GREY CUP STAMPEDE
Tickets apt to go quickly
The Calgary Stampede is world famous but at 2 p.m., Friday the Edmonton Stampede begins.
It’s the phenomenon witnessed in the City of Champions and championships on several ‘Welcome The World’ occasions previously but may be best remembered from June 1, 2010 when the Eskimos fired the starting gun for general public ticket sales to the 98th Grey Cup game.
On June 7, before the team had even played a pre-season game, Edmonton announced the quickest sellout in the history of the game.
This year, commissioner Randy Ambrosie went and moved the season up and the Eskimos played host to the first ever preseason game in May, so they can’t repeat that part of the feat.
But nobody, before or since, has managed to declare a Grey Cup game sellout before Labour Day.
Friday at 2 p.m., Edmonton will attempt to break the 2010 own record of a sellout in six days.
“I hope the whole thing doesn’t last more than 24 hours,” said Grey Cup executive director Duane Vienneau.
“He’s Mr. Optimism. I’m Mr. Realistic,” said Eskimos president and CEO Len Rhodes, cochairman of the event with board chairman Brad Sparrow, predicting they’ll break the record by about 3 p.m., Tuesday.
You should know that the Eskimos are planning on tickets being available Sunday from 1-4 p.m., at Eskimos Fan Day at Commonwealth Stadium where the Grey Cup will be on display for fans to get pictures and the team will be signing autographs after a 2 p.m. practice upon their return from Friday’s pre-season game in Winnipeg.
So the planning is beyond a one-day Garth Brooks flash-flood type of situation. And they can’t hold nine Grey Cup games like the Oilers Entertainment Group held nine Garth Brooks concerts, anyway.
But you also should know that the 2018 Grey Cup Committee is ready to roll with Phase II of the grand plan, which involves erecting billboards in all the CFL cities with a ‘SOLD OUT’ theme and invitation to everybody to come to the great Grey Cup Festival in Edmonton even if they don’t have a ticket to the actual game.
“The minute this happens, the minute we can declare a sellout, we’ll kick in the next phase of our marketing strategy and put the ‘SOLD OUT’ slash across and begin to promote everything we have planned for the festival,” said Vienneau.
Rhodes revealed the number as the event prepared to go to the post.
“We’re at 38,391,” Rhodes told your correspondent at lunch in a 24-stop day as CFL Commissioner Randy Ambrosie, Vienneau and co-ordinator Lauren Farnell as well as Keeper Jeff McQuinny and the Grey Cup did a barnstorming tour of Edmonton media outlets and other locations.
“Those are the tickets sold to our season ticket holders, sponsors and major partners as well as the season ticket holders of other teams in the league during the six-day window we gave them.”
Rhodes, noting a spike in last minute season ticket sales, up nearly 1,000 over last year (with double up options for Grey Cup tickets) this week, estimated the number could be close to matching the 2010 number when the general public sales began.
“We had 39,941 when they went on sale in 2010,” he said. One major difference.
In 2010, the attendance ended up at 63,317. This will be the first Grey Cup here since the new, wider, green and gold seats were installed. The new stadium capacity is 55,818.
“That’s 17,428 left to sell, probably closer to 17,000 by the time they go on sale,” said Rhodes.
In term of dollars, he said only 31 per cent of the inventory remains.
“When they go on sale, there will be tickets available in all categories from the $99 ticket to the $325 ticket,” said Vienneau. “Our strategy, as was the case in 2010, was, ‘Lets get the game sold out as soon as we can and then concentrate our efforts on building the best festival possible.’”
Sparrow was actually the head of the Festival Committee in 2010 when it produced a downtown gathering that peaked at 125,000 on parade day. The idea was to try to blow that success out of the water with plans for this year to attempt to achieve the $80-$100 million of economic impact predicted for the Wednesday-to- Sunday Grey Cup week.
But first things first. Cue the Edmonton Stampede.