On Sept. 28, the Saskatchewan Roughriders and the Canadian Football League introduced that the 109th Grey Cup recreation at Regina’s Mosaic Stadium had offered out.
But now, individuals seem to be ticket dumping.
On the the Ticketmaster web site, almost each part has tickets for the Nov. 20 CFL championship recreation accessible for resale. Some of the tickets posted hover across the $1,000 worth level.
The Grey Cup match is lastly coming to Regina, after it was initially supposed to be held in town in 2020 — however the COVID-19 pandemic pressured the cancellation of the sport, and later all the season.
For some in Regina, the Grey Cup recreation is no longer high of thoughts.
“I went off and began watching the NFL, so I misplaced curiosity in the CFL,” mentioned Regina’s Judy Simpson. “Unfortunately, it may be efficiency in normal, the shortage of our bums in the stands, the group involvement.”
In addition to the sport itself, followers are additionally invited to the Grey Cup Festival, which runs from Nov. 15-20 — kicking off in Saskatoon on Nov. 15 earlier than shifting to Regina, the place all pageant occasions and the 109th Grey Cup will happen.
It options family-friendly occasions, workforce events like Riderville, and a each day leisure lineup.
But some in Regina are nonetheless undecided about how a lot of the Grey Cup actions they’re going to take in.
“Currently I’m not sure,” mentioned Rebecca Henricksen. “I imply, if the Riders had been in a greater place, I’d be recreation for it. But as a result of they don’t seem to be, I do not care a lot.”
The Riders are at the moment 6-10, after an Oct. 7 loss to the Hamilton Tiger-Cats.
While curiosity may be waning with native followers, Regina resorts say they’re absolutely booked through the Grey Cup.
Attia Syed, normal supervisor of the Days Inn East, mentioned the resort has a ready checklist for rooms.
However, Syed mentioned when a room turns into accessible individuals on the ready checklist are telling them they don’t seem to be positive they need a room anymore.
“They’re asking for a while to consider it,” he mentioned.
Online, some Saskatchewan Reddit customers are nonetheless steamed volunteers are being requested to pay an $85 “dedication payment.”
“[I’m] not going and never volunteering, I did each final time it was right here,” mentioned one poster.
Another mentioned they may preserve their tickets if Saskatchewan is taking part in, however travelling from Saskatoon to Regina “is just too costly to justify watching different groups play.”
On Wednesday, Regina metropolis council’s govt committee voted in favour of virtually $50,000 extra funding for Grey Cup festivities downtown.
The Regina Downtown Business Improvement District requested the funding in assist of Touchdown Downtown, which can embrace family-friendly actions such as reside music, motion pictures and an outside household dance at Pat Fiacco Plaza.
That’s on high of the $1 million town has already put towards the Grey Cup.
“1,000,000 greenback is lots of cash,” mentioned Ward 4 Coun. Lori Bresciani, including she thought downtown actions would get some of that cash.
“It was my expectation that that was what we had been going to provide and there was not going to be an additional ask,” she mentioned. “But it is crucial that our downtown be included in a Grey Cup pageant.”
CBC reached out to the Roughriders and the CFL for touch upon what number of volunteers have been recruited and ticket resales.
Neither would touch upon the Grey Cup presently.