Quote:
Originally Posted by CliffFletcher
The building is always full because it's NHL hockey, and there's a lot of money in Edmonton and not much else to spend it on. Product doesn't have much to do with (nor does it in Calgary).
Darryl Sutter's final years here weren't quite as bad as Lowe's recent run in Edmonton, but every hockey watcher outside Calgary knew the Flames were a slow-motion trainwreck. And yet a lot of fans still had blinkers on and wouldn't listen to a word about a rebuild, or trading Iginla. The hardcore Oilers fans share that us-against-the-world, a-rebound-is-just-around-the-corner attitude. Edmonton just has more than its share of those blindly faithful fans than most cities.
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Yeah I don't know if I buy that. The Eskimos used to average over 40,000 per game for decades and recently their attendance has eroded as the team has become the CFL equivalent of the Oilers. I recall 3/4 full buildings in the 90's in Edmonton just as there was in Calgary during the young guns years. Flames are getting pardoned this season because it's really the first year of the rebuild but if this rebuild goes as poorly as Edmonton's I don't believe there will be full houses in the Saddledome as some fans will find better things to do with their time and money than watch a perennial loser and bad product. Ottawa doesn't sell out now and they have a tem that makes or competes for the playoffs.
It's different with the Oilers. Every offseason the media (all local and even some national) hypes their talent like the next season is going to be the one where they turn the corner and go from worst to playoffs. Edmonton fans fall for it hook and sinker every single season. I really need to start keeping all these offseason texts from Oilers fans as it's the same thing every year from them. It's like their hope is eternal no matter how bad the reality is. Maybe that's a really good fanbase or maybe it's the reality of an extremely delusional fanbase that keeps getting sucked into buying the same turd with the glistening polish of offseason hype. Kevin Lowe the leader of the old boys club needs to get shown the door (not even debatable at this point) for that team to ever get out of it's funk but that's just not going to happen as long as they keep selling out so it seems the fans are playing a role in the mess.