The Grey Cup is coming to Calgary this year, but ticket prices have some local football fans planning to stay on the sidelines.

An email to Calgary Stampeders season ticket holders last week outlined a seating map for this year’s big game. Prices for the general public start at $119 in the top four corners of McMahon Stadium, compared with the most expensive seats at $419.

Discounted prices are available for season ticket holders who have renewed their seats for the coming year, as well as the following year.

But Robin Bowen, who has been to 18 Grey Cups, said he’s throwing the flag after learning how much it would cost to attend this year’s championship game.

“I’m going to decline. I think it’s an exorbitant amount of money,” said Bowen, 46, a Stampeders season ticket holder for the past 17 years.

He said he usually sits in the middle portion of Section H, which qualifies as a “silver” section under the Grey Cup seating chart. Tickets there cost about $400 each for the Nov. 24 game.

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“I don’t see the value in that seat for the Grey Cup game. I could buy a bigger TV, I could buy the finest of eats, the best of drink and have the best people over to my house and I think I’d still come out about $300 to $400 better,” said Bowen.

“That is just craziness in this economy in Calgary that you can charge that amount of money for a game.”

Prices for last year’s Grey Cup game in Edmonton ranged from $99 to $325.

Commonwealth Stadium can fit more than 55,000 fans, with a capacity about 20,000 seats larger than McMahon Stadium.

“I think the prices are a little high comparing to last year in Edmonton,” said Amanda Schmidt, 31, a Stampeders season ticket holder for the past 17 years.

“The 10-yard line for the same ticket that I’m going to be paying this year, I paid $275 I believe. I’m on the 10-yard line for my season tickets and now I’m paying $400.”

Schmidt, who has been to 13 Grey Cups, said she’ll probably still go to this year’s game at home. But what “irks” her is that the price she’s paying to sit along the 10-yard line, which offers a strained vantage point of the opposite end zone, is the same as a seat closer to the centre of the field.

“I’m sitting on the 10-yard line this year and paying the same price as somebody sitting on the 50-yard line,” she said.

“So if I’m going to be paying the same as somebody who’s sitting on the 50-yard line, it would be nice to have that seat.”

The CFL and host team work in partnership to set Grey Cup ticket prices, a Stampeders spokesperson said Wednesday.

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Calgary last hosted the Grey Cup in 2009, when ticket prices for season ticket holders ranged from $119 to $295, while the general public paid up to $370. Schmidt said she paid around $250 for each of her tickets back then.

But unlike this year, additional temporary seating was added to McMahon Stadium for that game a decade ago, increasing the stadium’s total capacity to about 46,000.

“I’m honestly shocked and surprised that the CFL went with the pricing model that they did,” Schmidt said. “I know we have less seats than Edmonton . . . and all of these cities that have hosted a Cup in the past couple years, but it’s disappointing that I feel like I have to pay for that.”

Sandy Dubyk, a spokeswoman for Calgary’s Grey Cup committee, which is not involved in setting prices, said he felt this year’s cost was reasonable.

“It’s fair for the big event,” Dubyk said.

“It’s nice to see that they’re a little bit less than some of the years they have been in the past. Going out east, the ticket prices were considerably more and so I think that the range is appropriate, I feel. I think it will make it accessible for a wide variety of fans to be able to see the Grey Cup.