Sep
Should the Esks get to host the Classic?
Courtesy Edmonton Journal:
The Labour Day Classic is woven into the Calgary Stampeders’ home schedule as much as it is the very fabric of the Alberta rivalry and Canadian Football League history.
So let’s change it up already. Seriously.
The CFL has already embraced rules changes proposed by fans prior to this season, so there is fresh precedent for outside influence. And there are scads of diehards here who have wondered for ages why the Labour Day Classic in Calgary and the Friday night rematch in Edmonton haven’t alternated between cities every year.
Green and Gold to the core, hordes of Eskimos fans faithfully make the trek down Highway 2 on Monday morning and sit in McMahon Stadium’s awful seats in the afternoon, occasionally dodging full cans of beer tossed from 20 rows up by the odd and drunken moron. And each time they make the return trip north, arriving at their Grovenor bungalows late Monday night, some of them surely wonder why Calgary always gets the plum afternoon game and Edmonton the nighttime rematch.
Some of them send annual e-mails asking why the schedule couldn’t be turned on its helmet, at least once.
“We’ve talked about it from time to time,” admitted Eskimos president and CEO Rick LeLacheur. “We’ve talked to the league about it when they’re doing the schedule. We’ve talked with Calgary about it. I think it’s such a great tradition, such a unique tradition with the short turnaround, that I don’t know if it would help or hinder our attendance to change it.
“We’ve had great attendance for the rematch because of the intensity created by the first game and the short turnaround.”
I think it’s a question worth asking, a notion worth entertaining at least once, particularly for the Eskimos and their fans. The fact is, a holiday Monday afternoon game will beat a Friday night tilt at the turnstiles almost every time. Heck, the CFL buckled this year to television demands and scheduled the Labour Day Classic for a Monday evening start and the Stamps still sold out the joint with tremendous ease. It kicks off at 5:30 p. m. and makes the trek home truly unpalatable for Eskimos fans(thanks so much, TSN). But the Stamps are nonetheless going to cram in 40,650;5,000 more than usual. It’s a number that reflects the fact McMahon Stadium is bulging with temporary seats brought in for the Grey Cup game at the end of November.
The Sept. 11 rematch at Commonwealth Stadium, on the other hand, had drawn 37,000 in pre-sales as of late Friday afternoon. The Eskimos no longer offer the school voucher program for the rematch–it’s tied to the Sept. 26 home game against Saskatchewan this year instead– and attendance for the replay game against Calgary naturally takes a hit. In 2007 it drew 42,329. In 2008 it was 46,014. Those aren’t bad numbers, but well down from the record high of 62,444 in 2003.
That popular replay came on the heels of a Labour Day brawl triggered by a late hit on Eskimos quarterback Ricky Ray.
In the ensuing melee, former Eskimos receiver and current scout Ed Hervey swung his helmet trying to hit a Stampeder defensive back but whacked an official instead. Current Eskimos defensive co-ordinator Jim Daley, who was a Stamps assistant coach then, ran across the field to get into it with then Eskimos guard Kevin Lefsrud.
As former Eskimos defensive lineman Dorian Boose said at the time: “It was just a lot of attitude, pride and testosterone all over the field.”
If Daley runs to the other side of the McMahon Stadium field this time and gets into it with a Stampeders lineman, the Esks might be able to pack Commonwealth for another grudge game four days later. Without an explosive lead-in, I would suggest that an Edmonton crowd of even 45,000 on Friday night is highly unlikely.
But how much would you be willing to bet the Eskimos could put 59,000 and change in Commonwealth pews on a given Labour Day afternoon?
“Oh sure, you always wonder what you’d do on different days,” said Le-Lacheur. “I don’t know. I just don’t know. We have had a Thanksgiving Day game on a Monday and attendance wasn’t higher than normal.”
And they have had the Labour Day Classic too, back in 1952 and ’53. The Eskimos won both of them. But Labour Day became a Calgary tradition and I get that. I also love the rouge, the wide field and three downs and it’s important to safeguard our quirky game. But tweaking the schedule, even now and then, seems as harmless an act as fiddling with jersey designs, which all teams do as part of their marketing efforts.
Alas, it seems unlikely at this point.
“I don’t think anything is untouchable, but I don’t know how Calgary would look at it,” said LeLacheur. “They might put up a fuss. I think they quite like having the Monday game. On balance, I would be against (a change). I’m not afraid to try different things, but if I had to make a decision right now, I’d like to stay the same.”
