From: gerry@skatter.usask.ca
Subject: Fickle Edmonton Fans(Was Re: Damphouse)
Organization: University of Saskatchewan
Date: Sun, 30 Aug 1992 01:21:00 GMT

From article <1992Aug29.000810.16065@alchemy.chem.utoronto.ca>, by golchowy@alchemy.chem.utoronto.ca (Gerald Olchowy):
> In article <1992Aug28.202701.6585@dragon.acadiau.ca> 890491g@dragon.acadiau.ca (Don Graves) writes:
>>
>>	Well, in my opinion, the Oilers will NEVER have it as good as
>>they had it in the 80's when they had Gretz, Coffey and the boys.  It's a
>>shame that the hockey standards in Edmonton aren't so high anymore because,
>>since the fans were a bit spoiled from it, they now don't really care about
>>the Oilers (well, not as much as they used to).
>>
> 
[some lines deleted...]
> 
> The fans are still in post-Gretzky-trauma syndrome...however there is a method
> to Sather's "madness"...he's not going to make the mistakes Bill Torrey
> made...the Oilers are still in transition to the post-Gretzky era and
> this is aggravated by the financial re-ordering of the league.

Post-Gretzky-Trauma Syndrome? Is that a polite name for Fickle-Fan-Anemia?

Still in transition? The Oiler's are going into their *fifth* year
without Gretzky, exactly how long is this "transition" supposed to take and
what is the expected result? As you said, the Oiler's have won one SC in 3
years and been in the final four the past 3 years. I don't call that a 
transition I call it carrying on a tradition.
> 
> The Oilers are extremely well-positioned to be a good team on the ice
> during the nineties...when the recession is over and the roster
> stabilizes a bit more, the fans will be back.  It would have been
> extremely easy for Sather to stand pat and not make bold changes... 
> to be content with mediocrity rather than gambling on excellence.
> 

The Oilers have been a good team continuously since they started winning
SC's. Sure at times they have perhaps been surprisingly better then "people"
expected, but that generally implies that the "people" didn't know what they
were talking about.

Gerald your comments about Sather are well spoken, I have no complaints with
them. But your attempts at letting Edmontonians off the hook simply don't
cut it. If the recession has hurt the Oilers(attendance) why hasn't it hurt
the Flames? Both cities have pretty similar demographics(i.e. the majority of
their economy is generated from Oil). My older brother(a big Oiler fan) and I
drove from Saskatoon to catch the last game of the Oiler vs. Kings series last
year. Now I would have thought it should be hard to get tickets. Yeah right!
It wasn't difficult at all and the most disgusting part was that the game
wasn't sold out.

By biggest reason for disliking the Oiler franchise(rather than the players or
team) is the fickleness of their fans. It really grinds on me that a city with
so many people can't get 17000 (~7-10% of the *adult* pop.) out to their
games. If fans in Edmonton don't want a team that only occasionnally wins a
SC but plays well enough to always be in the hunt, well that's fine by me
they can just send it East about 4 hours, Saskatoon will show them what fan
support means. 

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.

> But then the Oilers aren't the Washington Capitals!
> 
> Gerald
> 

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!!!