timekeep
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Sanchez
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SupremeTeam16
5-14-6-1
Jarius Jackson to fans at this weeks presser.
Heavy Dee
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Actually that's not true since Spano and Del Biaggo went to jail for being swindlers. Although it's hard to see how Mereulo was approved...
Heavy Dee
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Wow Trent Brown is eviscerating the board and the decision making process to find an owner. This doesn't sound good.
What is he saying? Assuming this is on radio and I can't listen at the moment.
Heavy Dee
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Heavy Dee
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Listen here
bellagiobob
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There is being ripped a new ahole, and then there is what Brown just did. Good for him, doing what the media should have done years ago.
Barrsy
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I agree with almost everything what he said. But when it came to consultation regarding the name change, its absolutely false to say, suggest or imply they didn't consult/do their due diligence.
I don't like the result, but it was a no win, was very nuanced/certainly was not a black & white issue, but frankly I think it was inevitable.
I do wonder if they could have rebranded as the "Esks" somehow & kiboshed the Eskimo name.
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canadianbusiness.com
Heavy Dee
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It's almost like he had 3 shots of tequila before that interview.
rboomercat90
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Brown shed a lot of light on what the board is and at the same time raised a bunch of head shaking questions. Not really sure what else to say.
Heavy Dee
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He made a very compelling argument about his wife being indigenous and wanting to take an active role in discussions with the Inuit. And also paying for all of the stakeholders to come to Edmonton to discuss what a name change would mean for everyone. And that he took it to board chair Tom Richards and it was snuffed. I will choose to believe all of that knowing the decisions that board has made.
rboomercat90
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The name change was never about the Inuit. I think most of us understood that at the time.
A few years ago I spoke with Presson directly about this process (if you can even call it that). Basically he shrugged his shoulders and said "well we did a lot of polling at the time and the polling said we should change it." Basically no effort at all to defend the brand, fight for the brand, get meaningful input from Inuit leaders, etc, etc, etc. Did a study, study concluded to change it, then that's that.
As much as Len Rhoades was a shitty President, he did do a good job on this file. First time the "change the name!" nonsense came up was at the 2015 Grey Cup when the woke mayor of Winnipeg decided to use hosting a Grey Cup with the Eskimos in it as an opportunity to grand stand. I remember thinking it was actually a joke at first. Rhoades almost immediately engaged with Inuit leaders, if I remember right used to fly them in annually, and basically worked diligently to build that relationship and give them a sense of ownership over the brand. He could see the hurricane of bullshit coming and got ahead of it. Then Presson came in, panicked, and the board went right along with him.
I remember asking Presson if any consideration was paid to how the emotional roller coaster of the time may have impacted polling results and if those results could have changed over time once people calmed down and the news cycle moved on. Basically got an "uhhhhhhh" as a response.
Barrsy
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Well just read the article.
His wife been indigenous does nothing for me. Its like saying ones point is valid by saying "I have a black friend".
Again, I wasnt happy with the decision but I get it. Its certainly not a black & white issue (as the Redskins was imo).
MoontoScott
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The interview nicely summarizes what people on this website have been saying for years.
There has been a series of disastrous decisions that resulted in part (or totality) due to a lack of consultation with stakeholders. No point in going over everything that Brown said because it doesn't fly in the face of anything we've said here.
It sounds like he has the same opinion of Len Rhodes that everybody here does. What a poisoned chalice that boy was but everybody kept drinking the kool-aid. I think he ended up as a beer salesman or something which sounds about right.
One thing I will question about the Brown interview is the notion that there is a local person with deep pockets and deep ties to the Eskimos who can/will step in and save the team. That is still up in the air.
I didn't get the notion that Brown knows anything about the stage of negotiations.
One thing he did get right was that "winning is fun" and nobody wants to watch a team that loses all the time and has such inept and stubborn coaches and managers. Go figure. Play some winning football and fans will start to return.
There has been a series of disastrous decisions that resulted in part (or totality) due to a lack of consultation with stakeholders. No point in going over everything that Brown said because it doesn't fly in the face of anything we've said here.
It sounds like he has the same opinion of Len Rhodes that everybody here does. What a poisoned chalice that boy was but everybody kept drinking the kool-aid. I think he ended up as a beer salesman or something which sounds about right.
One thing I will question about the Brown interview is the notion that there is a local person with deep pockets and deep ties to the Eskimos who can/will step in and save the team. That is still up in the air.
I didn't get the notion that Brown knows anything about the stage of negotiations.
One thing he did get right was that "winning is fun" and nobody wants to watch a team that loses all the time and has such inept and stubborn coaches and managers. Go figure. Play some winning football and fans will start to return.
Barrsy
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Agree with everything you say.
To the bolded, a failed UCP candidate. Shockingly, now AGLC Board Chair
Heavy Dee
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I read it. The issue always was does he/they (the chiefs) speak for all Inuit? No he/they dont. They claim to represent all Inuit across the country. I would argue there was a vocal majority in the Edmonton Eskimos market that took pride in the name. So they kneeled to national sponsors, organizations etc.
According to Presson, "even our own fans" were heavily in favour of changing the name as a result of their study. Asked what defines a "fan," which he wasn't sure of. I told him that even standing in the line to get into the stadium for the first game back in 2021 that multiple people were loudly complaining about the name change, which was before I got to my seats where I could hear more people complaining about the name change. Indication was that actual paying fans didn't like it. Got another "uhhhh" response.
What it sounds like is they did a focus group of random people, or people self identifying as "fans," got the answer they wanted, then moved on.
Heavy Dee
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Agreed. They 'focused' on the result they wanted to try to appease sponsors and hoped that long time STH like you and I would buy it.
My takeaway from that interview was the Richards and the board settled on the deepest pockets as the new owner, without much consideration for being local, connected, invested etc. This could be a big problem.
I should add that the board at the time trusted an American outsider with zero connection to the city or team to stick handle this process. That's why Iam so glad Brown called out Tom Richards today. What a fraud.
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Barrsy
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I don't disagree with any of that. But the Esks seem to take a reasonable approach. As reasonable as what Brown said he would/ was going to do. So I wouldn't criticize them over that. There's multiple ways to go about these sorts of things.
Again I don't agree with what the end result. But the process in general I think was a reasonable one.
MoontoScott
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As any successful "consultant" will tell you, the first question you ask when someone hires you to do a study is:
"What do you want the answer to be?"
At first I thought the change was mostly managerial incompetence, but now looking back I think it was mostly out of laziness and not wanting to deal with it.
Defending the brand against the mob and all the mud that goes with it is hard. It takes a dedicated and passionate voice to fight that battle (ie. Brown), and I just don't think they had that at any level of the organization. Board was incompetent and didn't care. Presson probably hadn't seen an indigenous person in real life before he got here.
When you're choosing between having to find new sponsors, stave off a PR war, have the loud minority call you and your organization racist, do the hard work of engaging with indigenous groups, etc and simply changing the name and having it all go away - it's probably not hard for someone that has zero passion or understanding of the team and the brand to simply say "f*** it" and make the change.
Heavy Dee
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