The police price tag to manage University of Guelph Homecoming weekend has crossed into six figures.
Guelph police said the weekend of Sept. 24 and 25, including the management of an unsanctioned street gathering on Chancellor's Way, cost about $113,000.
For context, Homecoming weekend cost the service around $36,000 last year.
In 2018, police spent an additional $63,456. In 2019, that amount went up to $72,000.
It is not known what Homecoming cost the City of Guelph in terms of any cleanup and additional bylaw enforcement.
On Thursday, police chief Gord Cobey explained to the Guelph Police Service Board that 58 additional officers were deployed during Homecoming, while another 10 went to specifically support the U of G campus.
About $16,000 of this year's costs was covered by U of G to hire officers to be on campus. The rest, Cobey said, was covered by Guelph police for the cost to have additional officers on campus and Chancellor's Way.
Despite the cost, Cobey said there were no major incidents or injuries they didn't anticipate.
"With the support of the university, our community partners and the extra resourcing that we had throughout the month and on Homecoming, overall the event was well managed and nothing was unanticipated," he said.
This year's Homecoming resulted in 400 calls for service to police, double the number police usually get.
About 3,000 people were on Chancellor's Way shortly after midnight Sunday morning, when police said a can of bear spray was discharged. A 20-year-old Toronto man was charged.
Bylaw officials responded to more than three dozen noise complaints, issuing four fines for loud music and almost 230 parking tickets.
"Our main concern does remain the unsanctioned events on Chancellor's Way in that area, with large gathering of crowds," said deputy police chief Daryl Goetz.
"It does become a bit of a danger, and we are still working out strategies to mitigate that."
