A successful ticket campaign for track and field in Canada would be a major accomplishment, says Toronto sports marketing consultant Bob Stellick. “In the last decade, track and field has been a much tougher sell in North America,” he says. “The challenge really seems, in Canada, to be getting on that radar screen. We have an NHL-centric mentality. We don’t deviate that far from the norm.”

Track doesn’t have the star power that other sports do, says Stellick. There are track fans out there, he says. But to fill Commonwealth Stadium’s 60,000 seats, organizers are going to have to sell the event itself. “Make it a ticket that you can’t miss,” he said.

And despite the international interest, the event’s bread-and-butter is still going to be the local ticket buyer, Stellick says. “The challenge for track and field in Edmonton is to engage the community.”