From: gerry@skatter.usask.ca
Subject: Re: Fickle Edmonton Fans(Was Re: Damphouse)
Organization: University of Saskatchewan
Date: Mon, 31 Aug 1992 09:33:04 GMT

From article <mF99PB1w165w@ersys.edmonton.ab.ca>, by rajb@ersys.edmonton.ab.ca (Raj Bal):
> - team) is the fickleness of their fans. It really grinds on me that a city wit
> - 
> - Edmontonians have shown their fickleness with the Eskimos and now its coming
> - out with the Oilers. It isn't surprising at all to me that their attendance
> - is down, I expected it to happen once the team became only good rather than
> - great.
> - 
> - City of Champions == City of Chumps.
> - 
> - Gerald "Just a little disgusted with the 'Fans' in Edmonton" Gryschuk
> - --
> - Gerald Gryschuk            Saskatoon,Saskatchewan = a place with 9 months
> - gerry@sask.usask.ca           of hockey and 3 months of poor skating.
> - Go Habs!!!
> 
> Well, I think its unfair to pick on just Oilers and the City of Edmonton. 
>  Boston and just about every other team in the league also had 
> considrably less people attend their games.  As far the Esks go they are 
> ALWAYS supported in this town their usually well above average attendance 
> and generally attract 50,000+ for at least one of their games each 
> season.  As far the so called Post-Gretzky-Trauma goes I  would have to 
> agree with Gerald G., its all bull. The majority of Oilers fans have 
> recovered.

Well Raj, the other Gerald's article was about Edmonton, had it been about
Boston, maybe I would have ragged on them, probably not though since I don't
even have subjective evidence as to what kind of (sports) fans live in Boston.

Raj, the subjective evidence that bread my dislike for Edmonton sports fans,
initially came after the Esks won 3 or 4 out of 5 Grey cups in the mid '80s.
Those Eskimo teams were some of the best ever in the CFL, but as soon as the
Esks became merely good again their attendance dropped significantly. If you
had lived in Saskatchewan at this time maybe you would understand. Since the
Roughriders were so shitty for 10 years but were still able to attract almost
capacity crowds(probably an average of 25000 in a ~27000 seat arena) for most
of those seasons, seeing a good team(the Esks) get what could only be said to
be mediocre attendance(compared to their past) bothered me. (Similarly it does
bother me now that the Roughriders aren't drawing so well this year
considering the talent on their team).(Sorry to other r.s.h. readers for the
inclusion of football, but considering the topic this is relevant).

> 
>   One more reason that Oilers attendance is slightly down would be that 
> the regular season really means NOTHING, and the Oilers as a franchise 
> are always quick to point this out until it comes time to sell season 
> tickets...but then the regular season is a whole different topic that i 
> hope i don't get involved in..........

Sorry but this doesn't cut it either, I would kill(not literally) to have an
NHL franchise in Saskatoon so that I could better be able to see even regular
season NHL hockey. Sure the regular season is meaningless as far as playoff
positions go, it is not meaningless however in the sense that people are still
being treated to (probably) the best calibre of hockey in the world. This also
doesn't give any explanation for the Oiler's not being sold out during the
past season's playoffs.

> 
> Raj
> 
> Raj Bal              rajb@ersys.edmonton.ab.ca 
--
Gerald Gryschuk            Saskatoon,Saskatchewan = a place with 9 months
gerry@sask.usask.ca           of hockey and 3 months of poor skating.
Go Habs!!!