The 110th Grey Cup at Tim Hortons Field in Hamilton has officially sold out with approximately 30,000 fans expected to be in attendance.
The contest marks the second to be played at the venue after a smaller-scale Grey Cup was hosted in the city during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021. This year’s event will be much larger as it’s accompanied by a full-scale Grey Cup festival, a Carrie Underwood concert, and an awards show in Niagara Falls.
The Montreal Alouettes upset Toronto in the East Final to qualify for their first Grey Cup berth since 2010. Meanwhile, the Winnipeg Blue Bombers are making their fourth-straight Grey Cup appearance after recording a 24-13 win over the B.C. Lions in the West Final.
Winnipeg swept the two-game season series against Montreal during the regular season, winning 17-3 at Percival Molson Stadium on Canada Day and again at IG Field by a score of 47-17 on Aug. 24. The Alouettes have improved dramatically since to win seven straight games, including back-to-back playoff victories over Hamilton and Toronto.
The CFL requires the Grey Cup host city to hold back a limited number of tickets to make them available for the two competing teams. Any tickets that go unclaimed are then made available to the public, so extra seats could open up over the course of the week. As of the publishing of this article, there are approximately 30 tickets still available alongside hundreds of others that have been put up for verified resale on Ticketmaster.
The capacity at Tim Hortons Field is 23,218, though it was expanded to 26,324 for the Grey Cup in 2021.
This year’s Grey Cup is scheduled for Sunday, Nov. 19 with kickoff set for 6:00 p.m. EST. Both teams will arrive on Monday and have the option of holding their first practice of the week on Tuesday. The weather forecast for Sunday’s game is sunny with a high of four degrees.
