DoyleG Posted August 30, 2004 Share Posted August 30, 2004 This was an editorial he wrote in the Aug 29th edition of the Edmonton Sun. Would post it if there was a link but one isn't provided on their website. Kudos to Loome for writing this and to the Edmonton Sun for publishing it. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- The hypocrisy coming out of city hall these days over the soccer club formerly known as the Edmonton Aviators is enough to make you choke on your breakfast. Apparently, being left with about $120,000 in unpaid bills from the club means the city might require future teams to put down deposits or guarantees. That's the proposal put forward by the city mandarins. What a bunch of hogwash. Let's examine what's actually going on here: - The Aviators, now Edmonton F.C., want Clarke Park rent-free. Given that the city has routinley written off hundreds of thousands of dollars in rental payments by the Eskimo-owned Edmonton Trappers, it doesn't seem unreasonable to help a simialr organization. Instead, they were offered a "sliding scale" rent of between $5,500 and $8,500-per game! For a facility that pretty much sits empty, that's absurd. - The Eskimos objected to the soccer team's schedule at Commonwealth Stadium (where the city was reportedly charging the soccer team thousands in rent per game, although no one will confirm an exact figure), and forced it to play all but two of 14 home dates on week nights, devistating any likelihood of decent attendance. This came at a time when the team was competing with the Edmonton Trappers baseball club, which is owned by the Edmonton Eskimos. In effect, by giving carte blanche over the stadium schedule to the football team, the city put it in a position where it could put the squeeze on a competitor. - If the United Soccer Leagues can't find a buyer before the start of next season, it might run the team for another year anyway to show it can work here, provided they can get the aformentioned free rent- which the city, to it's credit, has said it will consider. But if they're playing in Clarke on the same nights as the football team, that's 2,500 to 5,000 tickets that won't be bought for Eskies games. - A recent story on a potential new Northern League baseball club in Edmonton says the team's owners "are seeking improvements to 10-year-old Telus Field for the $100,000 annual price." But it also notes the team hasn't actually paid that in three years, because the Eskimos can prove on paper that the team didn't make money, despite constently excellent attendance, an entirely paid-off ballpark and almost no long-term debt. The suspicion among soccer fans is that being a subsidiary of a much larger team, with the ability to move funds between the two and for them to write off expenses against one another, made it very easy to prove the Trappers "lost money." - City taxpayers paid for more than half the construction cost of Telus Field, or about $6 million. Clarke Park was mostly paid for with legacy money from the 2001 world track and field championships (although admitedly, that event also got plenty of tax support). The football club, which made an $8-million profit off the Trappers sale, still hasn't decided how much of the proceeds will go back to the city, meaning Edmonton taxpayers- those poor, aggrieved people our city now wants to protect from losing $118,000 on soccer- could be out millions more, the money it put into building Telus Field but isn't getting back. - The Eskimos, to whom the city kowtows endlessly, pay only a $1 ticket surcharge at Commonwealth, which costs the team nothing. It could just increase it's prices accordingly. In other words, they get, rent-free, the same facility for which the city was billing the soccer club thousands of dollars. And, gee, there's nothing incestuous about a club that counts the mayor, a former premier and the former head of Economic Development Edmonton as close friends and employees being able to decide who plays at Commonwealth for how much and when. People can laugh all they want at the ridiculous nature of the soccer club's business plan, a plan that saw it rack up huge debts, most of which will likely never be paid due to the ownership group's dissolution. But none of us should be laughing at the city hall's one-sided, unfair attitude towards helping soccer stay alive and thrive. Soccer is, bar none, the world's most popular sport, as well as the most played sport in Canada. And as any sports marketing analyst will tell you, its establishment in this hempisphere is inevitable. So now or later, we're going to have professional soccer. One of the few impediments to it here, it seems, could be an intractable Edmonton city hall. jloome@edmsun.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beachesl Posted August 30, 2004 Share Posted August 30, 2004 Hmmm, and Mayor Smith will be one of the main speakers at the CIBC Wednesday afternoon for the CSA media conference. Part of his reelection campaign for October. I, and others, should try to put this whole debacle to him. Thanks Doyle, did you type this all out yourself? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Winnipeg Fury Posted August 30, 2004 Share Posted August 30, 2004 Well done Loome ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gian-Luca Posted August 30, 2004 Share Posted August 30, 2004 I could have sworn his name was Jeremy, not Jeffrey. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fishman Posted August 30, 2004 Share Posted August 30, 2004 A good article by Loome; it doesn't pardon the Aviators franchise or excuse its miserable planning, but it does shed some light on a few of the (large) obstacles that must be continuously overcome every time a prospective professional soccer team attempts to gain a foothold in Edmonton. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cheeta Posted August 30, 2004 Share Posted August 30, 2004 Sharpen your teeth! Beauty articule. Politics, politics, and more politics. Seems a strange thing to worry about dosen't it? A little football club getting a toe hold in the Edmonton sports market. On the subject of the Northern League, flagship Winnipeg Goldeyes and there nice riverside stadium have shown that semi-pro sports is marketable, sustainable and profitable. But you've got to have the infastructure and I think that's what's holding back a lot of potential football investors. That multi-million dollar capital investment which would be necessary to give their venture a fighting chance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DoyleG Posted August 30, 2004 Author Share Posted August 30, 2004 quote:Originally posted by beachesl Hmmm, and Mayor Smith will be one of the main speakers at the CIBC Wednesday afternoon for the CSA media conference. Part of his reelection campaign for October. I, and others, should try to put this whole debacle to him. Thanks Doyle, did you type this all out yourself? Took me a while to type it out as I had to be sure of every word. DJT did spot one error that I missed.[:I] Funny that we went through the same thing when we had indoor soccer in the city. History repeats itself again. It would certainly be nice to put Smith on the hot seast over this. Same should be done for Noce and Mandel. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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