An estimated 70,000 people on Saturday night "turned out to watch" Red Bull Crashed Ice in downtown Edmonton, "filling Louise McKinney Park and a portion of Jasper Avenue to a capacity that hadn’t been seen before," according to Alicja Siekierska of the EDMONTON JOURNAL. The downhill ice cross event represented the "largest crowd to attend a single-day sporting event in downtown Edmonton." The event "took months of preparation, as well as a $400,000 investment from the City of Edmonton." In the end, with the "help of some unseasonably warm temperatures, nearly 100,000 people came downtown to check out the races over several days." While the event "went smoothly overall, there were still a few snags." Edmonton Community & Recreation Facilities Branch Manager Rob Smyth said that "more police officers had to be dispatched to Jasper Avenue on Saturday after so many people came out to the race." The event "was held for the past nine years" in Quebec City. Red Bull organizers "did not comment on the possibility of coming back to Edmonton" in '16 (EDMONTON JOURNAL, 3/15). In Edmonton, Kevin Maimann noted police "were caught off guard by crowds that were roughly three times bigger than they expected." Staff Sgt. Damien Cordrey said, "We planned for something like 20 to 30,000 and we ended up getting an estimated 70,000" (EDMONTON SUN, 3/16).
