Edmonton Elks Game

 Yesterday I bought four tickets for next Saturday's CFL Crossover game, where the Montreal Alouettes will host the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. It made me think of several things: 1) G3, Ali, and I saw the same two teams play last year when the game was decided by the inexplicable hurricane wind that blew in from Winnipeg to knock down an Alouettes punt and hand the game to the Blue Bombers; weird to think that I'll be watching the two teams play once again in almost exactly the same time of years; 2) this will be my fourth CFL game of the season, and first ever playoff game, so the enormity of this summer's move to Sicily must be really hitting me - both because I'm maxing out my CFL time, but also creating even more opportunities to spend time with my friends (who I will miss terribly); and 3) that I still have things to post about my June trip to Alberta with Kevin. On Thursday, 19 June we saw an Edmonton Elks home game, when they hosted, of all teams, the Montreal Alouettes. We thought the weather might be sketchy, but it was wonderful (unlike the freezer bowl in Calgary two days later, but more on that later). Our Airbnb was pretty craptacular, but it was also within easy walking distance of the stadium. As soon as we walked out the door we could hear the pre-game music blasting.

The Elks have been pretty dreadful the last few years, but it wasn't that long ago that they were still winning Grey Cups.

The stadium featured pretty good food, unlike the nightmare that is an Alouettes home game.

It's a really nice stadium, although it was all but empty, which was a discouraging thing to witness on the opening night of the season. Again, they've been terrible lately, and the general mood in Edmonton was pretty down (it probably didn't help that the Oilers have played for two straight NHL championships (although, sadly, having lost both).

The stadium holds something like 60,000, but the announced attendance was only around 14,000 (although Kevin and I both agree that it felt closer to something like 8000). To have the Elks run out onto the field to an empty stadium was sad. We sat next to a really nice couple from Montreal, who now live in Edmonton, who were there to root on the Alouettes. He said they used to have Elks season tickets, but they've been so terrible lately that they gave them up. The guy told me that they really needed a smaller stadium, which is an interesting approach to take.

Still, an excellent time was had by the Vermont contingent, and a guy stopped me on the way out to tell me how much he liked my Warren Moon jersey (granted, I had it custom made, because he played for the Eskimos and not the re-named Elks, but it was a popular choice nonetheless.

The game was not as close as the 38-28 score indicates, as the Elks scored a goodly amount of points in garbage time. Actually, they got a lot better as the season progressed, mainly because they made a change at quarterback, and they almost snuck into the playoffs. My son says I can no longer root for four CFL teams and that I have to make a decision, and since Edmonton was my original favorite team (although under misguided circumstances), I really should just settled on them.