Edmonton’s Grey Cup organizers have released more details on what can be expected at this year’s festival surrounding the CFL’s biggest game.
The theme is “Bring the Heat” and over 50 events are being planned to celebrate fans flocking to Edmonton.
The Nissan Street Festival will be on Jasper Avenue between 96 and 99 streets and will feature a number of attractions, three of which were announced Friday afternoon.
Returning from the 2010 festival is the zip line attraction. It will start from Jasper Avenue, just east of the Shaw Conference Centre, and will go down into the river valley.
There will also a street ski on the festival site. Final plans are still coming together, but it’s described as a mini ski hill inside the festival space.
Finally, the Jiffy Lube Tube Slide will allow riders to slide down a snow track on an inflatable tube. Organizers don’t have a final location for that activity yet, but are hoping it can go on Grierson Hill Road.
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“A lot of people from out of town don’t realize we have this river valley here, so we’re going to show it off and we’re going to play inside of it and everything else will all be around it,” Duane Vinneau said.
The festival’s executive director was also on the board for the 2010 Grey Cup. He calls the event from eight years ago “the one to beat.”
“We have a lot of things that we’ve rolled out and, at the same time, we’re building out our overall plan,” Vinneau said about what else is coming. “We’ll do over 50 events. We’re planning dinners, and we’re planning awards events and we’re planning festivals. The whole process is just sort of going at the same time.”
Those looking to attend the game will have to wait until June 1, unless they are Edmonton Eskimos season ticket holders. Those who renew existing season tickets or buy new ones have access to buy their ticket for Grey Cup now.
In 2010, Edmonton’s Grey Cup sold out in only six days. Eskimos president and CEO, Len Rhodes, said season tickets sales are up compared to this time last year and that sales are on pace to beat the previous record.
“It’s only February and the game takes place in November, but it really does reflect Canada’s largest party and we really want to make sure it’s Edmonton’s party,” he said.
Tickets range from $99 to $325 to keep things “accessible” for the fans that support the Eskimos “day in and day out,” Rhodes said.
On June 1, the organizing committee will be holding a breakfast at the Shaw Conference Centre along with the Chamber of Commerce. CFL commissioner Randy Ambrosie will be there as the keynote speaker.
The economic benefit in 2010 was about $80 million for the City of Edmonton. Organizers are hoping this year’s festival will bring in more than $100 million.
Rhodes has an additional goal: seeing the Grey Cup in the Eskimos’ hands at the end of the game.
“It’s a bold, audacious goal, but that’s what sports is all about,” Rhodes said. “We’ve won 14 Grey Cups, we’ve hosted four times in Edmonton for the Grey Cup since 1949, but there’s one thing we’ve never accomplished is winning in our own backyard. The whole team knows this is the one we really want.”
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