EDMONTON – There is a debate that arises every time the term “City of Champions” is used to describe Edmonton as a sporting city.
Many believe the term was first applied to the city after the deadly tornado of 1987 — Black Friday — and the heroic response by the citizens of Edmonton. The title has nothing to do with athletes, or trophies, they’ll tell you.
Perception has become reality, however, and that moniker has become accepted as a badge of sporting honour for a city that owned the Canadian sports scene back in the late 70s and into the 80s.
Here, however, is something that can’t be debated: When it comes to sports, Edmonton has bottomed out.
Today, the “City of Losers” is enduring an unmatched run of bad hires, poor performances, losing seasons, and embarrassing results.
Visitors driving into the city are still greeted by “City of Champions” signs, because frankly, taking those signs down would be a horrible admission.
And this is a city that did have a legendary run, years and years and years ago.
Edmonton won five consecutive Grey Cups, with perhaps the best Canadian Football League team ever to line up over a Spalding J5V. The Oilers won five Stanley Cups in seven years, four with Wayne Gretzky and — again — arguably the best National Hockey League team ever to play the game.
Edmonton trained the world’s finest figure skaters, held wildly successful championships in various different sports, and generally had more than its fair share of winning and success.
Fast forward to today. If you’re going to wear “City of Champions” for all those years when times are good, then face it Edmonton. Today, your teams make you “The City of Losers.”
We’re not talking about the citizenry. Lots of good people live here, obviously.
We’re talking about the notable sports teams, a pathetic group that — save for the junior Oil Kings and most of the clubs on the University of Alberta campus — has taken losing to a new level.
The NHL hockey team is in a “rebuild.” That’s ’90s speak for, “We’ve mismanaged this thing for so long, that, well, we’re at rock bottom anyways, so…”
The Oilers haven’t been in the playoffs since 2006. It’s now the longest streak of futility in the NHL, and in truth, Edmonton hasn’t even been in the same time zone as a playoff race in this decade.
Then there are the CFL’s Eskimos, an outfit that couldn’t spell “win” these days if you gave it the ‘W’ and the ‘N.’
A 1-8 team, the Eskimos fit the description we used to apply to goalies like Tommy Salo, or Evgeni Nabokov: They’re just good enough to get you beat.
The Esks’ only positive attribute is their ability to hang around, or charge back in garbage time like they did on Labour Day, when Edmonton scored four fourth-quarter TDs to lose by three points.
The end result is entirely predictable, however, as the Eskimos sit at 1-8, the worst start since the 1971 Eskimos charged out of the gate at 1-10. That club won its last five to finish the season at 6-10. The 2013 Eskimos, reeling from years of poor decision making by this once great, now flailing organization, will likely finish in last place in the West for the sixth time in the past eight seasons.
The Eskimos have not hosted a Western Final in 10 years, where Commonwealth Stadium once was that game’s unofficial home. But, the Danny Maciocia years, followed by the Eric Tillman years, have left this team desolate and desperate.
Like the Oilers, the local football side compounded bad hire upon bad hire. The result is the basement, a place Edmontonians are well accustomed to these days.
How about that local college football club? The Golden Bears, starting a rebuild of their own under new head coach Chris Morris, opened the season with a 65-41 loss at Manitoba. They’ve lost 17 straight games now.
Baseball? Well, the Eskimos bought the long-standing triple-A Trappers and promptly sold them out of town to Nolan Ryan in Texas in 2003.
The Oilers bought up a local independent league squad back in 2009 and played three successful baseball seasons, only to see the league fold up and have the franchise in mothballs for two full seasons. That makes the Oilers’ tenure as baseball owners about as effective as the Eskimos’.
The local lacrosse team, the Rush, has not hosted a playoff game in its eight seasons. If not for the Oil Kings, you might wonder if there was a hex on Rexall Place.
Yes, times are tough here. As tough now as they were 30 years ago.
