Stackhouse’s 10 Weekend Thoughts

1 – RIDER FINANCIALS – The 2023-24 AGM report summary on the Saskatchewan Roughriders website sent some ripples through Riderville earlier this week when it was revealed the team lost $1.1–million last season. I’ve written a number of times on this website that I was amazed and my hat is tipped to the people running the Riders for turning such handsome profits post-Covid and during a time where fan support has dwindled. One year prior, the Riders announced a $6.9-million profit, $3-million of which was attributed to Grey Cup. So that still leaves them up $3.9-million in any other normal season. Just one year later, it’s a $5-million swing the other way and three year contract extensions for the two main men in charge of the franchise.  My questions are ‘how’ and ‘why’? The reason offered on the website is ‘challenging on-field performance’.  Yet, I would view the 2022 and 2023 seasons as equally challenging. Both years they went 6-and-12 and both years they were embarrassingly bad post Labour Day.  

2 – MORE FINANCIALS – I would never accuse CFL officials of lying about attendance but the human eyeball, at times, definitely wasn’t seeing what was being reported when it came to official attendance numbers.  According to 3DownNation, the Roughriders had a 0.8% boost in attendance from 2022 to 2023.  The financial numbers, if bums in the seats account for anything, don’t back up that boost. The financial numbers more align with the social media estimates that I saw people speculating on game after game. So I will ask the questions again.  ‘How’?  ‘Why’?

3 – UNCONDITIONAL LOVE – Long gone are the days of unwavering Saskatchewan Roughrider fan support. It probably makes him uncomfortable to even have me write this on his site, but I trace it back to when Rod Pedersen was let go as the play by play voice of the team. It seems everything since that time has been one wrong decision after another. It’s resulted in a lesser competitive team and a more negative public image within the Saskatchewan community as a whole. I won’t even get too deep into the whole vaccine pass issue (although a lot of you need to be reminded the Riders brought this into effect BEFORE the government did and they’ve never once apologized for it and, in fact, continued to play silly vaccine proof games AFTER the government lifted the nonsense) but that chased away a segment of the fan base as well and a lot of those folks have never come back. I bet they would if the team ate some crow. That single policy, in of itself, tore apart the very fabric of what made Rider Nation so special. You could go to the games and sit amongst total strangers and feel as though every one of them was also your neighbor and drinking buddy.  

4 – TAKEN FOR GRANTED – For fans that have left and even amongst a good number of fans who still remain, there is a feeling that this organization has taken them for granted. It’s been one price increase after another on just about everything; from your tickets to your food to your merchandise and more.  On top of that, it’s one thing to pay more but what starts to happen is people begin to wonder what am I getting in return?  From what I gather in reading and talking to people is that the costs are more, the return is less and the result is a $1.1-million loss. Frankly, the loss isn’t what’s surprising. I’m more surprised at the $3.9-million profit which I have written about it a few times on here as being truly floored and amazed. I’ve even questioned the value of fans at all if you can claim a $3.9-million profit in 2022 (removing the $3-million Grey Cup profit) with diminished crowds compared to more prosperous years of fan attendance such as 2017 ($781-thousand profit) and 2018 ($1.46-million profit). So, unless I’m pulling wrong numbers, I will ask for a third time:  ‘How’?, ‘Why’? 

5 – EDMONTON FOR SALE – Meanwhile, there’s a similar situation in Edmonton where the CFL’s Elks are up for sale and there isn’t exactly a lineup of potential private owners. Like in Saskatchewan, fan interest has dropped…markedly. Commissioner Randy Ambrosie believes the football tradition in Edmonton is rich, I’d even argue the Eskimos had as large a footprint in the Edmonton community as the Roughriders had in Saskatchewan, but the problem is that the Eskimos don’t exist anymore.  The Elks are not the same thing as the Eskimos now matter how much the CFL tries to promote it as such. When the decision was made to change names, there were a lot of fans who believed a long and rich tradition died that day.  The team’s Chairman of the Board also may have committed irreparable damage in 2021 when he called the fan demographics ‘brutal, disproportionately old, male and white, which isn’t representative of our community.’  That message of no longer wanting ticket buyers who are old, male, and white seems to have resonated with the demographics and they have spoken loud and clear.  The Elks, in return, have failed to attract the type of fans they’d rather take money from and have at their games.

6 – BRING THE CUP TO CANADA – I have never and will never understand this notion of all Canadian NHL fans getting behind the last Canadian team standing in the Stanley Cup playoffs. The Cup isn’t coming back to Canada if the Oilers win. The Cup comes to Canada every year as each team has a significant (albeit dwindling number) of Canadians on the roster. Furthermore, the overwhelming majority of Canadians that play in the NHL do not want to play for Canadian teams. As a fan, if you cheer for Calgary, you should never cheer for Edmonton. If you cheer for Montreal, you should never cheer for Toronto. In fact, nobody should ever cheer for the Leafs. These are just basic NHL fan codes that should never be deviated from.

7 – TAX IMBALANCE – Which brings me to another topic that has come up in recent weeks and there was even an article about this on The Athletic. There’s an idea that there should be a flexible salary cap that removes the advantage teams in Florida, Tennessee, Nevada, and Texas have when it comes to low (or non-existent) state taxes. As we know, Canadian taxes as well as taxes in places like California are through the roof and nobody in their right mind would choose to work in these locations and pay that kind of money to a government that wastes it when there are more attractive options. This isn’t a competitive sports imbalance issue that needs to be fixed but rather a government problem that is glaring and brings to light why certain parts of North America are better to live in than others. This notion that places with low taxation are riddled with economic and social issues is a bunch of hogwash and if you want examples on that, I give you the downtowns of San Francisco, Vancouver, and Toronto and if you think even more money is required to fix what ails those cities then you have been truly hoodwinked.

8 – CAITLIN CLARK – Say what you want about the WNBA and the unfair treatment, some would even call it open racism, towards Caitlin Clark but people are paying attention and the league has never been more popular. I’m not a fan of what is going on but it’s hard to argue with it working as far as keeping the league relevant. Chennedy Carter, who committed a flagrant foul on Clark in last Saturday’s game between Indiana and Chicago offered a great quote. Carter posted on social media that she grew up with brothers and loves the hate. “I’d rather you hate me than love me and I mean that on my dead aunt.”  The two teams play again next weekend and while I’m out on the WNBA as far as watching it, I will be paying attention to social media afterwards. This has all the makings of 1990s era pro-wrestling and it wouldn’t surprise me if Clark is in on it as the ‘face’ and then you have Carter, Angel Reese, etc as ‘heels’.

9 – PIPKIN SNIPE – An over-the-hill newspaper reporter from Montreal got in, what he thinks is, the final shot with quarterback Antonio Pipkin upon Pipkin’s release from the Saskatchewan Roughriders.  The classless post stated, “Pipkin once told me to ask better questions.  Here’s one:  is your lamentable career over?” Petty and small-minded to have that tucked away for a rainy day.  One day Pipkin will get to ask the same question of a ‘reporter’ who writes in his own bio what he is ‘best known’ for. Ego-centric.

10 – PRICE AND ALLEN – It would be nice if I didn’t have one of these for a week, but here we go again.  Cincinnati Bengals lineman Billy Price has announced his retirement due to a blood clot.  Yes, blood clots are normal.  No, I don’t think we hear about this many in one year (Fredrik Andersen and Brock Boeser in the NHL this season) but whatever.  Everyone just move on, right?  Oh, and former Dallas Cowboys All-Pro Offensive Lineman Larry Allen passed away this week at the age of 52 while on vacation with his family.  Again, very normal for this to occur because 52 is old.  I’m not arguing.  I just am acknowledging all the normalcy that wasn’t acknowledged a few years ago when so many people died suddenly or were found to have blood clots.  Finally, don’t take this week’s column as angry.  Overall, I had a great week but someone has to be critical in a time where going along to get along seems to also be ‘normal’.

(Canadian Press)