GREY CUP HOTELS

Limited options for CFL fans.

Having missed the two previous Grey Cups in Regina, Barry Bessette was looking forward to seeing the 2013 game at Mosaic Stadium.

Unfortunately for the resident of Yellowknife, there’s no room at the inn — or at any other hotel in Regina.

“I’m going to keep phoning different hotels, but right now it’s not looking very good — and it’s a year away ...,” said Bessette, a 48-year-old product of St. Benedict. “There’s no use getting tickets if there’s nowhere to stay.”

As happened in 1995 and 2003 — the other times Regina played host to the CFL’s championship game — hotel rooms in the Queen City will be at a premium during Grey Cup week.

Neil Donnelly, the executive director of the 2013 Grey Cup, has heard that Regina’s hotels already are booked up for the days leading up to the Nov. 24 game at Mosaic Stadium. He noted that hotels in places like Weyburn and Moose Jaw currently are “pretty full” as well.

That has frustrated prospective patrons like Bessette, who said he started looking for a hotel room in Regina even before Grey Cup week this year.

“Guess I should have started sooner,” Bessette said. “Every hotel you call, they’re booked up. My typical question is, ‘Well, if you’re booked up, are (the rooms) just blocked off or are they booked?’ It was one dead end after another.

“It’s kind of disappointing because Grey Cup week is probably just as important as the game itself. I’ve had the luxury of going to Grey Cup games and weeks in Calgary and Edmonton and it’s great to meet people in the days before the game and enjoy the festivities.

“But when a person has to look outside of Regina for accommodations, it kind of defeats that purpose. Most people like to have a drink or two along the way and drinking and driving is not even a possibility.”

Commuting to an out-oftown hotel by cab isn’t realistic for Bessette, either, so he’s going to keep making calls in the hopes that something opens up in Regina. That’s the strategy the Grey Cup organizing committee would suggest.

There are to be more than 3,300 hotel rooms in the city by the new year, an increase of nearly 1,000 over 2003. But because the committee already has satisfied the accommodation needs of the CFL, its sponsors and its teams, some fans have limited options.

Donnelly noted the organizers empathize with those people, but ...

“There isn’t a lot we can do,” he said.

“We tell everybody to continue trying some of these hotels on a fairly regular basis and we’ll be posting links to the various hotels through Tourism Saskatchewan’s website on our website.

“We keep hearing that some hotels will be releasing inventory at some point, whether it’s tour operators releasing what they have or the hotels (releasing rooms they) have been holding onto for a while just to satisfy their needs. (People continuing to call hotels) is Option A for us, for sure.”

That said, there are other options available.

Facing similar hotel issues in 1995 and 2003, Grey Cup organizers created programs through which out-of-towners stayed with family members, friends or complete strangers in and around Regina.

This time, Donnelly said, the organizing committee won’t have to recreate those programs — because they already exist.

“It’s basically just going to be more of a promotion to get people who are interested in having folks stay in their homes to register with the services that are available,” Donnelly said.

“We’ll be posting those on our website and then inviting people to check there.”

The committee also hopes people looking for places to stay will take to social media sites for help.

If someone isn’t willing to have a stranger in their home, Donnelly said, perhaps having a mutual Facebook friend vouch for the visitor would make the host more willing to help out.

The use of websites like Kijiji and Craigslist also could help visiting fans find homes in which to stay.

Donnelly said the committee eventually will ask campsites in the Regina area if they’d be willing to open during Grey Cup week. It’s also expected that an RV park will be set up at Evraz Place, just like in 2003.

Bessette, who saw his first football game at Taylor Field in 1975 and has made annual football pilgrimages to Regina ever since, said he has thought about camping out in November. But as his search for a room continues, he admitted the situation is “disheartening right now.”

“We’re sort of a victim of the harsh reality we have,” Donnelly said of the accommodation problem.

“But at the same time, we have a situation where our game is going to sell out and every hotel room in Regina and a 100-kilometre radius or more is going to be sold out for the entire festival week. Really, in my mind, that’s a success story.

“We’ve got a significant economic impact happening for the community, a significant employment opportunity and a significant revenue generation for a number of businesses in the community. I look at it as a very positive thing, not as a negative thing.”

ihamilton@leaderpost.com