Jeff Piercy
CFL.ca
The Labour Day Classic. In Calgary it means the battle of Alberta, in Regina it means 20,000 Watermelon helmets, in Hamilton it means everything, and in a CFL locker room it means new friends. Not “best friends forever”, and not quite “hey pal!” kind of friends, but rather “we haven’t talked for years but the game is sold out and I need some tickets” kind of friends.
With each player only getting two complimentary tickets per game, the stakes are always raised for Labour Day. It is survival of the fittest, and in most cases, the young don’t survive. You see, veteran players understand the beast that is the Labour Day ticket race, and they get the ball rolling far in advance. They grease the wheels that need to be greased, and have all the tickets they need lined up before camp breaks in June. By the time most rookies realize they have all these new friends, the pot of available free tickets might as well be at the end of the rainbow.
Witness Elisabeth Kubler-Ross’ five stages of grief:
Denial: “There are lots of tickets to be had. Even though my whole family wants to come to the game, and most of my high school football team, and kickoff is in 45 minutes.”
Anger: “This is ridiculous! I haven’t talked to these people for months, Marwan already coerced my tickets away from me, and I didn’t even know he knew my name!”
Bargaining: “Please Marwan, I know your car dealer’s family is in town, and you like to fan yourself with unused game tickets, but could I at least have two tickets for my grandparents?”
Depression: “This is hopeless. What’s the point? Nobody cheers for me, and my friends and family are all Rider fans anyway.”
Acceptance: “Fine Marwan, go ahead and make that fan a couple tickets bigger. It is hot out, and you need to keep cool before the game.”
Yes the real contest of the Labour Day Classic is over long before the game kicks off. The game has been on the schedule for months, but if you are reading this and don’t have your tickets already in hand, you might as well get comfortable at home. After all, Marwan isn’t going to let that fan get any smaller, and the rookies have just graduated to ‘acceptance’. Let’s not put them through it all again.
Jeff Piercy is in his fourth CFL season. He was a second round pick in the 2005 Canadian Draft.
