Courtesy Winnipeg Sun:

The 95th Grey Cup has sold out, which is not surprising when you consider the participating teams.

The Winnipeg Blue Bombers and Saskatchewan Roughriders, who have some of the most rabid supporters in the CFL, will clash in the title game on Sunday at Rogers Centre. There will be 52,230 spectators on hand to watch it.

“We knew we could do this and are thrilled that the Toronto market has embraced Canada’s game and welcomed it back after a 15-year absence,” Grey Cup GM Brad Watters said in a press release.

“We welcome the battle of the Prairies to the Big Smoke, as the party of the year will truly bring together Canadians from across our great nation!”

Even though the contest is sold out, there are still plenty of seats available on Internet auction and ticket-broker websites. One poster on craigslist.ca warned Bomber and Roughrider fans to not pay more than face value for ducats, believing scalpers have too many tickets and not enough buyers now that the host Argonauts aren’t in the big game.

A Global Toronto television crew set up shop outside Rogers Centre yesterday, asking the locals if they knew where the Grey Cup was being played. Several weren’t exactly sure, so the reporter turned them around and pointed to the big building with the white roof.

There are a handful of Grey Cup banners on the streets near the stadium, but there aren’t many more indications that the Grand National Drunk is being held in Toronto for the first time since 1992, when the Bombers fell to the Calgary Stampeders.

The buzz will surely pick up today with the arrival of both teams, and it will get even louder when the fans of the Prairie rivals start pouring into Hogtown later this week.

“I hope they have some extra infrastructure funds to rebuild Toronto,” Winnipeg Football Club president and CEO Lyle Bauer said yesterday.

The Bomber organization spent yesterday making travel plans for staff members who need to make the trip to Toronto, including marketing, operations and finance employees.

Bauer said the club will lose “several hundred thousand” dollars for making it to the Grey Cup, primarily because of extra travel costs, but he believes the team’s success on the field will pay off in the long run through merchandise sales this week, boosted season-ticket sales and more corporate sponsorships.

“It also doesn’t hurt to have the Blue Bombers at the front of the hearts of Manitobans as we’re looking towards a new stadium,” Bauer said.

The former offensive lineman, who happens to hail from Saskatchewan, added that the Bombers couldn’t be happier about facing their arch-rivals to the west, who, like the Blue and Gold, are community-owned.

“I think it’s absolutely spectacular that these two teams are in this game,” Bauer said. “We’re very close with (Saskatchewan CEO) Jim Hopson and those guys out there. We get along extremely well with (head coach) Kent Austin and (GM) Eric Tillman. It’s extremely good. Not only is it a great rivalry, but we support each other as well.

“It’s unfortunate that one is going to have to lose. It’s really unfortunate. We’ll be fierce competitors on the weekend, but it’ll be very good to see both teams there. It’s going to be great.”