With Rookie Camps getting underway Wednesday, it's time to talk about the 2026 CFL season!

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

Edited June 21Jun 21 by JohnnyAbonny

50 minutes ago, SpeedFlex27 said:

The way I see it. Change the name back to Eskimos & you attract another 25000 fans to the games at CWS. people can pull out their old Eskimo gear & wear it with pride again. Remember, the demographic of CFL fans are older so they have experienced tradition. Take that away & it makes peoplke angry. The Eskimo fanbase wasn't consulted. it was a unilateral decision by the BOD's. They rightly felt excluded & not heard. They're letting the tone deaf Elks organization know how they feel with their wallets & the team refuses to listen. Someone on the Internet is saying the Elks should move to Quebec City. Maybe they should.

Calgary's issue is stadium & ownership. McMahon is a dump. Fans no longer want to go watch the Stamps. Throw in an owner who doesn't care about the fans or the team & you have tons of apathy. They need a new owner. Someone who is engaged with the fans. As well as a new building.

Ottawa is the team. A decade of shitty management & coaching. Nothing ever changes. Fans thought Ryan Dinwiddie would come in & instantly turn things around. pretty hard when Dinwioddie plays Jake Maier over Dru brown. Which tells you just how bad Browna ctually is. No leadership sills at all. Average arm. Injury prone. I see atrade coming for Nick Arbuckle & soon. Give Ottawa a winning team & the fans will come back.

Hamilton is an enigma. Haven't won a Grey Cup in 28 years. They have the best qb in the CFL right now. He's on fire. They have the best receiving corps & a young exciting running back. Defense looks like it's championship calibre. And they can't get more than 15000-20000 to the games. Go figure.

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.

43 minutes ago, kelownabomberfan said:

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

2 hours ago, wbbfan said:

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.

It'll take more than a Rum Hut to get the fans back in edmonton. I used to think the same as you. A name is a name is a name. Who cares, right? After what we've seen, we have to consider that the decision was wrong. Morris is whining how hard the team has it since the name change. Change the name back & make the fanbase happy. I'm not convinced as many people are offended about the name as we may think.

3 hours ago, HardCoreBlue said:

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

Canada is Third World when it comes to sports & outdoor stadium facilities. If it's not the NHL or soccer then no one cares. We see it in the World Cup in comparison to the US & Mexico. As well as the CFL. Percival Molson Stadium, McMahon Stadium, CWS. Hamilton Stadium is a wasteland. All very small & they're never filled anymore.

Edited June 21Jun 21 by SpeedFlex27

I dunno. The name could play a role in Alberta. Eskimos was also a very popular and memorable name to people. Alberta leans a little right so I could see this being a problem there specifically just like I think less ppl would go to oilers games if they changed their name or were forced because of a vocal minority group of individuals. Rumours were the northern folk were ok with the name so why wouldn’t the others right. Alberta.

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.

Edited June 21Jun 21 by Brandon

1. The name Eskimos was offensive and racist. It's no different than calling a team the Winnipeg Honkies.

2. 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.

1 minute ago, rebusrankin said:

1. The name Eskimos was offensive and racist. It's no different than calling a team the Winnipeg Honkies.

2. 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.

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.

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

12 hours ago, SpeedFlex27 said:

Canada is Third World when it comes to sports & outdoor stadium facilities. If it's not the NHL or soccer then no one cares. We see it in the World Cup in comparison to the US & Mexico. As well as the CFL. Percival Molson Stadium, McMahon Stadium, CWS. Hamilton Stadium is a wasteland. All very small & they're never filled anymore.

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.

12 hours ago, SpeedFlex27 said:

It'll take more than a Rum Hut to get the fans back in edmonton. I used to think the same as you. A name is a name is a name. Who cares, right? After what we've seen, we have to consider that the decision was wrong. Morris is whining how hard the team has it since the name change. Change the name back & make the fanbase happy. I'm not convinced as many people are offended about the name as we may think.

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.

1 hour ago, rebusrankin said:

1. The name Eskimos was offensive and racist. It's no different than calling a team the Winnipeg Honkies.

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.

16 hours ago, Brandon said:

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.

The rum Hut is one of the possible solutions, but I doubt if it is THE solution. Many of the teams did not bother to cultivate younger fans and essentially lost a generation. This is not going to be remedied soon or quickly. The Bombers and (ick) Riders are two teams that have done a good job in growing and maintaining fan involvement. They need to be copied around the league STAT.

1 hour ago, wbbfan said:

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.

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.

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

3 hours ago, wbbfan said:

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.

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.

Edited June 21Jun 21 by SpeedFlex27

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.

3 hours ago, Tracker said:

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.

that’s true but the riders benefit from a total lack of competition as well.

Also, “honky” is not some direct parallel to eskimo or any other radicalized term. (No matter what you think of that term)

From the sounds of our demographic, no one here has the right to say eskimo is not an offensive term and is equivalent to X or Y. The name is changed in Edmonton, and for better or worse it will never come back.

1 hour ago, SpeedFlex27 said:

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.

Did it cause the collapse of washington in the NFL, Cleveland in the MLB, or has a name change ever caused the complete collapse of a sports market?

Tradition does not brand in young fans any more. It hasn’t for a long while. The cfl it self, is distancing more and more from its tradition. At that, the push back was minimal when the ball change happened, and when the hash marks moved, when the ratio has been messed with and soo much more. Now next year we see the largest scale changes. Most of us hard core fans are not happy about it. But clearly the cfl sees tradition as an obstacle to acquiring younger fans.

The people for whom the tradition is soo important, and who stopped going to edmonton games because of the name change alone, and would’ve stayed through 2 years of 1 home game win are a tin, tiny demographic.

Blaming the name change is just so hilariously lazy I'm not sure how to take it seriously.

In the last 20 years and Elks have won 8 playoff games and only hosted 3.

They had 22 straight home losses around the pandemic and have failed to account for changes in recreational spending due to all the geopolitical events that have happened the last 6 years.

They've had years of uninspiring play and low community engagement from all reports.

But no, a bunch of old white dudes got their feelings hurt by a name change so that's why attendance is so low.

Just win baby and the fans will come back

18 minutes ago, wbbfan said:

From the sounds of our demographic, no one here has the right to say eskimo is not an offensive term and is equivalent to X or Y.

It's that exact demographic that decided "Eskimo" is an offensive term in the first place. For the record, every demographic has a right to say what is and isn't offensive to them, but taking offence to something doesn't mean everyone has to change to make you feel better. For example, religions are highly offensive to me and my atheist brethren, but being offended doesn't give us the right to tell them they must change and vice versa.

13 minutes ago, TBURGESS said:

It's that exact demographic that decided "Eskimo" is an offensive term in the first place. For the record, every demographic has a right to say what is and isn't offensive to them, but taking offence to something doesn't mean everyone has to change to make you feel better. For example, religions are highly offensive to me and my atheist brethren, but being offended doesn't give us the right to tell them they must change and vice versa.

You're right about who decided it needed to change.

No, every group gets to decide what is offensive as a label to be used upon them. No one gets to blanketly decide a term is not offensive to another group. Extend that logic to black people, and you know what word, does it still apply?

I mean, Quebec would argue with the last point lol. You have (or should) a reasonable freedom to be offensive in your own domain. In the public domain, however, that freedom is limited at the point it encroaches on others. As an Atheist my self, we have the right not to have religion forced upon us.

As such, the Inuit/Inuk people have the exclusive right to dictate what name they go by. And even to change it or change their minds. None Inuit people do not.

While the decision to change the name away to the Elk was made by a different demographic, the only demographic who would be appropriate to OK changing it back is the Inuit people.

Land O Lakes and Pearl Milling Company didn't go under from brand changes either. The reality is, the quality is drastically more important than branding minutiae. The company I worked for changed its name about 15 years ago, after almost 200 years of operation under the previous branding. And we will likely be rebranding in a couple of years again. The first didn't have any meaningful change on business, and neither will the second.

There is just no reason to name a sports team after an ethnic group or race unless that team is predominately run by said ethnic group or race which has never been the case for Edmonton (or really any North American sports franchise). In particular when the government of the country where the team resides tried to systemically eliminate the ethnic group or race.

Blaming the name change for fan turn out is a sorry excuse.

They could change the name of the bombers to the Blue Bowlers and it wouldn't make a lick of difference on attendance.

Edited June 22Jun 22 by blue85gold
typo