Five, it seems, is the magic number.

It was announced on Monday morning at Mosaic Stadium’s AGT Lounge that the fifth Saskatchewan-based Grey Cup Festival is to be held in early November of 2027.

“We’re just excited and thrilled to bring the Grey Cup — the single-biggest sports day in Canada — back here, only five years after the last time,” said Saskatchewan Roughriders President-CEO Craig Reynolds, who Co-Chaired the 2022 event with Barry Clarke.

“Our fan base is second to none. Our facilities are second to none. We had a tagline in our bid that said ‘We’re Built For This,’ and we really feel that way — that we’re built to host Grey Cups here.

“We’re excited to be able to deliver this for our fans and for our province. The economic spinoff is really, really important. We couldn’t be more thrilled.”

Historic Mosaic Stadium was the host venue for the 1995, 2003 and 2013 Grey Cup Games — the latter of which was won by the Roughriders.

The first Grey Cup at the new facility was to have been held in 2020, but the COVID-19 pandemic necessitated a postponement until 2022.

On Monday, the awarding of a Grey Cup to Saskatchewan took place for the first time since Feb. 21, 2019.

“Many things stood out,” CFL Commissioner Stewart Johnston said when asked about the Roughriders’ bid. “The support from the province, from the city, from the local hotel operators, that was significant. You could tell there was a full team effort behind it.

“All credit to the Saskatchewan Roughriders’ team, led by Craig Reynolds. There was the attention to detail, the thought process behind what they wanted to achieve.

“Yes, they hosted a Grey Cup just five years (before 2027), but they’re looking forward and thinking, ‘What else can we do?’ It will be an entirely indoor Festival here in the province. It’s going to be amazing.”

In 2027, the Grey Cup will be held in Western Canada for the fourth consecutive year and the fifth time in a span of six seasons.

The 2022 Grey Cup was bookended by Festivals that were held in Hamilton in 2021 and 2023. Vancouver was the host city last year. This year’s Festival is earmarked for Winnipeg, with Calgary in line for 2026.

Even though the pendulum has swung to the West of late, Reynolds, the Roughriders’ Board of Directors, and everyone else involved in the Roughriders’ bid identified 2027 as a logical year to target.

“You have to look around the league,” Reynolds said. “There’s a little bit of guessing and predicting when other teams might bid. Then you start to look at, ‘Are you ready as an organization?’

“We have such amazing facilities here. We have a really good blueprint from 2022. We felt like there were some things that worked extremely well. There were some things we would do differently, so we were able to quite quickly identify those and put a bid together.

“When you look at the landscape across the CFL in terms of who had recently hosted and stadium projects across the league, we just saw this as a window.

“We thought, ‘We’re just going to take this as an opportunity to bring this major event to Saskatchewan.”

The 114th Grey Cup Game will be played on the earliest date — Nov. 7 — since Canadian football supremacy was first contested in 1909.

As it stands, a national championship game has not been played before Nov. 16, a date that applies to the Grey Cups of 1997 (Edmonton), 2003 (Saskatchewan) and 2025 (Winnipeg). Next year’s Grey Cup at McMahon Stadium will also be the earliest ever (Nov. 15).

REAL District will be the epicentre of the all-indoors 2027 event, which will include a street festival.

According to a study by Sport Tourism Canada, the 2022 Grey Cup Festival (culminating in the 109th Grey Cup) generated $67.8 million in economic activity across the country and bolstered Saskatchewan’s GDP by $25.7 million.

“Hosting this national event will inject millions into our local economy, supporting our hotels, restaurants, shops and small businesses,” Regina Mayor Chad Bachynski said.

“It will boost tourism, create jobs and showcase Regina to visitors from coast to coast. The ripple effect will be felt across our community and the legacy will last long after the last whistle.”

Monday’s huge news arrived at a time when the Roughriders, who will play host to the Western Final on Nov. 8, are just one win away from advancing to the 2025 Grey Cup.

“One of the great traditions of the Grey Cup is the entire, week-long Festival leading up to it,” Premier Scott Moe said. “We’re going to see that in Winnipeg in just a few weeks.

“But we all know that the best place in Canada to host that Festival is right here in this province, in this city, and ultimately with the game in this stadium.

“So many volunteers across the province have proven time and time again that Regina and Saskatchewan are most certainly going to host a world-class event, like we have in years gone by.”

Support from the Province of Saskatchewan, City of Regina and City of Saskatoon was integral to the strength of a bid proposal that ultimately received the assent of the CFL’s Board of Governors.

“We are looking forward to hosting events in Saskatoon again in 2027, just like we did in 2022,” Reynolds said.

Also on hand for Monday’s announcement was the Lieutenant Governor of Saskatchewan, Bernadette McIntyre — someone who is synonymous with volunteerism and spectacularly successful Saskatchewan-based sporting spectacles.

A key player at countless curling events, she has also been a part of all four Grey Cups that have been held in the heart of Rider Nation, either as a volunteer or a member of the Festival leadership team.

“This event brings Canadians together,” McIntyre said. “It is a whole lot of fun, it’s good for our economy, and it’s wonderful for our country.

“And now, with all this excitement, the work begins.”