Sports Events Montréal kicks off the Champions Tour 2026
Uniting the world’s major sports industry players in Montréal.
Calling all sports events professionals! In 2024, Sports Events Montréal launched the highly successful inaugural edition the 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 four of the top Montréal sports events of the year. And this year’s edition should be one for the books.
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 attendant. Each two- to three-hour experience features 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.
And 2025’s edition was also a resounding success: it kicked off with an incredible behind-the-scene experience of the 4 Nations Face-Off™ and included the 2025 Pan American Club Crew Dragon Boat Championships at the Olympic Basin, the 2025 Marathon Beneva de Montréal, plus an educational event in collaboration with Pôle sports HEC Montréal.
A 2026 edition that will make history
The 2026 edition kicked off in style last weekend with two monumental events at the historic Olympic Park: the Red Bull Heavy Metal Montréal snowboarding event, the first of its kind off American soil; and the World Aquatics Diving World Cup. The theme of the discussion was Event site operations and management, an apt topic to dive into in one of the most famous sports sites in the world!
This July, the third event attended by the year’s participants will be The Global Tournament of International All Star international cheerleading tournament, uniting teams from 15 countries to compete in 85 qualifying events.
And finally in September, the last stop on the Champions Tour 2026 will be the 2026 UCI World Road Cycling Championships: expected to draw 500,000 cycling enthusiasts, this eight-day event marks the second time it’s happened in Montréal, and only the third time it’s been held in Canada.
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.