So let me get this straight….Rush Owner Bruce Urban…who lives in Calgary…rips on Calgary fans and offers to buy Edmontonians free tickets to a Roughnecks game.

That was the gist of a news conference called Tuesday at the Roughnecks office as Urban sort of stole a page from the Roughnecks book with an offer to put your butt in a seat for pennies on the dollar. (A dollar service charge to fans who sign up through the Rush office, with a cheap deal on hotel rooms on offer as as well) It’s just that the fans will come from another city.

For Urban, it’s a chance to spike the rivalry between the two clubs, something he and Brad Bannister have taken turns doing for the three years the NLL has been in both cities. He calls it a chance to give something to long suffering Rush fans, who haven’t had much to cheer about until recent weeks, something that has shown dramatically in dropping attendance at Rexall place. Crowds that topped ten thousand for the first two years of the Rush’s existence have dwindled by as much as two thousand a game this year as the losses piled up. But thanks to a mid season coaching change and a roster blow up, the Rush now find themselves in a playoff race, at the expense of their rivals to the South.

For Bannister, it’s a chance to sell tickets. Urban will get a discount depending on how many fans take him up on the offer, but unlike this year’s expensive fill the Dome gamble, he will be getting some cash in. It’s also a chance to stoke a little rivalry, with the hope of a real battle of Alberta type atmosphere if enough of the enemy’s fans roll on down the highway. There’s also a hope that outraged Calgarians will buy seats to keep them out of the hands of the grubby freebie seeking horde to the North.

Both are to be commended for out of the box thinking. Like Calgary, Edmonton has developed a devoted lacrosse fanbase, just not enough of one. Urban’s not the only NLL owner in Alberta who’s noticed a few more empty seats this season. Anything that can stimulate interest in this great sport and this great product is worth trying.

And let’s just hope we can keep this battle loud…but friendly.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 8th, 2008 at 1:23 pm and is filed under Misc. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.