New Edmonton Arena Construction will begin in March 2014

[Cecil Terwilliger]

What We Learned: At least you’re not an Edmonton Oilers fan

We're all going through a pretty tough time right now. Preseason games are already canceled league-wide, and even if you don't like preseason games — glorified AHL games featuring two players you've heard of — what the lack of those games portends is at least significant.

But even if this affects you more deeply than other fans -- such as if you're a season-ticket holder or had one of your planned handful of trips to the rink slated for early October -- you can lean back in your chair right now and be thankful that your team isn't actively trying to wage a psychological war on you.

That is, if you're a fan of any team but the Edmonton Oilers.

In case you've not heard, the Oilers are going through a bit of a situation right now. The Edmonton City Council was all set to help owner Darryl Katz fund the construction of a new arena, which is probably needed because Rexall Place is a decrepit hellhole, as well as a business district designed to revitalize the city's downtown area.Now Katz wants more money because of… well, I'm pretty sure there's a good reason.

First Katz started making noise about how if the city doesn't give him the money, they might not be able to build the arena at all. That quickly devolved into his more or less threatening to move the team to who-knows-where and take with it all the promise that its current young roster plainly holds. Larry Brooks was right when he called it a shakedown.

Oilers fans are getting edgy. The prospect of the team moving out of a hockey-crazy market like Edmonton seems slim, especially with so few viable relocation options currently anywhere in the US or Canada. Plus, what with all the warring over revenues at the league level, it seems more likely that Gary Bettman would try to force Katz to sell the team rather than let him just move it to Kansas City or wherever.

Nonetheless, this hasn't stopped the Oilers themselves from trying to leverage that ill feeling among its fanbase into pressure on the city council itself. The situation may have come to a head on Saturday night, when the team's official Twitter feed retweeted a story from John MacKinnon, who seems to think the whole thing has gotten a bit silly if nothing else.
The text of that tweet?

"Oilers not locked into [Edmonton]. [Arena] deal fail would mean loss of NHL club."

In it, MacKinnon said that for local residents, ponying up the extra money Katz wants is probably a preferable outcome to losing the team altogether.

That the Oilers' official feed retweeted the story says a lot: That this is the kind of depth to which the organization is willing to stoop to get what it wants, and perhaps that the Journal, which has been a hype man for Katz not unlike the Mouth of Sauron these past several months, is going to function as a propagandist for the duration of the war.

This is deplorable stuff from the Oilers and Katz, essentially telling the fans that if they don't start leaning on their city council members, and by extension fund the arena deal with money out of their own pockets, then they will lose their team. The move is cartoonish in its cynical villainy, holding a city's love of a bad hockey team hostage to bilk taxpayers out of $25 million more than they'd already committed to the project. The way things are going Katz is about a week away from building a giant machine to block out the sun.

He's within his rights to do it, I guess, but he doesn't have to be such a [expletive] about it.

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nhl-pu...6562--nhl.html

I added the emphasis on my favorite parts. Especially the last highlighted line comparing Katz to Mr Burns.

[Locke]

Originally Posted by shermanator

Right now, 20000 seats is way to big for FC Edmonton. Getting 5000 in a 20000 seat stadium will suck the atmosphere away, which is a huge part of building the brand.

What the team should do is build a phased stadium, which allows for expansion of up to 20000, but start at 10000. San Antonio is doing their new stadium in this fashion.

I've seen a few soccer games at Commonwealth stadium and that my friend is one grim experience.

You could have open gunplay with automatic weapons in the lower bowl and not hit anyone.

[Flash Walken]

Originally Posted by Locke

I've seen a few soccer games at Commonwealth stadium and that my friend is one grim experience.

You could have open gunplay with automatic weapons in the lower bowl and not hit anyone.

Sounds like a marketing idea for Klondike Days.

[Reanimate]

Katz is a moron. Taking a hard stance like this is building some pretty terrible feelings from even the most hardcore fan here in Edmonton.

[MrMastodonFarm]

Originally Posted by Reanimate

Katz is a moron. Taking a hard stance like this is building some pretty terrible feelings from even the most hardcore fan here in Edmonton.

Katz might have had the most goodwill of any owner of any respective fan base. It's downright hilarious to see it being pissed away in the last month.

[Reanimate]

Originally Posted by MrMastodonFarm

Katz might have had the most goodwill of any owner of any respective fan base. It's downright hilarious to see it being pissed away in the last month.

He is either not very smart or getting too much advice from the wonder dip####s Tambellini and Lowe.

[Muta]

Huuuuuge fan of the potential for a new soccer-specific stadium in Edmonton. About damn time, if you ask me. Registration for soccer is four times that what hockey is.

This facility, combined with the newly-announced Vancouver Whitecaps Training Centre at UBC gives me hope that soccer is starting to see the growth it deserves in Western Canada. I know that the idea of a new indoor soccer pitch has been tossed around in Calgary, so hopefully we see something one day where Vancouver, Calgary and Edmonton all have MLS franchises!

Now, back to arena discussion...

[Erick Estrada]

Originally Posted by Muta

Huuuuuge fan of the potential for a new soccer-specific stadium in Edmonton. About damn time, if you ask me. Registration for soccer is four times that what hockey is.

I enjoy watching my boys play soccer. Professional soccer not so much.

[Muta]

Originally Posted by Erick Estrada

I enjoy watching my boys play soccer. Professional soccer not so much.

And this has to do with, what?

[Cecil Terwilliger]

Originally Posted by Muta

And this has to do with, what?

You referenced soccer registration being 4x hockey. IMO EE is correct in pointing out that there has yet to be any sort of direct correlation in Canada between high youth participation and desire for pro level teams amonst the general populace.

[jayswin]

Originally Posted by Cecil Terwilliger

You referenced soccer registration being 4x hockey. IMO EE is correct in pointing out that there has yet to be any sort of direct correlation in Canada between high youth participation and desire for pro level teams amonst the general populace.

Yep, higher registration than hockey has to do with soccer being an affordable option for parents to register their kids in a team sport. If it's soccer or no sports, they're going to choose soccer. If hockey cost the same as soccer, you wouldn't have what you see today.

Which is why the "Registration for soccer is four times that what hockey is", doesn't automatically lead to a nation frothing at the mouth for competitve soccer to go watch. Certainly, it's growing, but a large portion of youth soccer is parents throwing their kids in an affordable sports option.

There's a very large percentage of canadian parents that simply can't afford to put their kids in hockey.

[jayswin]

BTW Cecil, I just picked your post to feed off of, was responding to Muta.

[MrMastodonFarm]

Even when I was a kid soccer registration was always higher then hockey. It's a great and cheap summertime sport. Most kids I knew growing up who played hockey in the winter registered for hockey and/or baseball in the summer.

[Cecil Terwilliger]

Actually re-reading Muta's post I assumed he was referring to the soccer stadium as if it is a precussor to an Alberta based MLS team.

Perhaps he didn't mean to draw the comparison between youth registration and the chances of getting an MLS team and was simply pointing out that it is nice that public funding is actually going towards soccer stuff and not just new rinks.

All of that is off topic though. Edmonton sucks and even if they did get an MLS team I couldn't cheer for them, even though I typically prescribe to the "cheer for my local team and if we don't have one cheer for the only other Canadian/regional option" (a la Blue Jays, Whitecaps/TFC).

[BACKCHECK!!!]

I have to say that I'm not happy about this.

I want to see the Oilers remain viable, and stay in Edmonton so the Flames can continue to beat them.

I also don't like to see people get ripped off by greedy billionaires.

Perhaps the best outcome would be for the City to muscle Katz out of the project, fund the entire thing, and then charge the Oilers exorbitant amounts of rent?

[Locke]

Originally Posted by Flash Walken

Sounds like a marketing idea for Klondike Days.

I think many people in Edmonton already believe that this type of behaviour is currently acceptable, their chosen medium however is still knifeplay.

[Plett25]

According to Forbes, the Oilers are 15th in revenue despite playing in the 3rd smallest & 3rd oldest arena and finishing 30th, 30th and 29th in the last 3 seasons.

Katz bought the Oilers 4 or 5 years ago. And since then, only one arena has been built. That means that Katz bought a team with one of the oldest/smallest arenas in the league and that's what he still has.

Here's a list of cities with better teams and bigger, newer arenas: Tampa Bay, Buffalo, Dallas, Washington, San Jose, Phoenix, St. Louis, Columbus, Miami, Nashville, Denver and Anaheim. Each of those teams generates less revenue than the Oilers.

Does Katz really believe that he'd generate more revenue in KC or Seattle? He won't and he knows it. He's bluffing.

[Cowboy89]

^That's where as an Alberta taxpayer I want the Oilers and Flames to pound sand. The Oilers and Flames have no problem generating revenue ranking in the top half of the league since the last lockout in their 'outdated' facilities. There's simply no other relocation alternative in North America short of the GTA where you can have a season ticket waiting list at the prices the Flames and Oilers charge for tickets. With that in mind there's no fataing way either team is going anywhere (and if they did, then one of America's ailing franchises would no doubt love to move in). Katz should fund his own new arena and stop with the underlying message that the team's future in Edmonton hangs in the balance.

The whole 'small market team' in the heartland of hockey needs a public arena subsidy to survive and compete in the 'big league' narritive is a decade past the point in time in which it had an factual relevance. For the NHL, Calgary and Edmonton are big league cities unless they want to contract all the way back down to 6 teams.

[MissTeeks]

Ah, mindgames!

https://twitter.com/IanKJR

Breaking. A group representing the #Edmonton Oilers, including team president, owner was in Seattle today taking a tour of Key Arena. #NHL

[MissTeeks]

John Shannon ‏@JSportsnet
@SportsnetSpec can report that DKatz is indeed in Seattle. Informal meeting with Chris Hanson was planned for this afternoon.

The legislation for the new Seattle arena was approved by City counsel today:

Chris Daniels ‏@ChrisDaniels5
BREAKING - Seattle City Council APPROVES #SeattleArena legislation 6-2