Calling all sports events professionals! In 2024 Sports Events Montréal launched the highly successful inaugural edition of its brand-new Champions Tour, a program designed for promoters, rights holders and members of provincial and national federations. Designed to create a community of best practice and promote Montréal’s energizing sports scene, the project is an opportunity for groups of 15 to 20 industry players to learn from the best experts in the industry and improve their events, all while getting a behind-the-scenes experience of 4 of the top Montréal sports events of the year.
Last year’s edition was such a success that it attracted the attention of the NHL, so this year started off strong with the 4 Nations Face-Off™ in February. The 2025 edition of the Champions Tour promises to be even more thrilling than the last.
Uniting the community in a spirit of exchange
Conceived as a professional exchange initiative, the Champions Tour profiles four major events each year, featuring four different promoters, four different venues and four different themes. Each participant is invited to play the role of both host and of attendant. Each two- to three-hour experience will feature a one-hour behind-the-scenes visit of the event in question followed by a discussion around a theme chosen by the host, be it a challenge, an opportunity or a pressing issue, to prompt an opportunity to exchange, learn from the best and problem-solve with peers. Each host will then become a visitor at another event.
The events are top-notch, and the behind-the-scenes access to them and the facilities that host them will be second-to none. In 2024, we were able to collaborate in this program with prestigious events like the Bell Track & Field Trials at the Claude Robillard Sports Complex, the Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series at the Grand Quai and Port of Montréal Tower, the 2024 Presidents Cup at the Royal Montréal Golf Club and the ISU World Cup Short Track Skating at the Maurice-Richard Arena.
A 2025 edition to write home about
This year, the Champions Tour kicked off with an incredible behind-the-scene experience of the 4 Nations Face-Off™, a best-on-best international tournament hosted by the NHL and National Hockey League Players’ Association (NHLPA) featuring NHL players representing Canada, Finland, Sweden and the United States. The event included a guided tour of the Bell Centre and a thought-provoking panel discussion on How to build a new sporting event, hosted by Vincent Dumas and featuring Keith Wachtel (President, NHL Business) and Rob Zepp (NHLPA Senior Director, International Strategy & Growth).
Montréal was a destination of choice for the 4 Nations Face-Off™, as we are the city that hosted the world’s first organized ice hockey game, on March 3, 1875, and we are celebrating its 150th anniversary this year. What’s more, the Québec government has officially decreed hockey “Québec’s national sport” this year.
This was only the first of the 2025 Champions Tour events, with 3 more coming, including the 2025 Pan American Club Crew Dragon Boat Championships at the Olympic Basin in Parc Jean-Drapeau in July and the 2025 Marathon Beneva de Montréal — plus some surprises that remain to be announced.
Among the new features this year there’s the addition of a fifth experience: an educational one in collaboration with Pôle sports HEC Montréal, through which we will be welcoming a student from their program to help inspire the next generation.
An idea borne out of collaboration
The idea for the Champions Tour came from the realization that Montréal sports promoters often invite each other to their own events, proving that the sporting world is interconnected and that collaboration is instrumental for progress. Sports Events Montréal wanted to officialize this tradition and capitalize on its educational opportunities: the importance of exchanging best practices and learning from each other cannot be overstated.
All participants in the Champions Tour benefit — and Montréal’s sports industry does as well. Our objective is to position Sports Events Montréal as an outside-the-box ideas catalyst whose expertise and services go beyond finding financing opportunities. We seek to support and facilitate promoters’ current and future projects, help provide concrete solutions to real problems, develop the pool of major sporting event promoters, showcase our clients and their events, unite a community in keeping with industry best-practices and fortify the links between local players overall.
The Champions Tour provides a unique opportunity to showcase Montréal as a leading sports destination and engage the sporting events community worldwide.
Read this next: On your marks! Sports events coming to Montréal in 2025
