What are us fans doing wrong?

[Psychoil]

I was working at my job and I had someone from montreal come to visit me. Basically we started talking about hockey, and we went back and forth about how much he loves the habs and how much I hate the oilers.

But we ended up getting into a conversation about how fans in montreal would react if they had an old boys club regime and were losing at the rate the oilers were losing. He told me that montreal would literally explode if the habs were this bad for this long. He said the fans would not take it. There is much more continuity and unity among fans in montreal and he said they would find a way to get rid of management no matter what the cost.


So that just got me thinking. As oiler fans, I think we've been beaten down so bad that we just don't care enough. But some of us hardcore fans still desperately want this management team removed. We are the ones suffering the most because we still care enough to come on these forums and vent about how this team isn't even AHL calibre.

We've tried billboards, newspaper ads, national coverage, booing at home, angry calls on radio shows.....is there anything left that we need to try? What lengths do we need to take in order to remove management. What else can we do?


PS: I feel like every oiler fan wants the oilers to lose to 1. katz can see how bad we are and he can finally bring down the hammer on lowe, howson, and mact and 2. we want McEichel

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[KeithIsActuallyBad]

Stop the team support

Don't buy any Oilers stuff

Until Lowe is gone

 

[McDrai]

I see 2 solutions:
1. Start a Fire Lowe or Fire MacT chant at the games like Vancouver did last season (I'm talking a whole stadium chant. Not just a section)
2. Stop going to the games

Neither will ever happen because fans in this city are gluttons for punishment. Part of this could be that they want to keep their seats for the new arena.

 

[Supermassive]

Would you wear a Flames jersey? Because no other protest is allowed at games.

It's for an ice cream bar...

 

[CornKicker]

if the general fan was as fed up as the hardcore fan they would be gone already.

1. dont renew season tickets (this is hard because people are holding them just to have them for the new arena (i know at least 7 people doing this)
2. dont watch the games on sportsnet. they have viewership numbers and advertisers are well aware of them.
3. stop buying anything at the concession. smuggle in your own food and beers
4. stop going to games and buying up tickets

 

[CornKicker]

the obvious answer is to build a human replica and put him in a wheel chair so he can easily get by security. then you wheel him into the seating area and middle of the 2nd period, preferably in a saturday night primietime game you take the human replica with a kevin lowe jersey on and you light him on fire and throw him on the ice.

its the only realistic option left

 

[488fitter]

The state of this team isn't a fan issue, it's an ownership issue. Most owners wouldn't put up with this incompetence, ours will.

 

[Fixed to Ruin]

One idea i thought was kinda cool would be if a large and vocal group went to Calgary and spent the whole games showing off their paper bags, fire lowe, fire mact signs and chant their displeasure towards management.

Rexall staff would confiscate all this stuff but in Calgary they wouldn't care one bit.

 

[member 145483]

Apples vs gears. Not even remotely comparable.

If Montreal fans stopped showing up long enough to affect the league. The NHL would step in. They will not relocate the Canadiens.

If Edmonton fans stop showing up long enough to affect the league. The Oilers are off to greener pastures. The NHL bailed us out once, they won't do it again.

We have a much finer line to walk in comparison to the 401 that Montreal/Leafs/ O-6 teams fans can parade up and down.

 

[hawks889]

Stop showing up to the games , selling out every game for the last 5 years during this rebuild time and still filling the building just tells katz that all is good financially if season ticket renewals for next season continue at near capacity with a waiting list still intact what incentive is there for a business owner to Change.
If a restaurant continually offered bad food and awful customer service but was packed every night does the owner think my restaurant needs to change. Obviously in pro sports by continually not making the playoffs you are losing out on that extra playoff revenue and playoff style merchandise like the run of 2006 with all the car flags t-shirts etc.
Obviously mr.katz prefers to run his team as a boys club and not a properly managed hockey team . The results speak for themselves but if he chooses to stand pat the only course of action for is the consumer to speak with there wallet because without customers there is no hockey team here

 

[488fitter]

There's too many non-Oiler fans in Edmonton due to work, that a large amount of people will always go to the games just to watch some hockey for a night out. There's also far too many Oiler fans that will never practice what they preach.

 

[Tarus]

If a team in those types of markets decides to tank, they don't need to ask permission of the fanbase, and half of Montreal would probably buy the hype about rebuilding(at least for a little while anyways). There really is just nothing a rabid fanbase like Montreal or Edmonton could do except not consume the product, which is unlikely due to the passion people hold for the brands.

Couple of the bigger problems specific to Edmonton is that the management group is pretty much walled off from reality due to their egos, and quite clearly have a decent level of contempt for the people who make up the fanbase. Protest is stifled, the media is pacified, and they can dismiss any complaints about the capabilities of the management group as a vocal minority due to the fact there is no one to stand up and represent the fans in this situation.

It's just kind of a s****y situation no matter how you look at it.

 

[CantHaveTkachev]

Stop buying tickets, its really that simple...hit Katz in his pocket book

the CBJ game there must've been a couple thousand empty seats but they were probably paid for

until people stop buying season tickets (never happen) and mini-packs, what incentive does Katz have to change this floundering organization?
yes, he's got his palace and empire being built downtown and yes, its quite clear he couldn't care less about the state of the team..unless its to leverage them for a new arena
but maybe, just maybe, seeing no one showing up for games in his new palace will change his tune

 

[ponokanocker]

Stop showing up to the games , selling out every game for the last 5 years during this rebuild time and still filling the building just tells katz that all is good financially if season ticket renewals for next season continue at near capacity with a waiting list still intact what incentive is there for a business owner to Change.
If a restaurant continually offered bad food and awful customer service but was packed every night does the owner think my restaurant needs to change. Obviously in pro sports by continually not making the playoffs you are losing out on that extra playoff revenue and playoff style merchandise like the run of 2006 with all the car flags t-shirts etc.
Obviously mr.katz prefers to run his team as a boys club and not a properly managed hockey team . The results speak for themselves but if he chooses to stand pat the only course of action for is the consumer to speak with there wallet because without customers there is no hockey team here

This. Stop going people FFS! You are your own worst enemy. Fans are equivalent to the parent that is still letting their 25 year old kid live at home rent free, feeding them and buying them video games. It's never going to end until you stand up and so "NO MORE". Grow a back bone already and learn how to entertain yourself other than going and watching the worst team in professional sports. How is spending hundreds of dollars on a brutal team even entertaining?

 

[PaPaDee]

I'm not sure anything will work. Given everything else that has been done with no success, the only other option is to boycott the team and not support it in anyway. Would that get the result or would Katz threaten to move the team?

 

[SupremeTeam16]

There's too many non-Oiler fans in Edmonton due to work, that a large amount of people will always go to the games just to watch some hockey for a night out. There's also far too many Oiler fans that will never practice what they preach.

Pretty much this.

We live in a province where companies and people have too much disposable income. While hardcore fans are fed up, the masses are just people who don't religiously follow hockey they don't give a **** whether the team wins or loses they are just going for the "pro sport experience"

With Oil prices down I think hockey tickets to see a garbage team will be the first thing alot of companies and individuals will cut out of their budgets.

I'm an outside salesman for a company in the oil and gas industry and I know we are renewing our seasons for the Eskies and the Oil Kings but not the Oilers next season.

When the Oilers contacted our company owner about renewing his season tickets and he expressed that he wasn't a huge company and couldn't justify the cost when he is having the lay-off employees, they basically tried to scare him by saying "well you forfeit your right to advanced season tickets sales in the new arena and you could be waiting years before you get another chance to purchase"

 

[ponokanocker]

I'm not sure anything will work. Given everything else that has been done with no success, the only other option is to boycott the team and not support it in anyway. Would that get the result or would Katz threaten to move the team?

The league knows how unbelievable the fans are here. They can also clearly see what a joke the owner is for letting this go on like this. Katz won't threaten to relocate considering how much money he is set to get by the new arena being built around all the area he owns. The league may step in and force his hand to bring in competent management or sell the team if fans stop coming. While each team is there own business, they are still a part of the overall league, which is a combined business.

 

[missinthejets]

But we ended up getting into a conversation about how fans in montreal would react if they had an old boys club regime and were losing at the rate the oilers were losing. He told me that montreal would literally explode if the habs were this bad for this long. He said the fans would not take it. There is much more continuity and unity among fans in montreal and he said they would find a way to get rid of management no matter what the cost.

it's really easy to say that in a hypothetical world, but Habs fans would react the exact same way that Oiler fans have.

 

[Dorian2]

This is all I can come up with. Might work though.

 

[Gunnersaurus Rex]

Stop buying tickets, its really that simple...hit Katz in his pocket book

the CBJ game there must've been a couple thousand empty seats but they were probably paid for

until people stop buying season tickets (never happen) and mini-packs, what incentive does Katz have to change this floundering organization?
yes, he's got his palace and empire being built downtown and yes, its quite clear he couldn't care less about the state of the team..unless its to leverage them for a new arena
but maybe, just maybe, seeing no one showing up for games in his new palace will change his tune

This.

Stop putting $$$ in to the team and they'll get the picture soon enough.

 

[beaterson]

Once we have an arena downtown we can riot downtown and make our downtown an even uglier downtown.

I'm doing my part, havent spent a penny on the team since '13. It's all about the incentive. Our greasy owner's just getting more greasy rich, lowe watches, and mactavish films it, so they're all happy. Still not too sure about Nicholson, and Laforge is just happy to have a job. The sheep eat it all up like a bunch of sheep.

Come to think of it, I can see how Katz is a billionaire.

And I think Bettman has way bigger fish to fry than making our city of 800k a good hockey city (cause it ain't anymore).

 

[SupremeTeam16]

The league knows how unbelievable the fans are here. They can also clearly see what a joke the owner is for letting this go on like this. Katz won't threaten to relocate considering how much money he is set to get by the new arena being built around all the area he owns. The league may step in and force his hand to bring in competent management or sell the team if fans stop coming. While each team is there own business, they are still a part of the overall league, which is a combined business.

The other thing I was thinking is that Rogers has a huuge vested interest in the Oilers. Between the fact that the new arena has their name on it and they are touting it as this state of the art arena. They also have a 700 million dollar expansion in Alberta. You take into consideration the tv deal and the new arena and they probably want the Oilers to be one of their marquee draws. So it would highly benefit them for the team not to be a complete an utter embarassing failure.

 

[Gunnersaurus Rex]

Our company is a smaller one. We have 2 sets of 2 seats. Had a heck of a time giving the tickets away this year and had a number of games where the tickets went unused. Considering dropping one of the pairs for next season. People just can't be bothered to go, even with free tickets. By the time they pay for parking, lousy food and terrible beers, the "free" tickets will cost them around $100. Not worth it.

 

[Replacement*]

What are we doing wrong? In this neck of the woods we are a pleasant people to a fault. A people that will take anything, grumble, complain, and keep doing what we are doing. Whether the implications of this involve bread, livelihood, housing, economy, etc. We're good at bending over to be frank.

Another characteristic in this fanbase is that no matter how bad things are here you got an ample portion of the vocal fanbase defending any and all actions of the org. Which is like ice on fire. Just dampens any spirit of discontent. Completely contrasts it and turns everything into idle debate rather than consensus building.

In short we aren't in the prairies (at least west of Winnipeg) activist about anything. We never really have been. I can't veer on the political happenings over the last century that would perfectly illustrate this point but they are there.

People are contrasting Montreal with Edmonton and saying Montreal wouldn't take it. This is probably correct. The younger crowd won't be very familiar with this event;
http://www.thehockeynews.com/blog/o...sary-of-the-maurice-richard-riot-in-montreal/

Now that was in response to a suspension, a league ruling and that elicited fullscale rioting around the city, in and around the Forum, complete with tear gas, fires, violence etc.

We had our own *riots* on Whyte Avenue but rather than being expressions of discontent they were warped drunken reactions to the team having success in the playoffs. A bizarre footnote that is imprinted indelibly in this clubs last good moment.

Now imagine in Montreal if they announced that they had traded Rocket Richard, Guy Lafleur, or a whole team etc. What do you think the reaction would be? In Edmonton the best hockey player in the history of the game was traded, and a whole championship team was traded and we complained, we hummed and hawed, we kicked a chair, gave Pocklington a collective finger and carried on, as we always do. No way in Montreal would such an event be allowed. People would use every means of expression, activism, protest, to stop that and demand change. I don't even want to consider the depth of the reaction that would occur in Montreal to trading a dynastic team away for peanuts and personal gain.

This post is in no way advocating any alternate means but if we want to talk about differences they are clear.

 

[Mc5RingsAndABeer]

Part of it is the redneck, unintelligent mentality of Alberta. If you express any discontent regarding the Oilers you're branded as an unpatriotic bandwagoner. The Oilers organization has masterfully manipulated the media to marginalize people that would try to effect change, and the morons saying people aren't true fans are leading the charge.