For Edmonton, events like the Grey Cup are more than games - they're rare political opportunities.
The country's football championship is one of many sporting events that Edmonton has chased in an effort to put itself on the map.
Many are fruitless or come with middling results. The city's bid to host Expo 2018 failed when Ottawa pulled its support a week ago, and the council voted recently to subsidize its Indy race to ensure it didn't leave town.
Others, however, are successes - none more than the 1978 Commonwealth Games, which left Edmonton with its football stadium (the site of Sunday's game) and the first stretch of its light-rail transit system.
If civic leaders in the city want to push for similar projects, Sunday provided a prime opportunity, as federal leaders descended on the city to attend the game.
But the Grey Cup is small potatoes. What Edmonton has really been seeking are grand events that will lure more infrastructure dollars from the federal government, which Edmonton's mayor says often ignores his city.
It's a hunt for the next Commonwealth.
The Indy, for instance, is tied directly to redevelopment of the city's municipal airport grounds, while the Expo bid would have fast-tracked the development of the university of Alberta's south campus. Without such events, the infrastructure projects wallow on the backburner.
"We do things in order to get infrastructure - legacy projects. That's what we do it for, because we sure don't make any money from it," Edmonton Mayor Stephen Mandel told The Globe and Mail Sunday.
"Other provinces in this country are able to get funding from other levels of government ... but we don't get that support," he said. "It is unfair and it's very frustrating."
The Grey Cup will allow Mr. Mandel a chance to plead his case directly to Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who attended the game. The two are set to meet Monday, one week after Mr. Mandel slammed Mr. Harper's government for backtracking on signals that it would support the Expo bid.
"I'll express my frustration about the process," Mr. Mandel said, declining to say specifically what he plans to tell Mr. Harper.
So far, the city has managed to stage successful mid-level events. In 2001, the city hosted the International Association of Athletic Federations' World Championship in Athletics, which turned a small profit and afforded the city a retrofit of Commonwealth Stadium. The event has since been hosted by Berlin, Paris, Osaka and Helsinki.
It also hosts smaller events, including a triathlon beginning next year.
Mr. Mandel says the pursuits come out of an ambition the city didn't once have. But some critics say it's a waste of time to chase events few people watch to try to lure federal infrastructure dollars from a government frequently derided as complacent towards its prairie base.
"By and large, it's a quick fix to second-class status," says James Lightbody, a political scientist at the U of A. He dismisses the events as vanity projects of a city council, which he believes is still upset about the federal snub.
However, academic Rob Shields, a sociologist who holds the U of A's Henry Marshall Tory Research Chair, says cities the size of Edmonton are in a "sweet spot" for being able to offer prospective residents both a small-community feel and large events in sports and theatre.
"What they do not offer is the opportunity to 'consume' mega-crowd events," Dr. Shields says. This is why such cities pursue such one-time mega events.
There are spinoffs. Alberta will seize the opportunity to show the rest of Canada a community that extends beyond oil and ranching, Dr. Shields says. But the bids nevertheless reflect "a historical lack of steady investment in community and in public places," he said.
Mr. Mandel said spinoff benefits include attracting business, retaining young talent, and supporting the local tourism industry.
"When you do these things, the intent is economic benefit and social benefit," he stressed.
Dan Mason, a U of A business professor who studies sports economics, says such events are a better fit in Edmonton than they are in Toronto or Vancouver, where they compete with other attractions for attention.
"There's a certain tier of event for a certain tier of city," Dr. Mason says delicately.
There are legacies. In addition to the stadium and LRT, the 1978 Commonwealth Games left Edmonton with the Kinsmen Sports Centre, which is among its most popular public sports complexes. In 1983, the Universiade games expanded Commonwealth Stadium and helped the U of A build its own track and field facility, the Butterdome, which remains a key piece of the city's infrastructure.
"Hosting the Commonwealth Games is certainly good for branding the city," Dr. Mason says. "But the long-standing benefit of that Games is probably going to be things like the Kinsmen. These things tend to work when there's enough foresight to build the types of amenities that have a lasting effect on the city - more than the event itself."
It's those amenities that Mr. Mandel is seeking. Sporting events are just the medium.