Short question. Have you ever spotted an Eagle in Edmonton? I honestly haven't. I know they exist, but not common here. Bald Eagle is especially rare in Edmonton.
Empire was a crappy name. At least that was avoided.
I thought the list of 7 names was so ridiculous almost on purpose to make the couple of options seem better in comparison.
Respect fanbase? Have you seen the half time entertainment anytime over the last 10yrs? They don't even know who their fanbase is. They don't cater to it, that stopped a long time ago,
Years ago they had one dumb halftime musical act, can't remember the name, they figured it was a draw and were selling tickets for a postgame concert for 10bucks. Trouble is nobody bought any. By end of game and people leaving they were trying to give tickets away to the postgame performance so that there would be somebody around for the band to play to. Saddest thing I saw. We stayed around just out of curiosity to see what kind of crowd they managed to get. Wouldn't have been 50 people. I think 10 of them were homeless people they found around the stadium.
The optics of the name change occurring under the wing of an airlifted in CEO from Oklahoma is pretty disgusting. Enough that I still presume I'll stay away for awhile even if another season even occurs. I think the league might stitch a season together but will need major bankrolling from TV contract just to stay somewhat afloat. Bad news for the league is the Eskimos can't play league financial savior anymore.
Lastly Football is decreasingly a big sell in this market. Multiculturally newer Canadians seem to naturally take to Hockey, but this is not the case with football, and especially with the CFL. Its a dead duck league. Only question is when.