The 97th Grey Cup in Edmonton sold out in record time – six days – yet executives are trying to bring more people to the city, despite no extra seats.

Grey Cup 2010 executive director Duane Vinneau touted the Grey Cup festivities that are to take place in the city’s downtown core, not just the game.

“Even though the game is sold out, there are a ton of things to do and we’re really trying to focus on promoting ‘come here, be a part of the whole festivities, enjoy yourself.’ There’s going to be plenty of places to watch the game if you don’t have a ticket,” said Vinneau.

Organizers are shutting down three blocks on 99th Street to create the Telus StreetFest, where most of the Grey Cup celebrations will take place from Nov. 25 to 28.

Plans include a 20,000 square-foot heated tent over Sir Winston Churchill Square, which will be divided into the Huddle Dome and the ScotiaBank CFL Experience

The Huddle Dome will have family programming and interactive games while the CFL Experience will revolve around football with passing, kicking and throwing practices. There will be a Sponsor Village, with the highlight that people can test drive a Nissan with a CFL player.

Grey Cup 2010 is taking a page from the Vancouver 2010 Olympics and having a zip line. It will start 80 feet in the air and go 540 feet across at 60 kilometres per hour to the 60-foot end tower. The only complaint at the Olympics was the several hour wait, so there will be a fast track system telling people when to come back so they don’t have to wait more than an hour, said Vinneau.

“We’re very excited, it’s going to go over top all of our festival,” he said, adding that members of the Canadian military will be there to help those who might be afraid. The attraction is free, though donations will be accepted for the Edmonton Garrison Military Family Resource Centre.

Eskimos president and CEO and co-chair of Grey Cup 2010 Rick LeLacheur has been involved with all of the three Grey Cups Edmonton has hosted – 1984, 1997 and 2002 – and said 2010’s is going to be a lot of fun downtown, not just at the game.

“Where we’re really trying to raise the bar compared to our previous Grey Cups in Edmonton is the downtown festival and we’re going to have a lot of things for families,” he said.

“Come and spend money. There’s going to be a lot of things to do, a lot of events and whether you have a ticket or not there’s still going to be a lot to do Grey Cup festival weekend.”

Ken Fiske, vice president of tourism and events, economic development Edmonton said it’s an exciting time for the city.

“Come early, stay late, enjoy what’s going on around Edmonton and just have a darn good time while you’re here,” he said, strongly emphasizing what has been a problem in Grey Cups in the past.

“There will be a hotel room available in this town. No matter what.”

Grey Cups usually see around 20,000 to 30,000 out of town visitors.

There won’t be any extra seats added to 60,000-seat Commonwealth Stadium, though it was a thought that was tossed around. One of the reasons Grey Cup 2010 said no to increasing the seating was because it would bring up new problems like not enough bathrooms or food vendors.

“We said no because then that creates ‘how do you service everybody?’” said Vinneau. “When you put 60,000 people into a 60,000 seat stadium, it works.”

The tickets sold out in six days thanks to Eskimos season ticket holders, explained Vinneau.

Instead of selling tickets for 48 hours after last year’s Grey Cup in Calgary, as per usual, Grey Cup 2010 decided to reserve the first ticket sales for their season ticket holders. They had pre-sold 35,000 tickets when they officially went on sale on June 1.

This year there will be a ticket exchange through Ticket Master, which will allow people to buy and sell their Grey Cup tickets online and in person in the Sponsor Village.

The Eskimos recently renovated their home locker room into a 3,000 square foot green and gold shrine. The West division representative will use the locker room and if the Eskimos make it to the Grey Cup through the East, they’ll have to use the visitors’ locker room, which is much more bare bones.

Eskimos quarterback Ricky Ray was pumped after their 17-14 home win over the Saskatchewan Roughriders on Saturday – only their second of the season – and said the win during bye week doesn’t put them that far off in the playoff hunt.

“We’re really only one game out of the playoffs, behind Winnipeg. We know we’ve got a lot to play for and hopefully we can build up a little more momentum,” he said after the game, which had an attendance of 47,829, with many of them representing Rider Nation.

“When it’s loud like that, it makes it a lot of fun to go out there and play.

“We all know how awesome that would be to play here in front of your home crowd, to play at your home field at such a big game. It’s in the back of your mind a little bit but we’ve just got to try to focus on one game at a time and getting ourselves back in the playoff hunt.”

He said the six-day record sellout shows just how many CFL and Grey Cup fans there are.

“It’s a great event, I’ve been able to go to three of them, it’s an awesome time. I played in the one here in 2002 and it’s just a great feeling. I think people are going to have a lot of fun. Whoever’s in it, hopefully we’re in it with our home crowd cheering us on.”

The B.C. Lions will host next year’s Grey Cup with the 100th Grey Cup being held in Toronto in 2012.

For more information, check out www.greycupfestival2010.com.