Lyle Bauer is feeling terrible these days, but he has plenty of reasons to smile.
Almost 45,000 reasons, actually.
The Winnipeg Blue Bombers announced late yesterday afternoon that tomorrow's 94th annual Grey Cup game between the B.C. Lions and Montreal Alouettes is sold out.
Bauer, the Bombers president and CEO, is battling a nasty cold, but seeing that all 44,784 tickets had been purchased after two years of hard work definitely warmed the cockles of his heart.
"As we said before, selling out was not imperative to our business case, but it's a pretty nice shingle to hang out," Bauer said in a nasally tone and raspy voice last night from his Maroons Road office.
"People deserve it, and people take great pride in it. So add that to the list of many events that are going on this week, and what you've got there is a success story on and off the field."
Many were watching the ticket count closely this year, especially after just more than 34,000 ducats were sold for the 1998 CFL championship match at Winnipeg Stadium.
Short notice
To be fair, the Bombers put that game on with relatively short notice, but back-to-back non-sellouts would have been a bit of a black eye.
"It's really good," Bauer said. "It just re-entrenches Winnipeg as a place to hold a Grey Cup. Unfortunately, after 1998, there were some doubting Thomases."
The Bombers had about 1,200 tickets remaining two days ago, but several large blocks of seats in the temporary south end zone were bought by corporations and donated to amateur football players, like the University of Manitoba Bisons.
"They thought it was important for many of those athletes to get a taste, including the Bisons," Bauer said. "And then you have people who had some tickets and had some other people or friends in town, and then they decided they wanted to go to the game, too."
That meant the Bombers actually had to turn down ticket requests yesterday.
As bad as that is for those poor fans, it's music to the ears of the folks at the Winnipeg Football Club, who expect to turn a profit of between $2 and $3 million for the franchise.
"It's very good, and people have worked extremely hard for a long time to have that happen," Bauer said. "Residents of the city, the province, and our supporters and sponsors and staff and the whole group should just take a big bow.
"And include our volunteers. The comments we're getting back is that it is very good out there. People are very impressed, and it's a true Prairie Grey Cup.
"And remember which team started the Prairie Grey Cup some 15 years ago."
