Gray Cup 2000

  Tuesday, November 28, 2000 WINDFALL Stamps earn a tidy profit from season, Grey Cup By AL RUCKABER, CALGARY SUN
The Calgary Stampeders will realize a substantial profit of close to $1 million from the 2000 Grey Cup. "Let's just say we'll make well over $750,000 and that will make it the single most financially succussful Grey Cup since Edmonton in 1997," said a pleased Stampeders owner Sig Gutsche yesterday. "It's certainly enough to put a big bite on our debt. Pretty soon, we can't plead poverty anymore. "The club also made over $1 million this year on our regular season. Combine the two and it's been an absolutely very profitable year for us." Gutsche said the Grey Cup profits were significant because, "the late game ticket sales were so huge. In the final couple of days, the lineups were very, very long. We sold a lot of tickets those final days. "I'm very proud of how the people of our community handled the fact their team was no longer playing but still they supported it. "Hey, there were even some fans that came around and cheered me up and got me into the Grey Cup spirit." "The Grey Cup was very much a success in terms of the festival and from the financial aspect of hosting a game," Gutsche said.

'SPECTACULAR!'
Calgary put on first-class show By AL RUCKABER, CALGARY SUN  
Give or take a few glitches, the 2000 Calgary-hosted Grey Cup was a pronounced success, according to local organizers. "From the Calgary side, it was spectacular. We went out to do something for this city and did it," said Marv Jones, chairman of the Grey Cup committee. "Just about everything was super. I'm so proud of our 700-plus volunteers. I really thank the city of Calgary. Even though the Stampeders weren't in the game, the people of the city gave us tremendous support attending the game and the various functions." But there were glitches. "Yes, there were other things I was not happy with," Jones said. "CBC didn't do us justice. Before the game, we had parachutists flying in with the game ball. We had outgoing commissioner John Tory coming into the stadium on a chuckwagon with the Grey Cup. CBC was only interested in talking among themselves and they missed it all. All they wanted to do was talk and show the occasional drunk having fun." There was also the problem with the McMahon Stadium sound system, which made an already peculiarly sung national anthem almost indiscernible and muffled the fine halftime performance of Canadian rock legends The Guess Who. Additionally, McMahon Stadium was not sold out to its 46,000 capacity for what turned out to be an extremely exciting game in which the B.C. Lions outlasted the Montreal Alouettes, 28-26. But Jones said the committee was very satisfied with the final total of "The last couple of days before the game, sales really leaped a bunch as people got into the spirit," he said. "Going into the last two days, we were at 41,000, so we sold almost 3,000 more tickets from that point on. Considering the Stampeders weren't in it, we were certainly very satisfied with the attendance." Jones said the other major functions -- the CFL Awards ceremony, the Grey Cup dinner and the parade -- were all very well attended and pronounced them a success. Added Stamps owner Sig Gutsche: "Calgary was a little on the despondent side because our boys didn't make it but by game day they were smiling ... Calgary did us proud."
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