Spirit of Edmonton celebrates 45th year
Grey Cup festivities in town serve as a saving grace for event’s volunteer group
Grey Cup 106 has saved The Spirit of Edmonton.
Forced to use small, challenging, away-from-downtown venues at recent Grey Cups, if the 2018 Grey Cup had been held in, say, Montreal instead of Edmonton, the legendary hot spot at the Grand National Party may have been missing in action.
“Any other city than here and we would have had to re-evaluate our participation,” said Spirit chairman Gerry Haracsi. “Last year we had just enough money to take enough people as the type of room we had in Ottawa required. Our early ticket sales for the Spirit of Edmonton Breakfast this year allowed us the cash flow to do what we do.
“Having this Grey Cup in Edmonton has allowed us to budget accordingly,” he added of the 17-member volunteer team being able to fill the coffers again.
Back in position to be the centre ring of the circus again this year, the Spirit of Edmonton will celebrate its 45th anniversary.
“We can now work toward our 50th anniversary,” said Haracsi of the celebrated group that will follow with a low travel-cost highrevenue event in Calgary next year.
Forced to set up in adjoining bars in Ottawa last year, the Spirit will be the home team wearing Eskimos green-and-gold sweaters as they embrace fans from all the other cities in the league decked out in the garb of the teams they follow.
The concern for the future of The Spirit in recent years resulted from organizing committees effectively shutting the outfit out from any opportunity to book the biggest ballroom long in advance.
The Edmonton show was forced to have to find inferior far-flung venues.
It happened in both Winnipeg and Regina, and last year the group had to get especially creative and book the attached bars in Ottawa’s market area.
To make ends meet, they had to reduce the size of the team they brought from Edmonton and charge admission for the first time.
The $10 entry fee will return this year.
For years, all the other party places — Riderville, Touchdown Manitoba and the like — have had a $10 to $20 cover charge, but the Spirit survived with sponsorships and the sheer number of drinks poured.
“The other teams are all organized and run by employees of their respective football organizations. They can hide losses. As a group of volunteers, the Spirit can’t afford any losses or the show might not go on,” said Haracsi.
Last year in Ottawa was a crisis point.
“We did better than the others,” he said.
The $10 cover saved the show that may have Edmonton’s name on it, but over the years has been more “The Spirit of the CFL” than a specific team party for Eskimos fans.
“The cost of producing the show we put on has led to the cover charge,” said Haracsi. “We would love to continue with our largeroom format while making everything else affordable,” he said of the costs of drinks and food.
“We had a cover in Ottawa and there was very little resistance. We’re hoping for the same here in Edmonton.”
The Spirit will return to being set up in their usual home in the Westin, not only with the ballroom that holds 1,100 but with a mainfloor “warm-up room” where fans can enjoy live entertainment and drinks while they wait for space to open up in the main room.
The annual Spirit of Edmonton Breakfast will be held on the Saturday morning.
But this year will feature a second edition a day earlier on the Friday, as was the case at the Edmonton 2010 Grey Cup.
Instead of setting up in the hotel ballroom where the party rages in the afternoons and evenings, they ’ve taken it a block away at the Shaw Conference Centre.
“The Saturday breakfast sold out at 2,100 fans back in March,” said Haracsi. “Friday’s breakfast sold out at 1,970 recently.”
As for the traditional Spirit party headquarters, the opening kickoff will be at 2 p.m. Thursday.
“We are confident our entertainment lineup, made up of entirely Edmonton talent with the exception of our nine-year headliner Spoiled Rotten, will keep people in our room.
“We believe we’ll be the place the partiers want to gather to meet up with their old Grey Cup friends and make some new ones. It amazes me every year how everyone from all across Canada, wearing all their own team colours, meet at The Spirit to renew their annual friendships.”
It amazes me every year how everyone from across Canada, wearing all their own team colours, meet at The Spirit to renew their ... friendships.