Edmonton to host 2018 Grey Cup during stadium’s 40th anniversary

EDMONTON — The Grey Cup is coming back to Edmonton in 2018.

A news conference to announce Edmonton as the site for the 106th Grey Cup will be held next week, Postmedia has learned.

The fifth Grey Cup hosting in Edmonton’s history, the 2018 event will celebrate the 40th anniversary of Commonwealth Stadium and the completion of 70 seasons of Edmonton Eskimos football.

Previous Grey Cups were held there in 1984, 1997, 2002 and 2010, drawing crowds of 60,081, 60,431, 62,531 and 63,317, respectively.

Edmonton followed Calgary 2009 in backto-back Grey Cups held in Alberta.

Like Edmonton, Calgary and Winnipeg have previously hosted the game four times. Regina has held three. Following Edmonton in 2010, four of the next seven Grey Cup games — Vancouver in 2011 and 2014 and Toronto in 2012 and 2016 — were held in the two cities where David Braley owned the home teams.

Regina (2013) and Winnipeg (2015) also held the event that is scheduled for Nov. 26 in Ottawa this year.

With Hamilton in a new stadium and not having played host since 1996, Montreal not having held the game since 2008 and Calgary also technically ahead of Edmonton in “the rotation,” it wasn’t considered a slam dunk that the 2018 Grey Cup would be coming to Commonwealth Stadium.

There is a belief the Stampeders may have decided McMahon Stadium is no longer up to a standard that matches the new stadiums in Ottawa, Winnipeg and Regina and eliminated itself from consideration as a Grey Cup host until they, too, have a new home.

However, Saskatchewan decided to hold the game one last time in old Taylor Field, a.k.a. Mosaic Stadium while the new Mosaic, where the Roughriders begin play this year, was on the drawing boards.

The Edmonton 2010 Grey Cup set all records for ticket sales including selling 17,500 in the first four hours on the first day they were available to the general public.

By Day 2 the total ticket sales hit 52,747 for the event co-chaired by Doug Goss and Rick LeLacheur. That was a dozen days before the first pre-season game.

The sold out sign went up the next day before the first full practice at Eskimos training camp — an unprecedented occurrence in the history of the national classic.