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To Ambrosie, it’s the cherry on the Grey Cup Sundae on Grey Cup Sunday.

“Edmonton has a special relationship with the Grey Cup, and the magnitude of it all will be compelling and fantastic. I think Edmonton is trying to take this responsibility of being the first Grey Cup under our new model to raise the bar. I think the Grey Cup Fan March is just one of those things that can help bring it to a new level.

“I think all the credit just goes to the Edmonton organizing committee. I think what they did in organizing the event is that they looked at the whole history — things that had been done at the Grey Cup, both in Edmonton and other places. And they literally decided they were going to take the best of everything and add some new thoughts and activations on top of it to make this the biggest Grey Cup ever.”

There’s a sense with this professional observer that while most Edmontonians and Grey Cup visitors are expecting the level of hosting to be up to the city’s usual standards, they don’t seem to totally grasp where organizers are taking this one.

Ambrosie does. And he can’t wait to behold it.

“I’m convinced it will set a new standard for what Grey Cup should be like,” he said.

“The idea was to make the Grey Cup bigger and into a true national celebration. They have most certainly risen to the challenge.

“In classic Edmonton fashion, everybody has been thinking big. I’m going to be saying this a lot during Grey Cup week — I think Edmonton with this event is showing everybody again why the city is known as the City of Champions and it has nothing to do with rings or trophies.”