Boos Or Booze Rain Down On Oilers?

Not everything is as it seems

It’s a lesson I learned in journalism long ago, and an incident this past weekend at Rexall Place brought that lesson immediately to back mind.

By now, you no doubt will have seen the headline “You Gotta See This:  Oilers Booed Off Ice”, along with the video of the Oilers exiting the ice on Saturday night, after a 7-1 loss to the Black Hawks.  Not a pretty sight, or sound, right?  Hard times for those long suffering Edmonton Oilers fans. Here’s a screen grab:

Well, yes, it is a tough time for Oilers fans.  But whether or not that video is representative of how “we” are reacting depends on which definition of journalism it is that you subscribe to.  To be clear, I’m not saying that one definition is necessarily “wrong”.  But there isn’t just one.

I was in the rink Saturday, as I am for most games.  When I saw that headline, I was a little taken aback.  True, there were some boos in the arena, but I was actually impressed with the restraint with which the fans conducted themselves.  What had I missed, I wondered?

But the video wasn’t from the arena bowl, rather it was from the tunnel, through which the Oilers walk on their way to and from the dressing room.  The “tunnel” is adjoined by a club and bar, which primarily lower-bowl fans frequent, before, during and after games.

I’ve been there many times.  One of my son’s fondest moments as an Oilers fan was sitting there one night, and having his favorite player Ryan Smyth walk by and acknowledge him.  A photo capturing that wonderful moment in time still sits on my son’s dresser in his bedroom.

As you’ve probably heard, when the Oilers move to Rogers Place, “the tunnel” will be gone forever.  I used to think that was a real shame, as it gave fans the opportunity to get really close to their favorite players.  Kindly ushers used to make sure the littlest kids got the best seats.

But times, they are a changin’.

You see, as this team has continued to lose, a number of regulars don’t use their club seats much anymore.  Instead, they are occupied by whomever they can sell them to at a discount, or give them away to, I suppose.  We all know what the market is for Oilers tickets, right now.

My point is, a number of people in those seats don’t have a lot of time or money invested in the Oilers.  In fact, judging by the jerseys worn in the seats that surround me these days, they are not Oilers fans at all.  That used to just happen when the Leafs or Canadians were in town.  Not anymore.

As a “regular”, I can tell you that some of these new fans watch precious little of the game from those seats.  Instead, they stand at the bar or the tables down below, ordering pints of beer, pair by pair by pair.  It isn’t unusual to see entire tables filled with drinks.  Sure, I like a cold pint or two.  But 8 or 10?

As the night goes on, especially if the home team is losing, those tables get louder, rowdier, and more loutish.  By the end of the game, some of these fans are barely able to stand.  Their foul language doesn’t bother me much, as by this point, they slur their words so badly that you can barely understand them anyway.

Oh by the way…these tables are less than 10 feet from where the Oilers walked through “the tunnel” on Saturday night.

What’s that?  The video didn’t mention that?  Yeah, yeah I noticed.

I don’t personally subscribe to booing your team.  I can’t see the sense in belittling another human being.  I’m not sure what it does for them, and I’m unsure what it says about me, as a person, either.

But I freely admit that if you pay the price of admission, you reserve the right to express your feelings and opinions, in a legal and safe way.  And that goes for those who want to be there to support the opposition.

I just thought it might interest you to know that the “boos” you heard on that piece of video journalism may in reality have been “booze”, and not necessarily consumed by “long suffering Oilers fans”.

As I said…things are not always as they seem.