The Hamilton Tiger-Cats' bid for the 2020 Grey Cup — which is to be discussed in private session by city council's General Issues Committee Wednesday afternoon — presents a number of options for increasing the audience capacity of Tim Hortons Field.

No firm details were released from the staff report on the bid which council was to deliberate privately, but Tim Hortons Field's current seating for just under 24,000 is well below the usual minimum level of 33,000 to 35,000 for a Grey Cup.

If the report meets committee approval as expected, it would go to city council for formal approval next Wednesday.

"When you see the bid you'll see how creative they've been to overcome the size of the stadium," CFL Commissioner Randy Ambrosie told councillors during a question period after his oral presentation.

Temporary seats will be added to Tim Hortons Field, with some definitely behind the north (scoreboard side) end zone.

One option presented in the bid is to have traditional temporary grandstands in the south end zone, another offers a mix of standard bleachers and open space in that end zone, and yet another proposes no extra seats in the south part of the stadium instead dedicating the large plaza area — normally outside of the stadium boundaries — to "social media" viewing, with fans free to roam, as they already are in a number of areas in Tim Hortons Field.

"I think what we're seeing is the emergence of a new way of being a fan," Ambrosie told The Spectator. "It's great thing to embrace the idea of a new generation of fans and delivering it to them their way. It should be part of our psyche.

"What I was impressed about in this bid is it took that idea and raised the bar. They've shown there's more than one way to come at this."

In the CFL's new competition-based bidding structure, the Tiger-Cats are pitted against the Saskatchewan Roughriders and Montreal Alouettes for the 2020 Grey Cup game and festival.

A league committee made up of the most recent, current (2018) and next host teams — for 2020 purposes, that's the Ottawa Redblacks, Edmonton Eskimos and Calgary Stampeders — will advise Ambrosie which bid they prefer, and he wants to present that choice to the full CFL board on Jan. 28.

"So time is of the essence," Ambrosie told The Spectator. "Ultimately the team making the bid will make a financial commitment to their (CFL) partners and that commitment will in part be based on their confidence that they've got support from their local community."

Council also heard from Ticat president Matt Afinec and team owner Bob Young, who had a prior commitment in North Carolina and could not attend in person.

The Tiger-Cats stressed that the Grey Cup bid report does not seek a specific amount of money in either hard dollars or soft (services-in-kind). The city would assign a value to the venues, staffing and other services required in the bid.

"There is not a formal ask for dollars," Afinec told The Spectator. "It was a working collaborative with Tourism Hamilton which was given the file by the city to identify the requirements that the municipality can provide to win the bid: those include venues, services, stadium readiness. Some of those costs, the Ticats are not privy to."

The only document made public at Wednesday's meeting was the estimated $200,000 cost to the city for staffing the planning and execution of the Grey Cup Festival. The overall commitment from cities which have hosted recent Grey Cups have varied, but are generally between $1 million to $1.5 million.

Ambrosie and Young both said that a number of studies have shown that the economic impact of a Grey Cup approaches $100 million, with 20,000 to 30,000 visitors arriving specifically for the game and festival. Edmonton is currently in the process of analyzing the economic impact of hosting the 2018 Grey Cup in November.

During a question period, councillors seemed generally to support a bid for the 2020 Cup, particularly since Hamilton hasn't been the site of the national championship since 1996.

"I need your help to win the Grey Cup bid," Young said via his video. "The CFL is doing a good job trying to identify the community that is doing the best job.

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"Be nice to Randy. But keep in mind we're selling Randy as much as he's selling us."

smilton@thespec.com

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