMahon for a few more years, team president Jay McNeil said there is urgency for change. "Our life here at McMahon has to change and it has to change quickly," McNeil said. He cited rising fan expectations for premium experiences and varied seating options that McMahon cannot provide.

"I would say this will likely be the last Grey Cup ever played at McMahon," McNeil said. This echoes a prediction made in 2019 by then-CFL commissioner Randy Ambrosie. The question of who pays for a new stadium remains for later discussion, Allan noted, adding that the land under McMahon and an adjacent city-owned parcel are valuable. Nick Holt, dean of the University of Calgary's Faculty of Kinesiology, said in a statement that while McMahon remains safe and operational, it is "an aging asset approaching the end of its life." All partners recognize the need for sustainable long-term solutions beyond incremental repairs, Holt said.

With files from The Canadian Press, Sportsnet and The Globe and Mail