Tough to spin this as good news. Tickets for the Grey Cup are now 70% sold.
But that is only true because plans to add temporary stands in the north end of IGF have been scrapped so now capacity for the game will be just 36,634 of which 25,576 have been sold thus far.
The 103rd Grey Cup, hosted in Winnipeg, is losing seating capacity after a decision was made to use the north end of the field as the location for the pre-game and half-game entertainment, instead of the promised temporary seating.
In March, Winnipeg Blue Bomber CEO Wade Miller said the seating capacity of Investors Group Field would grow to 41,000 from 33,000, with temporary seats in both end zones. With the elimination of the north-end temporary seating, capacity for the event will be 36,634.
Seats in the north-end section were being sold for $175 each, which means the seat reduction will result in a potential revenue loss of more than half a million dollars.
Historical seating capacity for the Grey Cup is typically between 45,000 and 60,000. If the 2015 Grey Cup is played in front of a sold-out crowd, it will still be the lowest attendance on record since the mid-1970s, with the exception of the 1998 Grey Cup also played in Winnipeg, in front of 34,157 fans.
Friday, the Winnipeg Football Club announced in a press release that the event was 70 per cent sold out, with 25,576 tickets sold.
Agreed, not real other way to spin it. But looking at the price-point with upper bowl seats over 300.00 (most over 400.00) I can see reason for the lack of demand.
Seems like the second year in a row the organizers have under estimated the market's threshold.
Tickets are way to expensive . Top ticket should be 350 and bottom ticket should be a 100. If the Bombers were at least contenders, would help immensely.
BC’s price point last year I think stalled demand but part of it was having it again too close from their last hosting.
Seeing the lower bowl from end-zone to end-zone full and then mostly solid blue on Ticketmaster for the same seats above? I just don’t see it any other way as gouging tactics backfiring in a big way.
It comes to price - too expensive
Fans are pushing back and saying 'enough is enough '.
That, and the bombers don't have a chance to be in it, which is why I said the bombers shouldn't look to host in 2015 after recent crap teams. They need time to build a contender before selling a grey cup to their fans. Oh well. Too late now.
Good point!! I think a few select seats @ $250, Top seats $199, Not top seats $99.
Sell out every-time. You have to compete with the bars and restaurants.
Go back to making it a affordable event with good reasonable priced food and beer.
I hate to sound cheap, but I cant afford that price for a single game. Would rather just take the $300 in the upper deck and buy more regular season games in that same seat for like $40.
Grey Cup buzz is hard to come by when it's -20C and the wind is howling down hard from the Interlake ... which it often does in Winnipeg, in November. Plus, us Manitobans can never quite get out of that old 1930s Depression mindset. Hate to say it, but other cities have always done Grey Cup better than Winnipeg (hello Vancouver).
Anyone who buys a ticket to the Grey Cup now is a moron... 50 dollar tickets to those that show up at the last minute... I'm glad this happened.. The CFL will have to slash ticket prices across the board now.
Wow, 70% soldout already with months to go until the big game! Once fans know which teams will be playing the tickets will go F-A-S-T, so hurry, hurry, get your tickets today to Canada's biggest sporting event of the year!
I don't think the game being hosted in Winnipeg has a lot of bearing on poor ticket sales. The problem is that the tickets are bloody expensive this year. I paid $350 for the 2013 Grey Cup in Regina and had lower bowl seats on about the 20 yard line. It would cost me about the same to sit in the end zone in Winnipeg this year. I think you can put the blame on organizers for assuming that people would pay that kind of money.
