Sports followers in Canada are looking forward to the Grey Cup game between the Winnipeg Blue Bombers and the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, which will be held December 12th. While the Bombers are considered to have an edge in winning their 12th CFL title in the 108th edition of the championship game, it would be unwise to discount the Tiger-Cats.
The Grey Cup is widely overlooked, with many sports enthusiasts believing that American Football begins and ends with the NFL. The Grey Cup, on the other hand, has a unique significance for the people of Canada. According to recent research by Betway, though, the Grey Cup is an event that strikes a chord with Canadians.
Attendance Comparisons
The Grey Cup and the Super Bowl are both held in some of North America's biggest stadiums. The Super Bowl, which is held every year in the United States, has drawn a crowd of at least 60,000 people each time since its inception in 1967. On five separate occasions, a million people have gathered to watch the Big Game: 1976, 1979, 1982, 1986, and 2010.
The Grey Cup, of course, fails to keep up in this area.
The CFL's championship game, which is played at the end of each season, draws 50,000 fans on average. The fact is that Canadian stadiums are not as big as those in the United States. The Olympic Stadium in Montreal, which seats 66,000 for football, is the country's largest stadium.
On eight occasions, spectators have exceeded 60,000 in eight Grey Cup games to date. Over the last 25 Grey Cups, a total of 1,238,196 fans have shown up, compared to a Super Bowl record of 1,771,947 spectators.
TV Viewership Comparisons
It would be ridiculous to compare TV ratings for the Grey Cup across the world with those of the Super Bowl, which is frequently one of the most-watched sports events of the year. But what about in Canada? Do more Canadians watch the Grey Cup or the Super Bowl than the World Series?
Since 2010, the CFL championship game has been watched by an average of 4.48 million people in Canada. Over the same period, 6.58 million people watched the NFL equivalent on television. Viewer numbers, on the other hand, paint a similar picture.
The most recent record for the biggest TV audience ever occurred in 2012, when 13 million unique Canadian viewers watched at least part of the game. That's compared to the 20.1 million people who watched Super Bowl LIV in 2020, which is more than half of Canada's population.
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