Bummer to hear about that Attendance in all seriousness. Edmontons a great sports town imo so for things to have fallen so far for this storied organization speaks volumes.
In all honesty, it isn't just the team's performance that's keeping the fans away at this time of year. Cold weather seems to be a major issue for this generation of Edmontonians. I mean, we were playing our first home playoff game since 2004 last year and the attendance barely cracked 30k.
Yeah, even though I was pushing for Eskimos fans to boycott the game last night (based purely on emotion) the announced attendance at the game was really sobering and more than a little sad.
meh, Its all good. This was a longtime coming I guess. Trouble is I think a lot of the gradual deterioration of seasons seats buyers happened during the Macciocia era. I think last night was the first sign of how far south its gone in a meaningless game with little walkup.
Normally the games this time of year mean something which makes up for the weather.
If the Ticats won the other night I imagine more walkup would've occurred. Mixed blessing I guess for management. We get in the playoffs, but we lose 10K in gate. Strange how these things work out sometimes.
I blame a local cold epidemic for my own not showing up. Too much coughing and sneezing to enjoy it. The temperature wouldn't help. Yes I'm the 200lb baby in the Nyquil add.
Seriously though how out of touch is this org to the pulse of the average Esks football fan. Vanilla Ice" Seriously? Even more of a joke that they expected people to go to the cabaret at the fieldhouse afterwards. They've had some lame ass entertainment.
Some of the way this org conducts business is just embarrassing. Is Pat Laforge moonlighting for something to do..
I totally agreed with the bolded before the game, but when he was actually performing the crowd was definitely into it. Sometimes you just have to try something interesting and Vanilla Ice is nothing if not interesting.
I was speaking with someone from the Esks organization and the attendance is most certainly a concern I'd be surprised if more than 10 000 were actually there.
Tillman made a few good moves for the Eskimos but his blunders were monumental. People talk about the Ray trade the most but his kicker trade is one of the worst trades of all time. He simply gambled big time and his biggest gambles did not work out. Not only that, a lot of fans didn't like the hire from day one and going from one unpopular gm to another was a poor move by the Esks.
The talk in Toronto is that Barker won't resign with the Argos. The rumour is Ottawa but maybe the Esks will figure into the mix. How would Esks fans feel bout Jim Barker?
The talk in Toronto is that Barker won't resign with the Argos. The rumour is Ottawa but maybe the Esks will figure into the mix. How would Esks fans feel bout Jim Barker?
No thanks. Please no. No.
EDIT:
Never been a fan of the guy. He's been a bit better with Toronto this go around but I would like to see a new face as are GM.
When you treat people like commodities you eventually get the same treatment. What goes around comes around. .@CFL .@cfl_esks
That says it all. Forget about the Ray trade... he treated a lot of players like dirt during his tenure. Andrew Nowacki was chief among them but I'll never forget about Jason Barnes' strange release either.
When you treat people like commodities you eventually get the same treatment. What goes around comes around. .@CFL .@cfl_esks
Yeah, have to get a word out to you as well PDO. We argued a lot about this but I think on this aspect you nailed it all along too. Anyway kudos.
Tillman is good at recruiting talent, but he's apparently better at having that talent running through a turnstile.
I started to wonder with the Boyd acquisition/ then outright release. That made no sense whatsoever.
Something I noted last night when Boyd scored the TD is how many of the players came to him (offense and defense) and gave him a slap on the back and more. Seemed like it was saying the team on the field felt badly about how the player was treated here.
Boyd may well be the poster boy for that. Jeanty as well possibly(again good call on your part)
In anycase its weird how a person that is so involved in the job as Tillman finds ways to compromise his own efforts.
meh, Its all good. This was a longtime coming I guess. Trouble is I think a lot of the gradual deterioration of seasons seats buyers happened during the Macciocia era. I think last night was the first sign of how far south its gone in a meaningless game with little walkup.
Normally the games this time of year mean something which makes up for the weather.
If the Ticats won the other night I imagine more walkup would've occurred. Mixed blessing I guess for management. We get in the playoffs, but we lose 10K in gate. Strange how these things work out sometimes.
I have friends that used to buy the IGA/Sobeys tickets on a whim when The Family Huddle was in the lower bowl. The prices for those tickets are still relatively affordable but they've definitely gone up over the past ten years... and the seats aren't nearly as good.
On the plus side my regular seat is one of the new ones now and they're definitely better than those freezing cold orange seats.
I went to my first game this year and had seats in section U2. Would definitely request those again, they were fantastic. Great view and were reasonably comfy.
Yeah, have to get a word out to you as well PDO. We argued a lot about this but I think on this aspect you nailed it all along too. Anyway kudos.
Tillman is good at recruiting talent, but he's apparently better at having that talent running through a turnstile.
I started to wonder with the Boyd acquisition/ then outright release. That made no sense whatsoever.
Something I noted last night when Boyd scored the TD is how many of the players came to him (offense and defense) and gave him a slap on the back and more. Seemed like it was saying the team on the field felt badly about how the player was treated here.
Boyd may well be the poster boy for that. Jeanty as well possibly(again good call on your part)
In anycase its weird how a person that is so involved in the job as Tillman finds ways to compromise his own efforts.
Fully agreed on all points.... and it was one of the things that really bothered me about him.
If half of what I've heard from behind the scenes is real, I think the Esks might play some REALLY inspired football this Sunday.
Thanks for the kudos, and I promise I won't be a drag in this thread any time soon
That says it all. Forget about the Ray trade... he treated a lot of players like dirt during his tenure. Andrew Nowacki was chief among them but I'll never forget about Jason Barnes' strange release either.
Yup... and lets not forget signing Messam to an extension and trying to trade him not even 48 hours later.
Every last guy in that room noticed how their peers were treated. It was toxic.
In all honesty, it isn't just the team's performance that's keeping the fans away at this time of year. Cold weather seems to be a major issue for this generation of Edmontonians. I mean, we were playing our first home playoff game since 2004 last year and the attendance barely cracked 30k.
Yeah, I think theres something to this. The same generation is noted to be less interested in camping, the outdoors, and experiencing any kind of weather in general.
Except say tornadoes or storms. Theres a lot of fascination for that.
They should just advertise that Commonwealth is an electric place to be during one of our many summer storms..
The record is not at all reflective of the team that the Eskimos are headed into the playoffs with. Several of the losses, and some of the one sided losses you mentioned occurred when we were scrambling to find D lineman and linebackers to throw out there. For a large part of the season it was the Sheritt show all day any day but not as much by design as who else did we have back there with game experience. Which is precisely what a plethora of injuries in key spots does to a team.
There is no doubt that injuries on defence hurt this team. With the sad sack offense this team had it really depended heavily on the defence to keep it in games.
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The offence hasn't been much, we know that. For much of the year Toronto didn't have anything going in that regard either. Although I'm sure you can trot out a meaningless QB efficiency rating which to me as has much validity as a Corsi rating when applied to the CFL.
Please explain how the Corsi is meaningless and while your at it please explain a better way to rate a QB.
That aside do you really need more evidence that Jyles and Joseph are junk or are you still clinging to this unsupported fantasy that they are still viable QB's?
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I really don't know how you can deny that this team had the game won 4 times in situations where they were in FG position and found a way to screw the pooch. Its too bad, some bad breaks, kind of how things can go when you're getting the worst possible breaks. Our season series with Calgary alone is absolute indication of that. I mean we had potential game winning FG's on the tee three times. Twice with it being the last play of the game. If you want to talk about our record being reflective thats fine, you're the only one believing it. Well, probably PDO.
I am not denying anything. I watched every game (some games more than once) and I saw breaks going both ways. This team was very lucky to win some games and very unlucky to lose some.
It all balances out and in the end the record is fitting IMO because it accurately reflect the deficiencies in this roster...primarily the putrid offence.
Thankfully Tillman has now lost his job. The timing was a surprise but it was very fitting considering the damage he did with the Ray trade and his other trades.
So the failed Tillman experiment is now over...sadly the damage he inflicted now has to be undone.
haha
