November 19, 2021 by Ryan Lotsberg

Rogers Place is a gorgeous arena, but the biggest criticism that many fans have of the Edmonton Oilers’ barn is the in-game entertainment. The atmosphere is routinely flat at Oilers games.

There’s an old adage that suggests that winning would cure that issue. If the team gives the fans a reason to cheer, then they’ll cheer. Well, the Oilers are 12-4-0 after beating the Winnipeg Jets on Thursday, and the issue still remains.

Thursday’s game against the Jets was one of the most entertaining games of the young season, if not the most entertaining one. It was a tight-checking affair that was chock full of drama and suspense until the bitter end, but there was nary a whisper coming from the fans in attendance throughout the evening.

What gives?

I don’t think it’s an in-game entertainment issue. I’m not motivated to cheer any harder or louder because I’m being prompted by a video. A person playing a game for a prize doesn’t make me want to get out of my seat to yell and scream. No marching band or the choice of music between whistles will do anything to change the atmosphere.

It’s a culture issue. The culture of silence at Rogers Place is the problem.

I was in Toronto a couple of weekends ago to watch the Raptors play two games. They were my first live basketball games, and they were a lot of fun! The crowds were far more vocal there than they are at Rogers Place. Basketball allows for more chances to cheer because there are more baskets scored throughout the game than there are goals scored in a hockey game. Basketball is a game of runs and momentum changes, which adds drama.

Is hockey just a boring sport that doesn’t lend itself to cheering?

I also had the pleasure of attending both of Canada’s Men’s World Cup Qualifying games at Commonwealth Stadium this week. Those games were so much fun! Those were novel games for fans here because we aren’t used to Canada being in such a position. It was a big occasion that carried high drama with it, but that wasn’t the only reason that the games were fun.

Fans were singing and chanting throughout both games! There were so many fun chants going:

“Let’s go Canada!”

“Canada! Canada! Canada!”

“Ole, ole, ole, ole”

“Ref you suck!”

My personal favourite was this one:

“Oo, ah, Canada, oo, ah, Canada.”

Soccer isn’t exactly a high event sport. However, that doesn’t stop fans from cheering and screaming their lungs out all night long. The games were fantastic, but the fans were what elevated those experiences for me.

So, what’s the issue at Rogers Place?

Maybe the in-game entertainment is terrible and fans pout in their seats because the jesters aren’t entertaining enough. Maybe Oilers fans have been conditioned to expect failure after the Decade of Darkness. Maybe it’s because we have a diehard fan base full of hockey experts that watches the games too analytically to bother cheering. 

Maybe it’s because there are so many season seat holders and affluent fans that go to the games routinely while fans that don’t get to go to many games that would be excited to be there are stuck at home because going to games is expensive. Maybe beer prices are too high.

Whatever the reason may be, the truth is that it took a goal from Connor McDavid that some in the soccer world would’ve described as “magisterial” to get fans to make noise at Rogers Place during one of the best games of the season, and that noise was short-lived. That’s not the way it should be!

Instead of blaming everyone else, we as fans should make the choice to have more fun and cheer at the games!

We hear the odd “let’s go Oilers” chant, but there’s not much else making its way through the crowds. The cheers at the Canadian Men’s soccer games weren’t complex. It can’t be hard to think of other cheers for the Oilers:

“Let’s go Edmonton”

“Ed-mon-ton! Ed-mon-ton! Ed-mon-ton!”

“Orange and blue, orange and blue!”

“Oh… oh… Oooooooooooooohhhhhhhhhhhh…. Oilers!”

“Ref you suck!”

We should be chanting McDavid’s name or “ninety seven” whenever he does something that brings us mere mortals to our knees. We should be chanting “Neon Leon” or “Draisaitl” or “twenty nine” whenever Leon Draisaitl scores a goal. There should be a “Bison King” chant for Jesse Puljujarvi whenever he gets on the board. 

It wouldn’t be hard to sing one line from Joey Moss’s favourite song and turn it into a chant:

“Para bailar la bamba.”

“Bamba, bamba. Bamba, Bamba. Bamba, Bamba.”

I’m sure there are hundreds of other famous chorus lines that people could easily sing at the games. My point is that doing all of the chants and singing the songs does a lot to improve the atmosphere and the in-game experience.

It’s not up to the media staff at Rogers Place to force fans to cheer while the game is happening. The players are doing their part. They’re playing winning hockey, and we are so fortunate to have the two best players in the world today playing on our team. We should be doing more to show them our love and appreciation for the amount of joy that they bring us every game.

It’s up to us to make the conscious choice to enter Rogers Place with the expectation to cheer, chant, and sing. All it takes is one small group of bold and loud individuals to start a chant. The others will follow. I know I did at the other sporting events I went to over the last couple of weeks.

This is my call to action! I’m calling on any Oilers fans in attendance at any remaining games this season to take it upon themselves to start more chants. The next game that I’ll be going to is against Calgary on January 22, 2022. I’ll be urging my friends to join me in starting some chants that night. I hope some other people out there will do the same at every game before and after that one.

Ultimately, it falls on us to elevate the in-game experience at Rogers Place. It’s up to the fans to change the culture of silence at Rogers Place. It’s up to us, Oilers fans.

“Give thanks, [everyone], to Leon-idas, [Connor], and the brave [twenty.] TO VICTORY!!!”