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Edmonton is a city that will support the team when it's not a ******* clownshoes organization and starts winning again.

Edmonton has seen the Oilers take off and the CFL franchise decline. Mega $$$ to get into Oilers games too. There's huge competition there. We've seen similar in Winnipeg except the CFL team did a better job of selling their product and the NHL team is struggling to get people in because they got very passive with marketing from early success. The difference between the venues in Edmonton now couldn't be more stark. Commonwealth reminds me of Winnipeg Enterprises era at the stadium and arena here. Like literally same style of concessions and everything, at least was pre-pandemic. Hardly any capital poured into that place in the last 20-25 years since World T&F. Put in some new seats....lipstick on a pig. And their rink is probably the nicest one in the NHL now, big, bright, all kinds of stuff going on around the games, top notch concessions and marketing. Alberta government budget is like $85 billion. If they spent put 0.2% of that over 5 years into state of the art outdoor stadiums for Edmonton and Calgary they'd be set for the next 60 years. But it's not a priority at all.

The places with tons of world-class pro facilities for many sports, are far poorer than we are up here. At the end of the day, it's the taxpayers who foot most of the bill for these mega venues, and then get zero monetary value back. It's not sustainable at all, and especially on this slippery road to recession, it's a quick way to ruin. You'd be surprised, actually. Build a cheap place to get in and drink with a ton of built-in atmosphere, and a reason to cheer/boo/react strongly, and young people come in droves. I've got an army of young cousins who didn't grow up CFL fans, but who have been branded into the game day experience. Not just here either, BC too. The reality is that high-level pro sports events in Canada are extremely limited. Hockey is prohibitively expensive and not sustainable at all for the huge majority of young fans. MLB and NBA are Toronto-locked. The Sea Bears have picked up on this, and the Goldeyes have been doing it for ages. You don't even need a physical Rum hut, though it does bring serious scalability. That's with the CEBL and AA being a strong tier below the CFL. Does anyone think that if you changed the name from Sea Bears to Blizzard, you would see an immediate jump in popularity? If you are a bad team in the CFL, you don't draw fans. That is always first and foremost.

The lack of attendance is not because of the name change. If the owner thinks reverting the name will gain good will and bring back people to the games... then he is a moron. The stadium, the bad teams, the fans aging out.. much larger factors. Seriously Wade Miller needs to be cloned in all of the cities , they do not know how to market and get people to the game for the non-football festivities. Young people spend ridiculous cover charges and over priced drinks to get out and meet people... offer the young people fair priced drinks and a fun hut that serves rum... get the ladies out and it will then cause the men to follow and spend big money. Families always want to get out (I know other cities have way more options then Winnipeg) but still an affordable family event is always desired. Old people... well I'm not sure what brings them out... maybe promise them some prune juice and a free news paper? These cities need to make more of an effort to draw a crowd.

Any fan that doesn't come to Edmonton games because they want to call them Eskimos is not a fan I want to be around... I 100% agree that spring football doesn't work for casual fans. It's meant to be a summertime sport.

Yes. This isn’t just cfl related. Concerts are being cancelled because tickets aren’t selling.

no chance. The demographic isn’t what it was 8-10 years ago. The only markets with growth or decent crowds are no longer old people. The old fans are a larger piece of the tv viewership but if you look around any decent market today you see a ton more young people then old. That’s part of the real problem, and the solution to attendance issues isn’t to pander to the boomer generation more. Built a rum hut complete with atmosphere and you’ll see way more fans in edmonton then by changing the name back. Edmonton filled the stadium with young people for a soccer game in bad weather. Branding isn’t the issue. general economic situation isn’t helping, but for rum hut type fans you can have a pretty cheap night out in the cfl. The dip hit before the economy dipped and it didn’t bounce back like much of the live entertainment scene.

KSB is such a knob

The stadiums in Alberta are like the third circle of hell. Just terrible facilities and they keep putting lipstick on the pigs.

There was nothing wrong with the Eskimo name and changing it was 'political correctness' run amok A group sitting in their 'ivory tower' decided to push for the change ...even though the people who they claimed were denigrated by the name, were not offended at all...in fact some actually expressed they liked the historic name...As for the name 'honkey' used by the locals in the Peg, didn't strike me as being that offensive...Now if you're talking 'hunky' ...that could rise the ire of a few, however there was a local business guy who used to sell a lot of perogies in Winnipeg and he called 'himself' Hunky Bill...I don't think anybody was offended by it in fact they supported Bill and his perogies whole heartedly...I guess in the end it depends on whose ox is being gored and who in their 'ivory tower' are focusing their nonsense on next

The name Eskimos was offensive and racist. It's no different than calling a team the Winnipeg Honkies. Teams need to learn from Winnipeg and focus on marketing. Rum Huts, community visits, sponsoring lower level football leagues, having events like school division flag football days at PAS.

Summarize what happened in Edmonton since 2009 as Tillman, Ed Hervey, Chris Jones and the cast of characters in their wake as the board panicked more and more as the bottom fell out over the last 20 years.

Have to wonder if the attendance being down in a lot of venues is also a reflection of the economy right now. Hamilton has been hit pretty hard by tariffs etc.

Commonwealth stadium is no where near as bad as McMahon Stadium.

Shocking. Move the season up and only Winnipeg is full. Football is a warm weather summer sport here. Kids still in school, thought we tried this b4 and it failed. It’s failing again.

Spring football isn't a popular spectator sport on either side of the border.

Good points but about the name & your comments. The CEBL has been around for 3 years & a bit. fans aren't branded to the name. It could be changed to the Raindrops & no one would care. The Eskimos are tradition. They've won won 15 Grey Cups. Generations became vested in the team. The name change happened with no consultation with the Edmonton fanbase. Look at the Alouettes in Montreal. They brought the same name back from 80 years ago when the team was founded in 1946 & folded in 1986. They could have called the team anything else in 1996 when they came back but they used Alouettes as the city wanted it. The Winnipeg Jets name was brought back when the Thrasherstransferred to Winnipeg much to the joy of the fans in Winnipeg. Other names were rumoured but the fans wanted Jets. Imagine the reaction if the Bombers changed their name because some sponsors felt the name Bombers was a war monger word & they threatened to pull their advertising if the name wasn't changed. And it was done with no consultation with the fans at all. There would be outrage. As I said, I used to think like you. That a name isn't important. Just change the name & get on with it. However, with what we keep seeing at CWS, perhaps the decision to change the name should be revisited. That's all I'm saying.

Winning teams are very helpful, but I lived in Saskatchewan during some of the rider lean years, and the fan base did not collapse, although there were those who left. The Rider Reps program had representatives in every community of any size who organized car pools, parties to watch away games, distribute merchandise and host players to meet fans. I never became a Rider fan, but had to admire the organization.

Did we not used to have a happy honker award? I'm not opposed to the name change! FTR - As someone who has worked alongside Inuits, the term Eskimo is not derogatory to the locals. It's much more of a fabricated controversy that some extreme liberal white folks generated. I also wouldn't associate the city of Edmonton with the term Eskimo. It would be like calling us the Winnipeg Mountains or the Saskatchewan Non-inbreeders.... I'd rather the league also have a week or maybe alternate each year where they have specifically Inuit art jerseys compared to the more traditional lower mainland Indigenous communities. Inuit art is really awesome and unique.

The name Eskimos is offensive to a certain group of mostly white people. I'm an old white guy, and I'd have no problem with the Winnipeg Whitemen. I suspect the same group of white people who find Eskimos offensive would find Whitemen equally offensive. Changing the team's name to placate one group of people also pisses off another group. That said, the name change has little to nothing to do with the lack of fans in the stands & changing it back wouldn't either.

Young white people are not having kids and the fans are all aging out. Its a sad slow demise. The only way to get people at the games is making it an experience for young people....so a rum hut is the ultimate solution.

CFL has lost generations of fans in pretty all of the markets and they ain’t getting them back any time soon

The new Stamps uniforms really are awful. Weird number font. “CGY” plastered all over. Mono colour PJ look.

Nah, he is a super knob

Also it’s not just the rum hut here. The rum hut is really for the young ones who don’t want to remember the game.

the struggles in attendance are far broader than edmontons name change as you can see reflected in calgary, ottawa, hamilton and toronto. It’s a far bigger contributing factor that edmonton has been a dumpster fire of an organization that entire time., Blaming the elk name change is like blaming the old bombers thunderbolt for the dark era in the late 90s. The league, aside from the riders and us, whove been league back bones by a large margin, and bc who has seen massive effort and expense to bring them back, has been a gigantic mess since covid. Changing the name wouldn’t make a damn bit of difference. I’m sure we’ve seen this before too, I just can’t remember when. It’s not impossible to make sprint or early football work, but it’s damn hard. Making early football and such a long season work though, that might be impossible up here. Atleast to do and make a profit.

2011 was supposed to be the last year at the old stadium originally but delays made it 2012. The 29k had more to do with ppl thinking it was the last season there.

And you know it’s true because Ottawa can’t stop changing their name and their stands are empty too.

DT doing the Riders/Stamps game

I get it it's raining but did the fans in Edmonton not know there was a game today, it's pitiful what's happened in that city in terms of the CFL.

Ottawa and Toronto both look awful so far. They'll hype the hell out of Kelly but he's lucky he didn't throw about 12 picks in that one. He's got nothing on the ball, but some great receivers.

Isn't part of coaching trying to figure out how to use rules to your benefit?

Rankin is gonna eat our D alive. He gonna go over 300 running.

Chris Morris complained how much a disaster it was changing the name. Went on to say how hard it is to sell tickets. He said they won't change the name back which the fanbase seems to want. No real proof indigenous people in the Arctic or Alberta were against the name Eskimos in great numbers in the first place. Get woke. Go broke.