MRU students celebrate a Cougars goal at the Scotiabank Saddledome.
The Crowchild Classic is a premier event for university sports in Calgary. For the past six years, the Mount Royal University Cougars and the University of Calgary Dinos have faced off at the Scotiabank Saddledome in front of thousands of students. For free.
That changed this year. The Flames Foundation and the two universities came to the decision that a five-dollar fee would still be good value for the event. Students get to watch two hockey games and sit wherever they want.
Jarron Mueller is the Sports Information Coordinator for the MRU Cougars. He says that the fee was charged to make sure people who ordered tickets attended the game. When the event was free, students downloaded many tickets and didn’t use them.
The five-dollar charge improved attendance this year. 11,490 people attended the event this year. Last year, 10,478 people watched the games. The record was set in 2016, with 12,859 in attendance.
Next year, the order of the event will change. Since the inception of this event, the women have played the first game, while the men close out the night. In 2020, the men will play first, and the women will play second.
