Changemaker: Stamps president Jay McNeil will again wear his Grey Cup ring, when the team next wins it

From an offensive lineman to president of the Stampeders, he is ready to shed happy tears as the Grey Cup champions

Relief. Disbelief. Pure, unadulterated joy.

When he joined the Calgary Stampeders football team as an offensive lineman in 1994, Jay McNeil heard all about the collective euphoria of his teammates when they won the Grey Cup two years earlier, led by star quarterback Doug Flutie. Still, it didn’t quite prepare him for the intensity of his own emotions when, in 1998, he and his fellow Stamps beat the Hamilton Tiger-Cats for the Canadian Football League’s highest honour. “I’ve never been in a room where there were so many grown men crying,” says McNeil, admitting he too cried tears of happiness that chilly November day in Winnipeg.

“I had high expectations for what winning a Grey Cup would feel like, but it was 20 times better than I imagined.” After a long season of fighting day in and day out alongside his teammates, “dealing with the ups and downs of a season, and then to finally achieve our goal? It was incredible.”

McNeil would earn a second championship ring in 2001 as a Stampeder before retiring from the game in 2007. Even with his playing days behind him, there is a potential game victory he insists might even top those: watching, as the president of the Calgary Stampeders football club , his beloved team win the 113th Grey Cup championship this November at McMahon Stadium. “I have chosen not to wear my Grey Cup rings as president, because I’m not going to wear one until we win another one with me in this role,” says McNeil.

“It would be a dream come true. I can probably bring myself to tears now, just thinking about it.” Winning 2026 Grey Cup in Calgary is Stampeders’ goal That is exactly what McNeil, whose enthusiasm and passion is infectious, is planning for on Nov. 15, 2026, when Calgary will welcome CFL fans to the biggest annual single sporting day in the country.

Along with its week-long festival at the new, million-square-foot BMO Centre leading up to the big game, the Grey Cup is a boon to football fans as well as the local economy, bringing in around $50 million to the host city, not to mention shining a spotlight on Calgary for a nationwide audience. While such confidence is part of a club president’s job, there are many sports watchers who agree with McNeil’s assessment that the 2026 Stampeders have what it takes to win the big prize on home turf, a feat that has been accomplished only six times by various CFL teams since the league’s modern era began in 1958.

After a dismal 2024 that saw the team miss the playoffs for the first time in nearly two decades, 2025 was a year of change , both on and off the field. An overhaul of the coaching staff and being aggressive in the draft, along with seeking out new initiatives to engage fans and the greater public with the team, produced impressive results. McNeil is happy with the progress in the past year, but believes it can only get better.

“We ended up finishing in a tie for the second-best record in the league,” he says. “We had a team that gave their heart and soul, so there is lots to be proud of. But our goal was to win the Grey Cup, so it has to be a B+ grade.”

Such a turnaround, says McNeil, was made possible by being bold and willing to do things differently. “From signing players to focusing on how we interact with fans, we need to be innovative. I don’t know if I’m smart enough to come up with some of the ideas that we have, but it takes a team,” he says, giving kudos to his “incredibly intelligent and hard-working” staff for coming up with new promotional initiatives that one pundit recently commended for being “fun, not contrived.”

That team player ethos is what first attracted him to the game more than four decades ago. While he played other sports like hockey growing up in his hometown of London, Ont., McNeil’s burly, six-foot-four frame attracted the attention of his school’s football coach. “I look at pictures and go, ‘Who is that?’ ” says the fit 55-year-old, who post-football has shed about 100 pounds off his highest playing weight of 322.

“I was always the biggest kid in class.” Despite being the right height and weight for an offensive lineman, a position that requires more strength than speed, McNeil first found the game too high-pressure and quit after two weeks. Not long after, he watched a practice with a knot in his stomach.

“I realized I was disappointed in myself for having quit, so I made up my mind that I was going to play football next year — and then I fell in love with it.” McNeil found the aggressive sport a good match for an angry kid who had lost his father a few years earlier. But soon, he embraced the team spirit as well as the doors that his athleticism opened.

He won a scholarship to Kent State University in Ohio, where he first studied criminal justice, then finance. “I wanted to be a police officer, but then I decided a business degree could still let me be a police officer but with more options.” Coming full circle Three weeks after university graduation, he was headed to the Calgary Stampeders, the only professional football club he would play for.

“The farthest west I had travelled up to that point was Windsor, so there were a lot of unknowns,” he recalls with a laugh. “But I was super excited, I’d heard lots of great things about Calgary.” In his 13-year playing career, McNeil proved himself a standout offensive lineman.

The six-time Western Division all-star guard also twice won the Presidents’ Ring, a team vote that selects the Stampeder player who best combines excellence on the field with leadership, inspiration and motivational skills. After retiring from the sport, McNeil stayed in Calgary, working for a number of companies in sales and business operations. In 2023, he returned to the Stampeders as the club’s vice-president of business operations, until taking over the legendary John Hufnagel’s job as president in January 2024.

Since then, McNeil, whose 23–year-old son Cuyler swims competitively at the national level, has brought the same commitment and passion he showed on the field to making the entire organization a success. With an aim to attract more young people to the sport, he and his team have explored ways to modernize the fan experience without alienating the traditional fanbase. Last year’s inaugural Stampede Bowl was followed by a splashy event this past July 2 that featured country music superstar Dasha as the half–time performer.

“It was about creating something bigger than a football game,” says McNeil. “Calgary’s demographics are changing every day,” he adds, noting the exploding population now includes many people who never grew up around the sport. “So we ask ourselves, ‘How do we introduce them to the CFL?’

That is something we think about a lot.” The team has been making big waves in the community as well with expanded outreach programs. “Last year, our players put in 710 community hours, participated in 440 player appearances, worked with 60 charities and 55 amateur football programs and visited 65 schools,” he says, work that adds to the community outreach done by the Outriders dance team and Stampeders Alumni Association.

The three guiding principles for the Stampeders’ Grey Cup hosting plans are, says McNeil, connection, legacy and excellence. “We want the legacy of the 2026 Great Cup to last for decades,” he says. “It’s so much more than just a party in December.”

Along with working with a variety of stakeholders that include sponsors and all three levels of government, McNeil and his team, through the Stampeders 50/50 and the Stampeders Foundation, have pledged a $500,000 donation for community flag football fields in southeast Calgary, along with a first-ever girls’ sport summit. “The average age for girls to drop out of sport is 12,” says McNeil, who says if the event motivates even one girl to continue in her sport, it’ll be a success. Spotlight is on a new football stadium There is an elephant in the room, though, and one that almost prevented the Stampeders from winning the coveted hosting duties.

After Calgary last hosted in 2019, then-CFL commissioner Randy Ambrosie said the city should be passed over for future hosting duties until a new stadium was built. “McMahon Stadium is at the end of its life,” McNeil acknowledges, even with recent improvements that include expanded food and beverage offerings in the 64-year-old building. There has been, though, one silver lining to the spotlight on poor McMahon in the lead-up to hosting the Grey Cup: more people, at all levels of government, are recognizing the need to take action on a new football stadium.

It’s a task that McNeil says will require more than just the Stampeders club. “It has to be a community initiative,” he says. “Ten games a year doesn’t support a ROI (return on investment) to spend half a billion dollars.

Four years ago, no one was talking about it, but now all stakeholders are talking about it, so that’s a good thing.” While hosting a Grey Cup is a monumental task, McNeil is more than grateful for the challenge as Stampeders president, a role he hopes to have for years to come. “This is the hardest I’ve ever worked and it’s the most stressful job I’ve ever had,” he says.

“But it’s also the best job and more fun than I’ve ever had. “I love this team and I love this league and I love the game of football, and I’m really excited about where we’re going as an organization,” says McNeil as he looks forward to what he’s confident will be a great year — and maybe even a Grey Cup-winning one — for the Calgary Stampeders. “I feel like the luckiest guy on earth, to be honest with you.”

Changemakers is an ongoing series in the Calgary Herald. Read more at calgaryherald.com/changemakers . Bookmark this website and support our journalism: Subscribe now so you don’t miss the Calgary news you need to know and sign up for our free newsletters .