Last Friday night the Edmonton Rush fans were on a tremendous high. Their beloved team just finished beating the Calgary Roughnecks 10-8 to take a lead in the Western Division Finals. Today it’s like someone punched them in the stomach and left them feeling nauseous.
Rush fans woke up this morning to the news that their team may be leaving town. Now they have heard this threat before, but this time the facts show the move could be for real.
Rush owner Bruce Urban decided he needed to air his dirty laundry in public. I understand Mr. Urban’s frustration over the fact that he only had just over 7,000 fans in the seats for a home playoff game and the fact that he does not have a lease or a venue for his team to play in past next season, but why bring it to the public eye a couple days before the most important game of the year?
All the hard work that Derek Keenan and his coaching staff have put forth to keep this talented group focused on the games and not the outside distractions may have gone to waste because of the circus-like atmosphere in Edmonton today.
It all started with Urban breaking a story with the Edmonton Journal’s Curtis Stock. Urban could not understand why teams like Calgary get 12,000 fans and the Rush only average about 7,000. He feels that the team does not receive any support from the City of Edmonton—while Calgary’s Mayor fully supports and tweets about the Roughnecks on social media, Edmonton’s Mayor Don Ivason does not. Urban said he invited Ivason to the playoff game, but Ivason did not even respond to the invitation.
Mayor Ivason responded today in the public media and said he was invited to the game via Twitter only days before the game. He said that if Urban wants to send him an invitation it should be done with plenty of notice through his staff because he receives over 2500 invitations per year. Ivason also indicated that it was Urban who has been playing hardball, and it was Urban who walked away during negotiations.
Urban felt jilted when the new arena talks occurred prior to the new arena becoming a reality because he wasn’t invited to the roundtable to discuss his team’s place in the new arena that is scheduled to open in 2016. He said that since his team hasn’t been invited to the new arena and with the old arena to be shut down, the Rush will be left without a proper facility.
A failed negotiation for Urban to sell the Rush to the Edmonton Oilers may be the reason behind Urban’s frustration. It was believed the Oilers were to purchase the team from Bruce Urban as recently as a few months back, and make it part of their umbrella much like the WHL Oil Kings, but when Urban insisted that he be allowed to take the best five or so players from the Rush and move to Saskatoon to start up another franchise, the Oilers walked away from the deal.
As the saying goes there is always two sides to the story, but the fact remains that Bruce Urban has not been a keen owner for this franchise. Despite having one of the best marketing directors in Dave Jamieson, Urban failed to fund and use Jamieson’s talents to promote his team. Instead he brought in attractions such as George St. Pierre and the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders to bring in fans. Those funds could have been used to buy up advertising space. The Rush were rarely advertised. If they were it was only sparingly on the local sports radio stations.
There is still a small chance the Rush could stay in Edmonton. The Edmonton Rush have started an online petition to keep the team in Edmonton, but many insiders suggest that Urban is laying the foundation to make the move to Saskatoon.
The more realistic scenario is that Urban packs and leaves town for Saskatoon and see Edmonton without an NLL team for a season until they are granted an expansion franchise that will have more solid backing, perhaps the Oilers ownership group. It is known fact that the NLL wants to expand, and with the wealth of player talent and the increasing popularity of the sport, it is not out of the realm of possibility.
Bruce Urban said he would address and perhaps announce the move in more detail once the Rush season comes to a conclusion. It would have been a wise decision to keep the whole situation private until then as well.
The Edmonton Rush fans hope that this situation does not affect the play of the team going into this Saturday’s matchup with the Roughnecks. Time will tell.
