Organizers give away tickets to Grey Cup after low ticket sales

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The Grey Cup is in two days, and ticket sales have been so bad, organizers have been forced to give away tickets in bunches in order have people in the seats.

But fans who paid a lot of money for their tickets are feeling robbed.

Imagine paying close to $500 for a ticket and then you find out that the person next to you got in for free.

That would be very upsetting, but is the reality of what is going to happen to thousands of fans at this Sunday’s Grey Cup game in Toronto.

“There’s a group of us started 40 years ago.. First game was ’76. Gabriel caught the pass from Clemens in the endzone.”

Jim Moffat is part of a group called the “Atlantic Schooners.” They’ve been to the last 40 Grey Cups and they will be at the one Sunday.

“We paid $499 for our tickets early. We got an email notice October 18th that the tickets were going on sale cheaper but our tickets weren’t eligible for reduction.”

His friends – all loyal CFL fans – are coming from the Maritimes and are upset to learn that tickets to the game are being given away for free.

TSN and Bell employees were given 2-5 tickets, and at Pizza Pizza in Hamilton, for less than $30, you got a large pizza, 10 wings, 10 pops, two dipping sauces and two tickets to the game. The CFL shut down that promo right away.

“Many people come from across Canada. They pay airfare, hotels, dollars in the city it’s in. Those are the people that should be getting the breaks, not the sponsors, such as TSN and Bell employees.”

Pizza Pizza didn’t return our calls. The league directed us to the Argos but they didn’t call us back either. The CFL announced earlier this week there were only 2,000 tickets left for sale.

As of this afternoon only 7,800 tickets for the Vanier Cup game have been sold. That’s a lot lower than expected, but Vanier Cup officials say unlike the Grey Cup game, they didn’t give away a lot of free tickets.”

“We haven’t done that, we want to make sure people come enjoy the game. Our student athletes have a great experience.”

The Vanier Cup is tomorrow afternoon at Tim Hortons Field. Organizers are expecting a strong walk up crowd to get more than 10,000 people in the stands.