Dennis Dowell from the CFL hall of fame places the Grey Cup down in a House of Commons Finance Committee on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Wednesday, Oct 6, 2010. The CFL is seeking $12 million in funding for the 100th Grey Cup in 2012. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Pawel DwulitPawel Dwulit/The Canadian Press
The Canadian Football League has gone cup in hand to the federal government for funding.
The CFL brought the Grey Cup along to a finance committee meeting in Ottawa to ask for $12-million for celebrations around the 100th Grey Cup game.
While MPs cracked hometown team jokes and were delighted with the appearance of CFL legend Pinball Clemons, some appeared skeptical of why taxpayers should foot the bill for a party.
But Clemons says celebrating the Grey Cup is celebrating Canada.
"The Vancouver Olympics reinforced for us a lesson taught annually by the Grey Cup," he told MPs.
"When you combine sport, and culture and passion you have a recipe for national pride and unity."
Grey Cup organizers are hoping to use the funds to hold Olympic torch-relay style celebrations with the cup across Canada in the lead up to the 2012 event in Toronto.
In their submission, they also said they'd like to see celebrations incorporate the 200th anniversary of the war of 1812, a tribute to the Canadian military, a halftime show telling the Canadian story and the involvement of cultural and artistic communities to move the festival beyond sport.
They plan to also seek support from the corporate sector and other pockets of government funding like provincial and municipal coffers.
But the CFL came before parliamentarians acutely aware that they're not just asking for funds in a time of fiscal restraint, but also just after a debate over whether taxpayer dollars should help build a new arena for the possible return of an NHL team to Quebec.
CFL Commissioner Mark Cohon was optimistic their pitch wouldn't be tainted by those politics.
"This is not about a building, this is about nation-building," he said.
Plus, joked Chris Rudge, the former head of the Canadian Olympic Committee who is now leading Grey Cup celebration efforts, there could be another benefit.
"I have this wild dream that maybe the rest of the country will learn to like Toronto."