The Winnipeg Blue Bombers close their 2026 home schedule on Saturday, October 10 against the Calgary Stampeders, kickoff 6 p.m. at Princess Auto Stadium. Everything after that is on the road: Edmonton on October 17, BC on October 23. So unless Winnipeg finishes high enough in the West to host a playoff game, October 10 is the last home football of the year, and it falls on the Thanksgiving long weekend, when hotel rooms in this city go quickly.

Where the 2026 season stands

Through mid-September the Bombers sat at 7-6, fourth in the West Division. Edmonton had pulled clear at 10-4 and clinched a playoff berth for the first time since 2019; Saskatchewan was 8-5, and BC matched Winnipeg's record ahead of them on the tiebreak. Calgary, the October 10 opponent, was 5-7. Those numbers move every week, and cfl.ca carries the live standings.

The regular season ends October 24. The CFL's published schedule puts the division semi-finals on Saturday, October 31 and the division finals on Saturday, November 7, with the 113th Grey Cup on Sunday, November 15 at McMahon Stadium in Calgary. A home playoff date in Winnipeg needs the Bombers to finish in the top two of the West, so the October 10 result matters more than a season finale usually does. If they finish third or lower in the West and pass an East team on points, the crossover sends them east for the semi-final, which is what happened in 2025.

Tickets: single-game seats are sold through bluebombers.com and Ticketmaster. Prices vary by section and by opponent, and the club does not publish a fixed scale, so check the listing for the date you want rather than a figure quoted anywhere else.

The stadium is at the University of Manitoba, not Polo Park

This trips up returning visitors. Princess Auto Stadium sits at 315 Chancellor Matheson Road on the University of Manitoba's Fort Garry campus, about eight kilometres south of downtown. The old Canad Inns Stadium, the one beside the Polo Park shopping centre, was demolished after the new building opened on May 26, 2013. Type the Chancellor Matheson address into your map app, not "Blue Bombers stadium Polo Park".

Capacity is 32,343, and more than 80 per cent of those seats sit under two canopies that run down the sidelines. The Manitoba Bisons play their U Sports home games on the same field. The stadium has taken on outdoor hockey twice: the 2016 NHL Heritage Classic drew 33,240 for the Jets and Oilers, and the 2026 edition against Montreal is booked for October 25, two weeks after the football finale. Those are separate events with separate tickets.

Getting there without sitting in the parking line

Winnipeg Transit's BLUE rapid transit line runs down the Southwest Transitway on its own roadway, which means it skips the Pembina Highway traffic that everyone driving to the stadium is stuck in. There are free Park and Ride lots at Seel Station and Clarence Station along that corridor; parking costs nothing, and you pay the regular Transit fare to board, which Winnipeg Transit lists for 2026 at $3.45 cash or $3.10 with peggo e-cash. After the final whistle, extra buses marked with an X before the route number leave from Stadium Station at Gate 4. Those extras do not appear in the online schedule or in Navigo, so you cannot pre-plan the trip home on them. Walk to Gate 4 and look at the destination signs.

If you drive, the lots around the stadium are reached from University Crescent or Chancellor Matheson Road. Buy parking in advance where you can; cash parking is sold while it lasts. The club warns that vehicles left in lots reserved for other permit holders face a $50 fine or a tow. Getting out afterwards is the slow part, not getting in, and the transitway is the shortcut most locals have already found.

Dress for a prairie night, not a September afternoon

Sunset in Winnipeg on October 10 falls around 6:48 p.m. A 6 p.m. kickoff means the first quarter is in daylight and the rest of the game is not, and the temperature drops with the light. Early-October evenings here routinely land in the single digits Celsius, and a clear night is a colder one. The canopies keep rain and snow off most seats but they do nothing about the wind, which comes through the open ends of the bowl. A toque, gloves and a layer more than you think you need. Bring the toque.

Eating before the game

The stadium is ringed by campus and quiet residential streets, so there is no walkable restaurant strip at the gates the way there is at a downtown arena. The nearest concentration is along Pembina Highway north of the campus, where Cho Ichi Ramen at 1151 Pembina Hwy makes its own wheat noodles and turns tables fast enough to get you fed and out. Coming from the middle of the city, Osborne Village is the other natural stop: eat there first, then carry on south down Pembina or pick up the BLUE line.

Ninety-six years of this

The Blue Bombers were founded in 1930 and have won 12 Grey Cups, most recently in 2021. The name is usually traced to a 1935 newspaper line comparing the team's play to bombing their opponents, and the blue and gold have been fixed ever since.

The modern run started in 2019, when an 11-7 season turned into a 33-12 Grey Cup win over Hamilton and ended a 29-year drought. Winnipeg then reached five consecutive Grey Cups, winning again in 2021 and losing the next three, to Montreal in 2023 after a 14-4 regular season, and to Toronto in 2024 at 11-7. The 2025 team went 10-8, finished fourth in the West and crossed over to the East, where Montreal knocked them out in the semi-final. That was still a ninth straight playoff appearance.

Mike O'Shea has been the head coach and Kyle Walters the general manager through all of it, which by CFL standards is an unusual amount of continuity. Brady Oliveira, who grew up in Winnipeg, was the team's Most Outstanding Player and Most Outstanding Canadian in 2025. Zach Collaros has quarterbacked the side through the Grey Cup years.

If you have never seen a CFL game: the field is longer and wider than the American version, there are three downs instead of four, twelve players a side, and a single point awarded for a missed field goal that goes out the back of the end zone. That last one, the rouge, decides more games than visitors expect.

Where to stay for a Bombers weekend

Our three-bedroom home is in Crescentwood, just off Corydon Avenue. Princess Auto Stadium is about fifteen minutes away by car outside of game traffic, straight south over the Osborne Street bridge and down Pembina. By transit you walk to Osborne Street and connect to the BLUE line, which puts you at Stadium Station without dealing with the lots at either end of the night.

October 10 is Thanksgiving weekend, and the Heritage Classic follows on October 25, so this stretch of the calendar books out earlier than the rest of the autumn. If the Bombers earn a home playoff date on October 31 or November 7, that weekend will tighten the same way, and it will not be confirmed until the season ends. Booking ahead of the standings is the safer move. Dates are on our Airbnb listing.

Before you go: Kickoff times can be moved for broadcast, and playoff matchups are set only once the season ends, so confirm at bluebombers.com and cfl.ca before you travel.