WFC posts another record operating profit

The Winnipeg Football Club’s operating profit for 2025 soared to a record $12.1 million, with that robust bottom line boosted by a packed Princess Auto Stadium throughout the entire season and then capped by a highly successful Grey Cup Festival.

And so as the 2026 Canadian Football League season approaches, the club has a tough act to follow:

Its own.

“The numbers are fantastic and it’s another great year that comes from all the hard work by everyone on and off the field and our fans selling out an entire season. It’s incredible,” said Blue Bombers President & CEO Wade Miller.

“The Grey Cup was a massive success and just as important was how the Grey Cup Festival brought people into downtown Winnipeg and showed the rest the country what makes this city and this province so special. It was a world class event.

“When you sell out every game, everything else takes care of itself — your concession numbers are going to be higher and your corporate partnerships are going to be strong,” he added.

“It says so much about our fans and the atmosphere and environment that is created here on game day. Princess Auto Stadium is the place to be, and I’d stack up the fan experience here to many other professional sports.”

The football club invested $8.4 million in capital improvements at Princess Auto Stadium in 2025, including a new players’ lounge, HVAC remediation, contactless security screening devices and concessions equipment. In 2026 the investments will include the just-completed installation of two new high-resolution video boards. As well, work is underway for a redesign of the Rum Hut, the replacement of seats in the loges, a new point-of-sale system for concessions and a new BBQ stand.

“Princess Auto Stadium is our responsibility — every beam, every seat, every system,” said Miller, “and we reinvest in it every single year to ensure the longevity of the stadium for our fans and community.”

As well, the organization has made a significant investment to amateur football in the province, including the donation of over 900 flag football kits to every school in Manitoba, the launch of three new rural flag football leagues in over 12 communities in 2025, the establishment of a girls high school flag football league which had 420 participants last season and the donation of 675 helmets to local teams.

A few of the notable numbers that helped push the record operating profit to over $12 million:

-Winnipeg Football Club revenue in 2025 reached $15.9 million — up from $14.4 million in 2024 courtesy a record-breaking year in corporate partnerships.

-Gate receipts improved by seven percent from 2024, reaching just over $17 million as a result of a sold-out season as the Blue Bombers led the Canadian Football League in attendance for a fourth straight year.

-Net revenue for the club from the Grey Cup game and Festival was $6.3 million. By comparison, the 2015 Grey Cup in Winnipeg resulted in $5.6 million in revenue for the organization.

Essentially, that means even without hosting the Grey Cup the club still would have announced a profit of close to $6 million.

Consider this, too: since the $7 million loss in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the cancelled season the operating profits have grown from $2.1 million (2021) to $4.9 million (2022), $5.7 million (2023), $7 million (2024) and now $12.1 million for last year.

“Each year we continue to work on running a strong business and keep creating that environment where fans want to be and keep going to Blue Bomber games,” said Miller. “We’re on the right path and last year is a great example of that. Again, it’s the result of a lot of hard work by a lot of people.

“Obviously, the numbers for 2025 are going to be different because the Grey Cup is an event that only happens once every 10 years or so. But we’re proud of the numbers over the last few years. We’ve been at this for a long time and it really has been about hard work since 2014. It truly is, ‘Fan first; one at a time, every time’ and we just keep building it. This is the result of all that hard work over the years.”

Of note, the WFC lost $708,000 in relation to 2025 operations for Valour FC, that number helped by the support of the Canadian Premier League, which has helped covered costs over the last two years.

Over the course of Valour’s existence from 2019 and before it ceased operations after last season, that franchise impacted the WFC bottom line with a combined total cost of $4.2 million.

The Blue Bombers main training camp opens on Sunday, May 10th with the season opener scheduled for Friday, June 5th in Calgary against the Stampeders. The home opener follows on Thursday, June 11th vs the Hamilton Tiger-Cats.

And while there won’t be another Grey Cup Festival in Winnipeg come November, the club will once again host the Country Thunder and Rockin’ Thunder Concert events on July 3rd-4th, with Canada’s men’s rugby team facing Zimbabwe on July 18th, with rock legends AC/DC here on September 20 and the Heritage Classic featuring the Winnipeg Jets and Montreal Canadiens on October 25th.

Those extra events can help boost the bottom line and the challenge now for the organization is to continue to keep the gas pedal pressed firmly down.

“It’s a tough act to follow,” he said. “But we’re just going to keep trying to roll and keep trying to sell out every game.

“We’re going to keep making sure we get as many people as we can into the stadium and we’re hoping for an exciting 2026 season.”