It was the winter of 2014 — just a few months into Wade Miller’s tenure as the Winnipeg Blue Bombers President and CEO — when the hall-of-fame former player/turned businessman came up with a new tradition.
And with that AC/DC’s ‘It’s A Long Way to the Top’ was blasted through the offices every Friday morning.
Around that same time Miller met with staff and delivered a long-term organizational objective — marketing types call it a ‘BHAG’ or ‘Big Hairy Audacious Goal’ — of selling out every Blue Bombers home game in one season by the year 2025.
Just to provide some context here: when he set that goal the Blue Bombers were coming off a 3-15 season in 2013 and were in the second year of the new facility in south Winnipeg, now called Princess Auto Stadium.
Well, it’s official now: what once seemed like mission impossible is now mission accomplished.
The club announced Thursday afternoon that Saturday’s regular-season finale against the Montreal Alouettes is sold out, meaning all nine regular-season games this year have been played to capacity of 32,343. Dating back to August 1st last year and a game in which the club drew 31,589 against the Alouettes, the Blue Bombers consecutive sell-out streak has reached 14.
And counting.
“This has been built over the years by everyone in our building,” said Miller in a chat with bluebombers.com today. “It’s a team accomplishment that is built by hard work all year by everyone in all departments — in fan services, to marketing, to the people who get the field ready, to all our volunteers. And our fans have been unbelievable in making game days such an experience.
“We continue to build it, continue to refine it and make it better and our fans deliver. Now we’re already focussed on how this organization can make it even better for 2026 and keep this party going.”
The Blue Bombers will lead the Canadian Football League in attendance for a fourth consecutive season in 2025 and for the first time in franchise history have sold out an entire campaign. Since Princess Auto Stadium/Investors Group Field opened in 2013, the attendance figures have seen dips and climbs, with the numbers increasing by an average of over 6,000 since 2021 and following the league coming out of the lost 2020 season due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
A few things are working in concert here to have helped the numbers grow. First, the team has now qualified for the playoffs for nine straight years and has appeared in five consecutive Grey Cups since 2019, winning two titles.
The franchise has had stability in football operations with two of its biggest stars are Winnipeggers in Brady Oliveira and Nic Demski.
Miller also attributes the growth to some significant sweat equity by the marketing departments and fan services backed by the motto ‘Fan First/One at a Time.’ They also introduced a new concept in 2025 with the addition of cultural ambassadors in an attempt to connect with different communities and newer Canadians.
The Blue Bombers have played to more 30,000 crowds than any other team since 2018 with 33 — Saskatchewan is next with 21, followed by Edmonton with 11 and B.C. and Calgary at six each — understanding the stadium capacities in Ottawa, Montreal, Hamilton and Toronto are less than 30K.
“It’s amazing. It’s one of those selling features we have for players and just how important our team, how important the Blue Bombers are to not only our fan base, but the community and the province. It’s pretty cool,” said Blue Bombers head coach Mike O’Shea this week. “I don’t get to be up there with them, but you look around — and I’ve said this numerous times — but you get that moment where you just pause and take in the atmosphere. They look like they’re having a great time, and it’s happened over and over and over again — not just this season, but other seasons when we’ve sold out.
“To sell out a whole season is a credit to them but also a credit to our sales people, concessions, the Rum Hut looks like it’s hopping and is the place to play to be. Wade… the way he’s set up the stadium, the program he’s built around it and the excellence, the amount of volunteers we have that help on a game day. All of that goes into a successful and positive experience for fans.
“Then the players play with a sense of urgency which makes the fans proud on a weekly basis,” O’Shea added. “No matter what the outcome, they play hard and over the last little while they’ve managed to have some pretty damn good outcomes. The team and the fan base, we feed off each other but the in-game experience can’t be overlooked. All our staff and our volunteers do a damn good job of making the experience quite enjoyable.”
It’s also a big part of why Winnipeg has been the toughest road trip for rival CFL clubs. The Blue Bombers are 6-2 at home this season heading into Saturday’s contest, have posted eight straight winning records at home since 2017 and over that span are a remarkable 55-14 in front of their faithful.
“Thank you so much for all the fans who have contributed to selling out these games for the last two years, three years, ever since I became a Bomber in 2019,” said Willie Jefferson in this week’s edition of The Huddle. “It’s been an absolute honour to play home games here at Princess Auto Stadium.
“I know (opposing) teams absolutely hate coming to play here, especially when they know it’s a sold-out game. The fans that sit behind the visitors’ bench, thank you so much. You are a jewel to this organization and I’m saying that because I used to be a part of the people that you guys used to heckle.
“You guys are top tier. There are no other fans like you in this league. Please continue to do what you’re doing and when you get too old to what you do, give your tickets to your kids or your grandkids so they can continue your legacy.
“… Please continue to sell out these games. You guys don’t know how much it means to me and the guys in the locker room.”
The Blue Bombers will be on the road for the playoffs this year after hosting the last four West Finals. Winnipeg, 9-8 will either finish third in the West and be in Calgary or Vancouver for the Western Semifinal or finish fourth in the West and be headed to Hamilton or Montreal for the Eastern Semifinal.
The entire CFL playoff scenarios heading into the last week of the regular season, FYI, can be found here:
112th Grey Cup Playoff Scenarios: Hosting duties, matchups, crossover to be determined
