Winnipeg no longer 'One Great City?'

Winnipeg could lose its One Great City! slogan in a revamp of the signs on the city's outskirts that welcome visitors.

The 10 blue and gold signs have been on major routes leading into the city since 1990, the last time the CFL's Winnipeg Blue Bombers won the Grey Cup.

The city's executive policy committee — the mayor's cabinet — will vote next week on a plan to ask the city's marketing agency, Destination Winnipeg, to have a look at the signs.

"They haven't been maintained and they're falling apart, and they're embarrassing," Mayor Sam Katz said Friday.

"I can't tell you how many phone calls I get regarding, you know, when people are coming to visit Winnipeg and that's the first thing they see. It's not a very good first impression."

Katz said Destination Winnipeg will be asked to design and install new signs. That could include a new slogan, he said.

"There's no secret that I've been using … the slogan of City of Opportunity," Katz said.

"By the same token, the realities are that we'll leave that up to Destination Winnipeg. They are the marketing arm of our city, and we'll let them decide what they think is best."

Katz hopes new signs will be in place later this summer.