On Wednesday, after months of fans waiting, the league finally announced information on buying a Grey Cup tickets, as well as the Grey Cup Ticket price. After the announcement, I talked to several hardcore CFL fans who have gone to Grey Cups for the past several years. Many said the same thing: “I don’t know if I will go this year.”
After making fans wait so long, the Toronto Argonauts and the CFL should have anticipated this message. The CFL and Toronto got this one wrong with the ticket prices.
CFL Releases Grey Cup Ticket Prices
The Prices
On Wednesday, my seat at the Ottawa Redblacks vs Toronto Argonauts game cost $25. The same seat, which was okay at best, will cost a whopping $299 at the grey cup. My question to the CFL and Toronto is what family can afford, say, four seats at $169 plus tax, which would come out to $763.88 after tax, for Grey Cup seats? That’s almost $800 for a family of four to go to the Grey Cup.
The single seat prices start at $169 and go up to $899 for one seat. Meanwhile, Toronto barely got 12,000 fans out for Wednesday’s game.
The Argonauts tried to defend the prices by saying over half of the tickets are under $300 and 25% are under $200 per ticket. However, in the past two years in Winnipeg and Regina, the average ticket prices were $285; in Toronto it is now over $300.
The Argonauts also went on to say it is a championship game and for Toronto these is reasonable prices. Reasonable prices? A ticket for the first Jays’ playoff game since 1993 last season, sitting behind home plate in the 500s, only cost 65 dollars.
Many Toronto-area fans were, like me, excited to attend the Grey Cup this year. But many of us will have to rethink whether, at these prices, it is really worth it.
Main Photo:
