News Article: The Edmonton Rush moving to Saskatoon
- Thread starter 40oz
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I lost a lot of respect for Gregor of all the pot shots he's made on the Oilers and constantly blaming Katz and the Oilers and giving Urban and the rush a free ride and not blaming them for anything.
oilers4life5
Registered User
Fixed to Ruin
Come wit it now!
ChaoticOrange
Registered User
Gregor doesn't get paid by the Oilers like Stauffer does, but Urban signed more than a few cheques for Gregor.
It's all about not biting the hand that feeds/fed you.
I listened to Urban's interview yesterday. Doesn't come across as a bad person, but there's definitely two sides to this story.
IMO, Urban stormed off in a huff when he was told the Rush likely didn't have a home in the new arena. Yes, other places manage it ie Calgary in the Saddledome, bit it's owned by the Flames. The Roughnecks get whatever timeslots they're told are available and likely don't make a peep. Urban doesn't seem to be the type of guy that would take being told 'you are never, ever getting a Saturday night home game' lightly.
It's not exactly a half hour operation to change an arena over from ice to flooring and back again.
The team clearly wasn't well marketed when you can't draw more than 11,000 to a championship final with bare bones ticket prices.
What the Mayor said was 100% right. If the team was marketed and run competently you would hope that they could fill a building for a championship 10 years into the team's existence.
What the Mayor said was 100% right. If the team was marketed and run competently you would hope that they could fill a building for a championship 10 years into the team's existence.
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MessierII
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Senor Catface
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Edmonton has supported football.
Edmonton has supported baseball.
Edmonton has supported hockey.
It's more than the Oilers.
Cloned
Begging for Bega
- Aug 25, 2003
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To be fair though, it depends on how you define support.
Regina would probably fill CW every home game if CW was in Regina.
guymez
The Seldom Seen Kid
- Mar 3, 2004
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Edmonton has almost 5X the population and on the whole they are being outdrawn by Regina.
Edmonton has consistently failed to support any sports team that isn't the Oilers or Eskimos, even hockey teams. Even the championship Oil Kings weren't where they should have been. We'll go to sporting EVENTS, but we don't support teams.
Even those figures you want to trump up with the Eskimos are inflated by the sheer number of Saskatchewan transplants who live here.
guymez
The Seldom Seen Kid
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Thats fine.
The point I am trying to make is that Edmontons support of the Eskimos isnt exactly something to hold up in high esteem.
Samus44
Enjoy the ride.
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Well first off the Roughriders are Saskatchewans team not just Regina, secondly they have nothing else so of course they're a bigger attraction, and thirdly support isn't always consistent in the 90's the Riders weren't nearly as strong a brand while the team was struggling.
guymez
The Seldom Seen Kid
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The entire province of Sask has a population less than greater Edmonton.
Also...what competes with the Eskimos from June to the beginning of October?
Speed220DChalavan
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- Mar 29, 2014
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-World Cup soccer this year
- Summer festivals (Street performers, Taste of Edmonton, K-Days, Heritage Days, Fringe Festival, etc.)
-Other entertainment/dining/shopping [Enhancing downtown options, Whyte ave) options that Regina/Sask cannot compete with
- Proximity to mountains
Disposable income need not to be tied to sports. There is more to life than following second rate leagues like the CFL or Rush.
Esks perpetually lead the league in attendance. If you're going to point out that Regina has a higher capita attendance, then you can do that for all other 8 CFL teams.
So now you're moving your goalposts. All of a sudden are a football town too? Let me reiterate, going back 20 years we have topped the CFL in attendance every year except 2013, 2000 and 1994. Even in those three years we had the second best attendance in the league. And sorry no, this is not just because of Rider fans. And it's not because of our big stadium. A lot of other stadiums were not filled to capacity either. If this isn't a sign that we truly support our team, what does that say about the rest of the cities around the league? They must all be terrible CFL cities.
And as I mentioned, we did support the Trappers. But the Esks were willing to sell us out and the league didn't want us either. Everyone was shocked when they sold that team.
And if we only have three pro teams, big deal. Even a city with the population of Van has only four major pro teams. Calgary has three. Yes, they're so far ahead of us.
guymez
The Seldom Seen Kid
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World cup soccer was a footnote in terms of competing with Eskimo games. The overlap for home games was non existent.
The proximity to the mountains is reach at best simply because its a long drive from Edmonton. I can get to Canmore/Banff from my house in an hour for a nice dinner...perhaps that could be considered a competitive draw but something that is 4+ hours really isnt. In any event you could make the argument that any dinner or movie or theater event...etc could be a competitive draw which takes away from going to a game so ultimately I am not convinced that any of this is much of an issue at all.
Also most of the summer festivals you mentioned are daytime activities as well and dont cost a lot of money. Eskimo games are at night and I have a hard time believing a football fan will suggest that a few hours at an underwhelming event like K-days is going to mean no game that week.
Sorry I just dont see this as a compelling argument.
Really this is all about how many actual football fans are in a particular market.
Football fans generally make games a priority and festivals/movies/dinner et al are not going to take away from an ability to attend games.
No center in Canada makes football more of a priority than Regina.
Samus44
Enjoy the ride.
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But that wasn't my only point.
In Edmonton? People still care about the Oilers all year long. Not only that being a metropolis we have a lot more other things to do than just the Esks, and that's besides the fact we've always supported our team very well. Saskatchewan fans are impressive, but they are compared to any fans in this country, that doesn't make Edmonton not a sports town.
