A North Delta resident wanted to catch a CFL game in every city this year, and with a cooperative schedule, Bobby Dubeau has found himself in the record books.
He’s fairly certain he’s got a world record, so one mention in the Guinness World Records is enough said Dubeau
“There’s plenty of more room in that book for other people to do their own thing. I’m happy with just this,” he said.
Dubeau was finally back home this week after earlier doing a break-neck CFL tour in which he attended nine games in nine cities within 15 days.
The football marathon started June 24 in Calgary, followed by games in Edmonton, Ottawa, Montreal, Toronto, Regina, Winnipeg, Hamilton and finally in Vancouver, on July 9.
He hasn’t yet submitted the documentation to Guinness, but will do so soon. He is confident all will be in order to claim the record of seeing a CFL football game at every stadium in the league in the shortest period of time.
“I’ve got multiple witnesses, signed statements from each game, plus video footage from every hour from every game, as well as lots of media coverage," said Dubeau. “I’ve got everything Guinness has asked me to do. I’m just waiting for them to give it the rubber stamp now.”
Dubeau’s effort has earned a lot of media coverage. As for the beer, the best prices were in Regina and Winnipeg when they had pre-kickoff beer specials for $5.
“They were the friendliest cities in terms of that," he said.
One of the least comfortable places to watch a game was in Montreal at Molson Stadium which has bleacher seating.
During the rain delay for the game, people had to shelter under those bleacher seats.
In contrast, he said the BMO Field Stadium in Toronto, where the Double Blue play, is a beautiful place.
The bid for the record required a tight schedule but Dubeau ensured he got into each city the morning of the game, giving lots of time to get to the stadium.
Family in Calgary, Winnipeg and Ottawa helped keep expenses down in those cities.
Dubeau has been a lifelong B.C. Lions fan and a season ticket holder for about the last five years and says the game is under- appreciated now.
Some teams are doing as much as they can to fill seats but some of the more popular teams have coasted and relied on an older fan base.
“We need to get young people in, right?”
The teams that are making the best game-day experience and hosting events before and after each game.
“Those are the teams that I think are going to be doing better, over the next five to 10 years,” he said. “I don’t know if we’re ever going to get 50,000 people to a regular season game again, with how easy it is to watch on TV – but we can definitely fill the lower bowl at BC Place.”
Dubeau said that before he thought about trying for a world record, he had already planned on seeing a game in every stadium this year.
Then, when he saw this year’s schedule with the games all taking place in a short period of time, he decided to apply to Guinness.
“I was going to do the trip anyway, the Guinness was just a surprise that they even approved it.
“It was a nice little bonus on top.”
