Steve Milton: With fewer than 5,000 Grey Cup seats left, CFL says it will ‘sell out quickly’
If you want to buy Grey Cup tickets, organizers suggest you move quickly on Tuesday morning.
Hamilton Tiger-Cats president Matt Afinec said Saturday that there will be fewer than 5,000 seats available when tickets go on sale for the first time to the general public at 10 a.m. Tuesday. He would not provide a specific number.
Because of ongoing planning concerns around the pandemic, attendance is capped at 24,000 for the Dec. 12 game at Tim Hortons Field, the first Grey Cup held in the city in 25 years.
The original plans to expand stadium capacity to 33,000 with temporary north-end seating at Tim Hortons Field and a massive, nonseated, social viewing" area in the south-end patio have been postponed until the 2023 Grey Cup.
On Oct. 14, the CFL and Tiger-Cats announced that the city would get the 2023 game, as compensation for the pandemic-related restrictions which limit the size of the 2021 Grey Cup game crowd and have curtailed most of the major downtown events planned for Cup week.
We expect the game to sell out quickly," CFL commissioner Randy Ambrosie told The Spectator. The Grey Cup players and coaches, the Tiger-Cats and the City of Hamilton will put on an incredible show and then we come right back in '23 with the ability to deliver the full promise of what Hamilton bid on to get the Grey Cup."
On Game Day this year, there will still be a social viewing area in the south patio, but instead of the original ambitious numbers it will be limited to 1,200 fans. Half of those tickets remain for Tuesday morning's public sale, at $99 each. The cheapest seat in the main bowl of the stadium is $299, with platinum seats the most expensive at $499.
Until recently, only Tiger-Cats season's ticket holders were able to purchase Grey Cup tickets and both Ambrosie and Afinec said those sold extremely well at subscriber discounts ranging between five and 20 per cent. Last week, ticket sales were opened to season's ticket holders of the other eight CFL teams and Afinec said that met our expectations of about 2,000 tickets."
That left only a few thousand" left for Tuesday's general sale.
With the province lifting more pandemic restrictions this week, Afinec speculated that there could still be some festival-week events downtown on Grey Cup weekend although the original plans for a vast variety of large and small events are being held back until the 2023 Cup festival.
Both Afinec and Ambrosie predict that Hamilton bars and restaurants will be filled to capacity over the two or three days leading into the game.
I've got a whole list of places I'll recommend to people," Ambrosie said. Hamilton has an incredible restaurant community which has never been more vibrant.
And Tim Hortons Field will be jammed to the rafters. When I think about how challenging the pandemic has been for all Canadians, I'm incredibly proud of this. We should be all proud. It'll be a great day."
Steve Milton is a Hamilton-based sports columnist at The Spectator. Reach him via email: smilton@thespec.com