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“We hope to go into June 1 about two-thirds sold out,” said Vienneau. “We don’t really want to have more than that because we want to make sure the country has full access to tickets.”

The idea is to bring a significant economic impact to the city as a result of being the host city.

“We’re getting a lot of people inquiring about tickets from out-of-town telling us they’ve already booked their hotel rooms and wanting to make sure they’re going to have tickets,” said Lauren Farnell, Grey Cup Festival marketing and communications director.

The downtown core, she said, is almost completely booked in terms of hotel accommodation.

The budget for the event is $17 million and there’s no doubt they’ll have that covered.

“We’re going to hit budget. There’s no question that we’re going to hit budget. Ticket sales and corporate sponsorships are our main source of revenue and right now we’re tracking really, really strong,” said Rhodes.

With the tickets and sponsorships out of the way even before the season starts, it will allow the organizers to concentrate all efforts on producing the festival.

“In 2010, when we sold out so early and knew that we were covered, that’s when we did things like adding the zipline,” said Vienneau.

This year they’ve already brought back the zipline but are also adding a tube slide and have even decided to create a ski hill on site.

In 2010, Sparrow was the Festival Chairman and he’s excited with how they’re tracking there.

“We’re building all the plans for the site and for all the activations with everything this Grey Cup centering around Jasper Avenue and the Shaw Conference Centre.

“We already know that The Shaw is going to be full. Every room. Full. And it’ll be that way for the entire festival.”

Imagine the scene here for the FIFA World Cup in 2026.

E-mail: tjones@postmedia.com

On Twitter: @ByTerryJones