If You're an Oilers Fan with a Hundred Bucks, yoU'Re IN(E).

So, I'm pissed off and if you're middle to low income and an Oiler fan, you should be pissed off too.  As the series moves to Los Angeles, be prepared to see pictures of the Rogers Place Arena filled with $5 hockey fans cheering their beloved Oilers.  What's wrong with that? you say.  What's wrong with providing a spectacle that people couldn't enjoy otherwise?  Look at all the joy and the outpouring of community spirit!  Look at the sea of orange and notice the families able to enjoy an Oilers' game from the otherwise costly seats of this architectural wonder.  Bring an extra hundred or two for the concessions though.

What I see is a pile of money flowing into the pockets of the owner - money that used to flow to Northlands and provide the city with a healthy revenue from hockey and concerts and other money making events.  It was able to present at an affordable price, yet still provide our city with a substantial return because Northlands was non-profit and its money flowed almost directly into the public coffers.  Katz may give the $5 a seat to charity but please notice it is the Oilers charity, ergo HIS charity, ergo a hefty tax write-off.

I have also noticed pictures from the NHL playoffs in other cities.  Many of them show the better off patrons in the arena watching the game while the masses cheer and wave their banners outside.  Never has the disparity between the rich and poor been so well illustrated - the ticket holders in their $300+ seats, the well heeled in their sky boxes and $2000 waiter served seats, and the rabble on the street.  Furthermore, a lot of fans can't watch some of the more important games on television because the team owners have sold the broadcast rights to specialty channels (including Darryl).

A more recent addition for the playoffs is an abomination called a Concourse pass.  For $100 you get to mill around the many screens around the concourse listening to the crowd in the actual arena (sort of like being allowed to the window of the Manor House kitchen to sample the aroma of the gentry's dinner).  Of course there is no seating and no view of the ice, but you get dibs on the few bathrooms available and the added privilege of paying  $40 for two popcorns and two drinks, $55 for two burgers and two drinks, or $21 for a hot dog and a beer.

And what makes this really sad in Edmonton is that the fans who are extended the 'privilege' of occupying an otherwise empty stadium when the team is playing away are the same citizens who have given up so much to make this sports palace a reality.  Concession after concession paved the way for this obscenity to be constructed from ever more inflated tax dollars (Katz' share of the cost is largely made up of 35 years of rent) to traffic interruption, to transferring ownership of a portion of a city street to the project.  And in return for their largesse, the majority of Edmontonians will not be able to afford Oiler tickets, will pay exorbitant parking levies, while vagrants are assaulted in the area around the arena and beer guzzling fans empty their bladders in the streets and alleyways.

And so let me end, as I started, with reference to urine.  It seems so appropriate since we have pissed away a valuable resource in the form of Northlands and walked willingly into the golden shower that, at once, characterizes the benefit that Katz and the rich derive from this new edifice and the bath that the rest of us are taking as a result.