Tour boats offer river route to Blue Bombers games

A new idea being floated could see Winnipeg Blue Bombers fans taking a river route to the team'shome games in order to avoid traffic chaos around the new stadium.

Both the MS River Rouge and Paddlewheel Riverboat will begin taking fans to and from games assoon asJuly 26.

Paddlewheel captain Steve Hawchuk said his boat will dock about half a kilometre from Investors Group Field (IGF), leaving fans with a short,10 to12 minute walk.

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"Everybody's talking about the congestion at Bomber games. I thought, 'what could be wrong with taking the riverboat down to the university and then people just walking over to the stadium?'" he said.

"This way they can have a nice dinner on board, a leisurely cruise, no worry about parkingparking would be free at the dock [where the board to start]. And after the game they would come back on the boat and party on the way back."

The price is something that still has to be decided. The boat operators will with officials at the University of Manitoba next week to finalize details.

"I think it's gonna be great. It's a new thing in Winnipeg and it's gonna be a good time," said Curtis Grimolfson, captain of the River Rouge.

"Party there and party backthat's what we're all about as a party boat."

Paddling to the stadium

Matt Henderson has already boated to the Bombers.

He took a six-kilometre canoe trip from his home in Wildwood toIGF for the first home game.It took him an hour and 15 minutes to get there against the current butjust 25 minutes to get back.

It was a bit of a mucky trek from the river bank to the stadium but that was a small price to payto paddle past all the people stuck in traffic, Henderson said.

"There was no place to pull up the canoe so we had to crash through the bush and there was bugs and all that stuff, but certainly worth it," he said.