GREY CUP WALK OF FAME
Committee revives Fan March: Jones
It wasn’t Randy Ambrosie’s idea. But he’s delighted with the decision.
The Edmonton 2018 organizing committee has decided to bring back the game-day Grey Cup Fan March, created for the 100th Grey Cup in Toronto with then-commissioner Mark Cohon.
“My gosh, I’m looking forward to it,” Ambrosie said as he looked at the final details of the event to which he and his new buddy Justin Beaver, the Grey Cup mascot, will traverse with the old trophy.
The Fan March hasn’t continued on at recent Grey Cups and Ambrosie thinks it’s the essence of what the Canadian Football League is all about.
The Super Bowl is a corporate crowd event. Not the Grey Cup. There is no Spirit of Edmonton, Riderville or Touchdown Manitoba at a Super Bowl. No Calgary flapjacks flipped for free on the streets. No horse in a hotel lobby.
“This is a league that is so accessible. It’s our fans that make this league different and special, and this game really belongs to our fans. It’s like the league of the people. And the idea of being able to be with the fans and march the Grey Cup into the stadium, well, what could be more perfectly Canadian or Canadian Football League than that?”
To Ambrosie, it’s the cherry on the Grey Cup Sundae on Grey Cup Sunday.
“Edmonton has a special relationship with the Grey Cup, and the magnitude of it all will be compelling and fantastic. I think Edmonton is trying to take this responsibility of being the first Grey Cup under our new model to raise the bar. I think the Grey Cup Fan March is just one of those things that can help bring it to a new level.
“I think all the credit just goes to the Edmonton organizing committee. I think what they did in organizing the event is that they looked at the whole history — things that had been done at the Grey Cup, both in Edmonton and other places. And they literally decided they were going to take the best of everything and add some new thoughts and activations on top of it to make this the biggest Grey Cup ever.”
There’s a sense with this professional observer that while most Edmontonians and Grey Cup visitors are expecting the level of hosting to be up to the city’s usual standards, they don’t seem to totally grasp where organizers are taking this one.
Ambrosie does. And he can’t wait to behold it.
“I’m convinced it will set a new standard for what Grey Cup should be like,” he said. “The idea was to make the Grey Cup bigger and into a true national celebration. They have most certainly risen to the challenge.
“In classic Edmonton fashion, everybody has been thinking big. I’m going to be saying this a lot during Grey Cup week — I think Edmonton with this event is showing everybody again why the city is known as the City of Champions — and it has nothing to do with rings or trophies."
Understand that the new model is part of Ambrosie’s vision. Grey Cups have tended to be great cash grabs by the host team, often to make up for the millions of dollars lost the previous years. Ambrosie convinced Edmonton, the team with which he won his Grey Cup ring in 1987, to take one for all the teams on a revenue-sharing basis with the idea of taking the model forward to the future.
“The model at its core is about the Grey Cup being a league asset. It’s been uplifting because we’ve had previous host Ottawa and next host Calgary working with us. It’s been a remarkable collaborative effort. To me, we used to run a bunch of 100-metre races, and this is like a relay now where you are passing the baton when the next guy is already moving.”
On Grey Cup Sunday, the trophy itself will become something of a baton as Ambrosie passes it from fan to fan carrying it to the game at Commonwealth Stadium.
FOURTH TAILGATE PARTY
The organizing committee for the 106th Grey Cup is not only returning the Commissioner’s Fan March to the game day celebrations, they’re reinventing it.
With three on-site tailgate parties — in the field house, parking lot and at Clarke Park with a combined capacity of 8,000 and featuring entertainers Aaron Pritchett, Lindsay Ell, The Trews, Toque, Platinum Blonde and Guns 4 Roses — in either sold out or near sellout situation, another has been added.
With the recreated Grey Cup Fan March, the organizers are essentially creating a fourth tailgate. The event will start at the Expo Centre at Northlands, where there will be a $10 parking charge but also a free warm-up event inside Hall B featuring live entertainment with a cash bar and tailgate fare for purchase.
The event inside Expo Hall B runs from noon to 2 p.m. with the fan march planned from 2-2:30 p.m. Fans will proceed behind the Northlands Park racetrack, down 79 Street to 112 Avenue and to Commonwealth Stadium.