CITY’S PREVIOUS GREY CUP SELLOUT RECORD HOLDS UP
Doug Goss won.
Final score: 4,442-0.
Eight years ago, Goss set the record, selling out the Edmonton 2010 Grey Cup game in six days after tickets went on sale.
The siren sounded on Brad Sparrow Thursday at 2 p.m. with 4,442 tickets for the 106th Grey Cup game remaining.
Goss was the Eskimos board chairman in 2010 and co-chaired the ballistic Edmonton success with CEO Rick LeLacheur. Sparrow is the current Eskimos board chairman and co-chairman of the Grey Cup with CEO Len Rhodes.
There was a lot of chirping between Goss and Sparrow when tickets went on sale June 1, the same date as 2010, and they came close to selling 10,000 on the first day.
The two were playing golf together in Jasper at the time.
“We just got back from our 30th annual four-day trip. Brad and I go way back. He was in my wedding party and I was in his wedding party,” said Goss Thursday of his triumph. “I was just telling him that I really hoped he broke the six-day record, but that even if he did, he wouldn’t actually break the record because with the upgraded new seats there’s 4,000 fewer seats to sell.”
“There was some friendly bantering going on,” said Sparrow. “Doug and I have been friends for almost 40 years. This is the 30th year in a row the same eight guys have gone golfing in Jasper. So, yeah, there was some chirping.
“Doug and Rick did such a fantastic job in 2010 with their leadership of the Grey Cup organizing committee. I tried to do my part with my festival committee co-chairman Dave Hardy back then. So when this came around, there was an interesting opportunity to see if we could out-do each other.”
So, Sparrow has to eat crow? Well, he has 66 days to salvage second place. Before 2010, the record for selling out the Grey Cup belonged to Calgary from Sept. 11, 2009. And Edmonton 2018 has 171 days until the Nov. 25 Grey Cup.
“They’ll get there soon enough and they’re going to put on just a great festival, which I’ll be helping a little bit with behind the scenes,” Goss said.
It’s not about the co-chairmen, he insists, it’s about the City of Champions.
“Edmonton is a great Canadian city. Canada matters here. The Canadian Football League is regarded as one of our truly great institutions that this community wants to keep well. Whenever Edmonton gets on a national stage, I think Edmonton likes to show its best colours and we’ve done that time and time again from Grey Cups to Heritage Classics to other different events. And that certainly goes for all the international events we’ve held here. There’s just a lot of pride in the community.”
Two things hurt Sparrow’s team.
June 1 was on a Friday this year, so the weekend killed much of the momentum from the first day. And a lot of people got the idea it was sold out.
“It’s important now to get the message across that the Grey Cup isn’t sold out,” Rhodes said. “I think our great success during the past week resulted in many people thinking that we are sold out, which is not yet quite the case. Most remaining tickets are in the upper bowl with very good sight lines.”
One day in the coming days, the sold-out sign will go up, probably without much fanfare.
In the meantime, it’s in the best interest of the Eskimos to switch their focus to the June 22 home opener against Johnny Manziel and the Hamilton Tiger-Cats and an opportunity to have an opening day like a Major League Baseball club with 40,000-plus fans in the stands.
With the Eskimos celebrating their 70th season and the 40th anniversary of Commonwealth Stadium, the Alberta gaming people agreed to allow the team to add $70,000 to the 50-50 payout ($140,000 overall) to create a carry-over that has produced huge crowds and payouts of $435,919.50 and $348,534 previously.
“We’re hoping our opening day will set the tone for the rest of the season leading all the way to the Grey Cup game. The first 7,000 adult fans to enter the stadium will receive $20 of 50-50 tickets. We hope it will contribute to an exceptional experience for our fans to open the regular season,” said Rhodes.
The team hasn’t announced what other incentives might be added to drape over the seats or hand to fans to celebrate the occasion, but if the team pours 10 per cent of the energy and shoe leather they did into opening day as they did during Grey Cup ticket sales, it could be an equally impressive number.