News Article: The Edmonton Rush moving to Saskatoon

[Aequitas]

I think alot of people are picking sides (gregor) but in reality it wasn't a popular sport. The team was great for 3 years including a championship and still no one came. At the end of the day that is why the rush are leaving everything else is just surrounding drama.

 

[SDig14]

I think alot of people are picking sides (gregor) but in reality it wasn't a popular sport. The team was great for 3 years including a championship and still no one came. At the end of the day that is why the rush are leaving everything else is just surrounding drama.

But despite poor attendance, it doesn't sound like the team was losing money.

I think it came down to the Oilers wanting to own the team and the owner wouldn't sell, and over the last couple years both sides have been burning bridges between the 2 sides.

Now the Oilers build a new building, won't let Rush play there and the other side realizes in a year and a bit they're out of a home.

Within 3 years Edmonton will have another team and it will be owned by the Oilers and playing in the new building.

Crappy for lacrosse fans in this city though because the team will suck for a few years once we get the expansion team.

 

[abootzky]

I think alot of people are picking sides (gregor) but in reality it wasn't a popular sport. The team was great for 3 years including a championship and still no one came. At the end of the day that is why the rush are leaving everything else is just surrounding drama.

NLL lacrosse obviously wasn't popular with you and that's your prerogative. Saying no one came the last 3 years is an overly dismissive exaggeration, much like those who say that nobody cares.

 

[Hockey Nightmare]

It just goes to show the stratospheric difference between the big 4 or 5 leagues and everything else. What's the price of buying the Rush, 2M? 3M? 4M? Jultz alone is worth that. Wow, that sucks hahaha.

 

[Replacement*]

But despite poor attendance, it doesn't sound like the team was losing money.

I think it came down to the Oilers wanting to own the team and the owner wouldn't sell, and over the last couple years both sides have been burning bridges between the 2 sides.

Now the Oilers build a new building, won't let Rush play there and the other side realizes in a year and a bit they're out of a home.

Within 3 years Edmonton will have another team and it will be owned by the Oilers and playing in the new building.

Crappy for lacrosse fans in this city though because the team will suck for a few years once we get the expansion team.

Urban has stated unequivocally several times that he's been losing money every year this team has been in operation

 

[Up the Irons]

It sucks that the two sides couldn't cooperate. It also sucks that Urban didn't offer to sell the team to Katz, which would have been the easiest and simpliest solution. I have no idea why he wouldn't look in to this. He must just love owning the team, demonstrated by his will to lose money on them. And good on him.

Over the long haul, it will be better for the OEG to own the local lacrosse team. They can market it as part of the an Oilers/Oilkings/Lacrosse team package. I'd love to have a shot at a 3 in 1 type of deal.

 

[DoyleG]

What is this extreme compromise? Something tells me it was just business, just like all the OEG wanted him to do was ask for using the BOA slogan, but it just decided not to and it became a PR nightmare.

Accepting large rent costs (this was a known problem for years at Rexall) and giving up all parking and concessions to the Oilers/City.

Not much different from when the Drillers played at Rexall and ran into the same problems.

 

[DoyleG]

It sucks that the two sides couldn't cooperate. It also sucks that Urban didn't offer to sell the team to Katz, which would have been the easiest and simpliest solution. I have no idea why he wouldn't look in to this. He must just love owning the team, demonstrated by his will to lose money on them. And good on him.

Over the long haul, it will be better for the OEG to own the local lacrosse team. They can market it as part of the an Oilers/Oilkings/Lacrosse team package. I'd love to have a shot at a 3 in 1 type of deal.

Urban sells to Katz = Katz using his economic clout to force out an independent sports owner and consolidate his own power in the cities sports community.

Katz buys an expansion team = Accused of chasing an owner out of tower through harsh negotiations so he can pick up an expansion team at a lesser price (if the stories of the NLL wanting to stay in Edmonton are true).

In other words, the Devil's Alternative is played out. Looks like Katz may have wanted to sit this out given the issues that came up with Capitals baseball.

 

[Nunymare]

No politics, people. It's right in the site rules.

 

[FuriousSenator]

That hasn't hosted the mens or womens national side Soccer clubs, has no soccer friendlies, to my knowledge has never had a pro soccer team, and with that being the biggest sport on the planet.

They also have a CFL football team that was close to folding for a decade and couldn't even support a WHA club decently.

If Horses is sports Calgary has legs.

Yes because Edmonton supports FCE so much....

 

[JarvisFunk]

Tickets were overpriced relative to players play and worth of the product on the pitch. This is a dying league that would put a club anywhere and is desperate to find places that will support this. Theres about 4 healthy franchises in the league. Even Rochester, once considered a can't miss solid market has lost interest.

With the way this product was marketed I don't see it as family first entertainment either. As stated this was marketed to WWE, Monster Truck type fans. Also a young male party type demographic.

Not sure how this is going to fly in Saskatoon. Even the Oiler games there only get 10K and SaskTel Center now seats 15K. So many available and empty seats.

I can't see more than 5K crowds in Saskatoon for Lacrosse if that. I doubt the league even approves of this plan.

Saskatoonian here, 100% agree lacrosse will not draw well here in the city, its just not a great sports city outside of our grassroots and minor hockey programs.

To be fair, alot of it has to do with success. The Blades have been in the WHL since 1964, and have a grand total of 5 east division championships to show for themselves. The fans dont get behind the team, because they are disproportionally putrid relative to the typical WHL team success cycle. And i do gotta say, we did a pretty phenomenal job hosting the 91 and 2010 WJHC's.

People are also afraid to shell out top dollar to watch the Oilers and Flames pre-season games when they come here because more often than not the teams best players are sitting out. The people do understand the need for the organization to see depth players in the lineup, but the folks here have seen the Oil and Flames send some pretty pathetic rosters to toontown and it quite frankly isnt worth the coin. You can bet that if McDavid isnt in town for the game this September, any future games are gonna be an extremely tough sell here.

 

[Wheathead]

Saskatoonian here, 100% agree lacrosse will not draw well here in the city, its just not a great sports city outside of our grassroots and minor hockey programs.

To be fair, alot of it has to do with success. The Blades have been in the WHL since 1964, and have a grand total of 5 east division championships to show for themselves. The fans dont get behind the team, because they are disproportionally putrid relative to the typical WHL team success cycle. And i do gotta say, we did a pretty phenomenal job hosting the 91 and 2010 WJHC's.

People are also afraid to shell out top dollar to watch the Oilers and Flames pre-season games when they come here because more often than not the teams best players are sitting out. The people do understand the need for the organization to see depth players in the lineup, but the folks here have seen the Oil and Flames send some pretty pathetic rosters to toontown and it quite frankly isnt worth the coin. You can bet that if McDavid isnt in town for the game this September, any future games are gonna be an extremely tough sell here.

I stopped going to preseason games because it was basically CHL players, a few AHLers and maybe around 4 NHL players. 60 bucks for a nosebleed seat is a big pill to swallow to see a team that is a shadow of an AHL team.

But I might go this year with the chance to see McDavid.

I think Lacrosse will do fine. Lacrosse is pretty popular here amongst youth. Lots of kids want to learn the game, too. May it go the way of the Saskatchewan Hawks? Maybe. But this city has wanted an opportunity to show it can support pro sports... so here it is.

 

[joestevens29]

After listening to gregor and jamieson on Friday it's quite clear that Urban isn't a very good business man when it came to the Rush. This isn't just the Oilers-Rush or the City-Rush, it's the City, OEG, Northlands and the Rush. Sounds as if he just burnt too many bridges and that it just wasn't worth dealing with him.

Also why does Gregor keeping saying he wouldn't sign a one year deal? I have the impression that Rexall is going to be open for a few years yet?

Has it also been stated that the OEG refuse to work with Urban?

 

[joestevens29]

http://oilersnation.com/2015/7/17/arena-deal-pushes-rush-out-of-town?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

I don't get why he keeps bringing up the whole paying of bills.

 

[Gord]

I don't see how this one is different. A lot of people can't stand Bruce Urban, his approach, attitude, and constant complaining about the city.

The guy is the most unpopular sports owner of any club in this city. Which is saying a lot considering people barely notice this club.

As many have mentioned this product and presentation was poorly conceived. They setup up some kind of monster truck type hype without the mud trucks and then wonder where the audience is for it.

I found this product tacky, offensive, and I don't like watching Lacrosse.

this sums it up for me. The only guy for me who was worse than Urban as an owner was the guy that owned the cracker cats and pretty well ruined baseball in this city.

I don't know why Urban thought the best way to market the team was to be a jerk to everyone.

 

[Gord]

Fixed for accuracy. The failure of a sports team or any other business doesn't look good on our city (except for Target- that was all on them).

really? most of the city doesn't care, let alone the world.
how will the loss of a 3rd rate sports team make anyone outside of the city think less of Edmonton, or make us look bad?
I can't see some guy in NB deciding not to come to Edmonton, for example, because we didn't keep the NLL team.

sorry to say, but very few people outside of the hardcore fans will care and the team will be forgotten by the end of the summer, if not before.

 

[Beerfish]

LOL The oilers sports ent group, the halo wearing lovely, excellent business men vs the 'lousy' burning bridges Urban. Yet another joke. The guy actually shelled out a fair bit of his own money to bring a product to the city and simply wouldn't nod nicely and not say a thing about the way some entities operate around here.

The oilers sports group is like pac man that tries to gobble up anything they think they can make a buck from but the moment something might not ba as viable as they thought see ya later, but yet they still do everything to retain the rights....just in case.

See the litany of minor league teams they have tossed into the trash and baseball in general. The Erie situation, Wanting to buy the lacrosse team and then basically ignoring it or worse when spurned.

People blasting Urban for burning bridges after the way the Oilers have acted over the last few years with their pressure tactics over the arena and the way the team was run.

All is sunny with the team and org now, the halo can be put back on.

The oilers will be a huge success and likely to win cups not too long from now but their sports and entertainment group acts like an evil empire and I have zero use for them.

 

[abootzky]

really? most of the city doesn't care, let alone the world.
how will the loss of a 3rd rate sports team make anyone outside of the city think less of Edmonton, or make us look bad?
I can't see some guy in NB deciding not to come to Edmonton, for example, because we didn't keep the NLL team.

sorry to say, but very few people outside of the hardcore fans will care and the team will be forgotten by the end of the summer, if not before.

A negative is still a negative, no matter what its perceived magnitude may be. The Rush leaving town is a negative just as the demise of the Edmonton Indy, the removal of our 'City of Champions' signs or the fire that destroyed the Roxy Theater were. How you, me or the good people of NB rank these or other perception-based news items in terms of importance is completely up to whoever is doing the ranking. I like to see Edmonton teams, events and businesses succeed therefore my opinion is that it looks bad when they don't.

 

[joestevens29]

LOL The oilers sports ent group, the halo wearing lovely, excellent business men vs the 'lousy' burning bridges Urban. Yet another joke. The guy actually shelled out a fair bit of his own money to bring a product to the city and simply wouldn't nod nicely and not say a thing about the way some entities operate around here.

The oilers sports group is like pac man that tries to gobble up anything they think they can make a buck from but the moment something might not ba as viable as they thought see ya later, but yet they still do everything to retain the rights....just in case.

See the litany of minor league teams they have tossed into the trash and baseball in general. The Erie situation, Wanting to buy the lacrosse team and then basically ignoring it or worse when spurned.

People blasting Urban for burning bridges after the way the Oilers have acted over the last few years with their pressure tactics over the arena and the way the team was run.

All is sunny with the team and org now, the halo can be put back on.

The oilers will be a huge success and likely to win cups not too long from now but their sports and entertainment group acts like an evil empire and I have zero use for them.

No one is saying the Oilers are saints in this. But in the business world you have to know your role. You can't be local convenience store and think you are 7-11.

 

[joestevens29]

A negative is still a negative, no matter what its perceived magnitude may be. The Rush leaving town is a negative just as the demise of the Edmonton Indy, the removal of our 'City of Champions' signs or the fire that destroyed the Roxy Theater were. How you, me or the good people of NB rank these or other perception-based news items in terms of importance is completely up to whoever is doing the ranking. I like to see Edmonton teams, events and businesses succeed therefore my opinion is that it looks bad when they don't.

So it's a negative for a couple weeks and then will be completely forgotten until something else is burnt down or leaves town?

Like really when is that last time you heard anyone talk about the Indy, Roxy or those signs?

 

[abootzky]

So it's a negative for a couple weeks and then will be completely forgotten until something else is burnt down or leaves town?

Like really when is that last time you heard anyone talk about the Indy, Roxy or those signs?

All 3 in the last week: Erik Thomas of Raceline Radio (the Indy), CTV News (the Roxy), my wife's out-of-town relatives asking what the hell happened to the signs.

I get it. These aren't Earth-shaking events. However, they are all losses and this Edmontonian has grown weary of losses in recent years for some reason.

 

[joestevens29]

All 3 in the last week: Erik Thomas of Raceline Radio (the Indy), CTV News (the Roxy), my wife's out-of-town relatives asking what the hell happened to the signs.

I get it. These aren't Earth-shaking events. However, they are all losses and this Edmontonian has grown weary of losses in recent years for some reason.

I get where you are coming from, but to me it's not overly huge of a deal. Generally when we lose something it's replaced with something else. In the Rush's case it sounds like it will be back in a couple years anyway. Won't be the same team or as good, but the fact that a Championship team that has dynasty potential couldn't draw people I just won't be too concerned. The only real part I feel bad about is the local Lacrosse community. It has grown and it has given kids something else to do, so that kinda bothers me. At the same time Bruce Urban did cut community involvement seems like this was a step backwards that can be rectified when the new team comes.

As for the City of Champions signs. I wonder if just ends up like Klondike days, they change the name and no one really goes along with it.

 

[Gord]

A negative is still a negative, no matter what its perceived magnitude may be. The Rush leaving town is a negative just as the demise of the Edmonton Indy, the removal of our 'City of Champions' signs or the fire that destroyed the Roxy Theater were. How you, me or the good people of NB rank these or other perception-based news items in terms of importance is completely up to whoever is doing the ranking. I like to see Edmonton teams, events and businesses succeed therefore my opinion is that it looks bad when they don't.

I don't understand your example of a building burning down negatively affecting the optics of our city.
how is that anyone's fault?

I thought the Indy was great for the city. Yet after the first couple of years to establish the event, I don't think the city should have had to cover operating losses. at some point these things have to succeed on their own.

as for the "city of champions" signs, there are as many people happy they are gone as sad. We don't really need an official slogan to define our city.

back on topic, it is too bad that the rush is gone. but I refuse to blame Katz and the city as the primary reasons. They are not totally innocent but Urban himself did more to make the team fail in the community than any other reason.

 

[Samus44]

I get where you are coming from, but to me it's not overly huge of a deal. Generally when we lose something it's replaced with something else. In the Rush's case it sounds like it will be back in a couple years anyway. Won't be the same team or as good, but the fact that a Championship team that has dynasty potential couldn't draw people I just won't be too concerned. The only real part I feel bad about is the local Lacrosse community. It has grown and it has given kids something else to do, so that kinda bothers me. At the same time Bruce Urban did cut community involvement seems like this was a step backwards that can be rectified when the new team comes.

As for the City of Champions signs. I wonder if just ends up like Klondike days, they change the name and no one really goes along with it.

Yep, i bet the OEG brings it in. Maybe they don't because of the junior team but i think Calgary made it pretty apparent the market is there without taking anything away from hockey. What's sad is we had a team built for continued dominance after years of building it up to this point and we'll have to go through some lean years again.

 

[joestevens29]

I don't understand your example of a building burning down negatively affecting the optics of our city.
how is that anyone's fault?

I thought the Indy was great for the city. Yet after the first couple of years to establish the event, I don't think the city should have had to cover operating losses. at some point these things have to succeed on their own.

as for the "city of champions" signs, there are as many people happy they are gone as sad. We don't really need an official slogan to define our city.

back on topic, it is too bad that the rush is gone. but I refuse to blame Katz and the city as the primary reasons. They are not totally innocent but Urban himself did more to make the team fail in the community than any other reason.

It seems like the EIG had the same issues. Even Northlands seems to have the same issues. The one constant with the Oilers would've been Laforge, but he's now gone too.

Just seems like Urban was out of his element and didn't realize he isn't the big fish.