TSN has all Grey Cup angles covered

OTTAWA • The Canadian Football League estimates one-third of the 36 million people in this country will tune in to TSN’s telecast of the Grey Cup between the Toronto Argonauts and the Calgary Stampeders at TD Place Stadium.

While the Argos and Stampeders have spent the week in Ottawa preparing, the crew at TSN has been working hard behind the scenes to make sure everything is place so they can score a touchdown with their coverage of one of the biggest events on Canada’s sports calendar. On Sunday, pre-game coverage begins at 1 p.m., leading up to the 6:30 p.m. kickoff.

“The Grey Cup is that one thing in this country where basically everybody is a fan of the league for that day,” Paul Graham, TSN’s VP and executive producer of live events, said Friday.

“Sure, you’re going to cheer for one team or another, and even people that haven’t followed the league all year long or people don’t have a team to cheer for are going to usually pick one ... It’s certainly a special day and we don’t take that responsibility lightly. We want to make sure we deliver the best product possible.

“Mostly, we want to make sure we don’t screw it up, and we want to make sure we tell the right stories through the day.”

If this were a normal CFL regular season game, TSN would use 14 cameras. On Sunday, that number will be 40.

“Sometimes you get lost in gadgets and technologies and it doesn’t help you tell the story,” Graham said. “We’re trying to get more angles that give us better close-ups to give us the emotion from the game.”

Legendary broadcaster Chris Cuthbert will handle the play-by-play duties with Glenn Suitor.