Features

Head-to-head CFL on CBC commentators Mark Lee and Chris Cuthbert breakdown the big game's combatants. Read The Numbers game: the 1-2-3 of the 91st Grey Cup Read The fans and the fanfare: Heroes, underdogs and last-minute shockers make the Grey Cup the most celebrated event in Canadian football. go to CBC's Archive Peacekeepers and pigskin: As it Happens talks to Canadian peacekeepers in Bosnia who will play their own football game in honour of the Grey Cup. Listen Grey Cup rivalry renewed Montreal and Edmonton clash for the ninth time. Read Small is beautiful John Avery may be small for the NFL, but he's put up some big numbers the CFL. Read Velcro hands Ben Cahoon's sticky hands have made him Anthony Calvillo's favourite target. Read

The city of champions
Edmonton's football tradition

It's one of those picturesque, majestic Canadian landscapes best viewed at night.

As visitors drive in from the airport, they can't help but be mesmerized by the glittering steel-and-glass skyline rising on the far shore of the North Saskatchewan River.

It's a dramatic introduction to a city that is Canada's most northerly big city, a provincial capital and one of the country's leading industrial centres.

A city synonymous with the word "championship". A city that has housed two of the most enduring sports dynasties in Canadian history. A city steeped with CFL tradition.

Edmonton is Canadian football.

On Nov. 24 at Commonwealth Stadium, the 90th Grey Cup final will be decided between the CFL's two elite teams, capping off one of the most memorable seasons in recent memory.

Related:
Commonwealth Stadium: Home of the 2002 Grey Cup

In Edmonton? Here's what's going on during Grey Cup Week

It seems almost appropriate that Edmonton will host the 2002 Grey Cup. After hosting a series of world-class sporting events this year, the Grey Cup will serve as Edmonton's crowning event of 2002.

In June, young amateur wrestlers from around the world visited Edmonton to compete in the 5th World University Wrestling Championships. In August and July, record crowds jammed into Commonwealth Stadium to watch Canada win a silver medal in the inaugural FIFA Under-19 Women's World Cup.

Add to this the presence of the West Edmonton Mall -- the largest shopping centre in the world -- and such cultural events as the annual Jazz City International Music Festival and the Fringe Theatre Festival, and it's easy to see why Edmonton was selected to host this year's Grey Cup.

Amazingly, Edmonton has only hosted the Grey Cup on two previous occasions.

On Nov. 18, 1984, the Winnipeg Blue Bombers trounced the Hamilton Tiger-Cats 47-17 before 60, 081 fans. Thirteen years later, the Toronto Argonauts pasted the Saskatchewan Roughriders 47-23 with 60, 431 onlookers sitting in the stands.

A sell-out crowd is expected to pass through the turnstiles at Commonwealth for the big game, ensuring that the Grey Cup is a tremendous success for the city of Edmonton.

"We're going to make money," said Rick LeLacheur, a member of the host Edmonton Eskimos Board of Governors and the Grey Cup organizing committee.

The Eskimos, who paid $3.1 million Cdn to host the 2002 Grey Cup classic, don't expect to make as much of a profit as the $2.6 million they made in 1997, but they expect it will be close.

"Our (corporate) sponsorship hasn't been as great this time around, but you never know," LeLacheur said.

All the profits will go to the community-owned club, which also owns Triple A baseball franchise Edmonton Trappers of the Pacific Coast League.

According to Grey Cup chair Bill Gardiner, more than 1,200 volunteers came forward to help out with the festivities in Edmonton.

"The quality of the volunteers has been outstanding," he said. " Edmonton has come through again."

Organizers also announced that Grey Cup visitors had reserved between 9,000 and 10,000 hotel rooms in town. When all is said and done, the Grey Cup is expected to bring in around $50 million Cdn into the city of Edmonton.

This year, Edmonton is pulling out all the stops with citywide tailgate parties, breakfasts and luncheons, concerts and cabarets.

The Grey Cup 2002 Organizing Committee has put together a star-studded line up of musical acts to perform in concerts between Nov. 21 and 23 as part of Grey Cup Party '02 festivities.

Bands such as 54-40 and The Watchmen will entertain partygoers at venues across Edmonton, and Canadian rock icon Kim Mitchell will headline the Wild N' Woolly Party on Nov. 23 at the Shaw Conference Centre.

On Nov. 21, players will converge on the Winspear Centre for the 2002 Schenley Award ceremony to honour the League's most outstanding players this past season.

A longstanding Grey Cup tradition will be observed with the 2002 Grey Cup Parade on Nov. 23. This year, Edmonton Eskimo and CFL legends Henry "Gizmo" Williams and Jackie Parker will serve as Parade Marshals.

Parker, also known as Ole Spaghetti Legs, starred for the Eskimos from 1954 to 1962. Parker is a member of Canada's Sports Hall of Fame and the Canadian Football Hall of Fame. Hailed as the greatest kick returner in pro football, Henry "Gizmo" Williams thrilled Eskimo fans for 14 seasons and leaves behind a legacy of records that will likely never be broken.

All of which brings us to the big day itself.

Emerson Drive adds their home-grown Albertan sound to the pre-game show, while Edmonton's own Adam Gregory will sing the National Anthem prior to the kickoff.

International recording star Shania Twain will kick off the 90th Grey Cup halftime show by performing new songs, including the current hit single "I'm Gonna Getcha Good" from her long-awaited album UP!

With all of this going on and the promise of what has traditionally been an exciting game, Edmonton may never be the same again by the time the final whistle blows.

Edmonton Factoids: