Sports Fans Losing Their Shirts

It was recently announced that the Edmonton Oilers are going to be wearing Orange jerseys for the forseeable future. If you're not familiar with the situation, they've traditionally had blue shirts with orange shoulders and trim. But in recent years, they've introduced a third jersey with inverted colours: Orange with blue shoulders. In this new era with young superstar Connor McDavid as their leader, those orange unis have become more popular, and now they've announced that they will be the main choice for the playoffs, as well as next year, when the NHL will not be having any third jerseys.

It's a nice arrangement, since the Oilers have the awkward situation of having a proud history, but one that revolves around a very specific generation of players. This way, they can honour their history while drawing a clear dilineation between...wait, no third jerseys next year? But, they are what modern sports is all about: gratuitous changes that squeeze more income from fans.

It turns out that this is because Adidas is taking over as the league's uniform supplier, and to simplify things, they are going to drop back to the old-fashioned arrangement of just home and away jerseys, at least for this one year. Again, this is refreshingly unlike modern sports. I'm sick of people introducing changes at the worst posible time. It's like, we've got this new kind of camera, let's use it for the first time at the Superbowl. Or, here's this new soccer ball, shall we test it out in the Armenian third division? No, let's start using it in the World Cup.

I'm glad one aspect of pro sports is changing, because other areas are getting even more pro-sportsy. The Oakland Raiders are moving to Las Vegas. Of course, sports teams moving for financial gain is hardly new, not even for the Raiders themselves, who will be going into gratuitous move number three. But this one seems more galling. Let's count the ways:

• Local governments will be paying $750 million for the Raiders' new stadium in Las Vegas.
• Local governments in Oakland were willing to pitch in $200 million for a new stadium. That may be much less, but when you include the fee the league charges to move teams, it would have been cheaper to stay in Oakland
• The new Vegas Golden Knights of the NHL are also about to start. As a hockey team in the desert, they face a challenge, and were hoping that being the only pro team in town would help. But so much for that. Oh, and they're going to be playing in a new arena that was built without public money.
• Not only is Las Vegas getting two teams at once, Oakland is losing two teams at once. The Golden State Warriors of the NBA are also leaving, though only across the bay.
• Oakland will still have one professional team left: baseball's Athletics. But they're looking for a new stadium, and might also move (to Montreal, <crosses fingers>). And at least part of the reason is that Oakland Coloseum is not a great place to play is because of the massive section of football-only seats in centre field, which were built to lure the Raiders back to Oakland in the 1990's
• Those seats cost $200 million dollars. They were paid for by the city, which still haven't finished paying for it.
• The new Raiders' stadium, along with the new stadium for the relocated Los Angeles Rams and Los Angeles Chargers, will be run by a company owned by Dallas Cowboys' owner Jerry Jones
• They haven't even started on the stadium in Las Vegas yet, so it won't be ready for at least three more seasons. The biggest stadium in Las Vegas is tiny by NFL standards, so the Raiders are planning on staying in Oakland - the city that now hates them - for at least two of those seasons.

Meanwhile, the Atlanta Braves and Falcons will be starting their upcoming seasons in new stadiums, despite their previous homes being barely old enough to vote. In fact, current Braves pitcher Bartolo Colon began his career one week after his team's old home Turner Field hosted it's first Major League game. And the Falcons' stadium will be named for Mercedes-Benz, despite their also having the naming rights for the nearby Superdome in New Orleans.

What's really interesting is that the NHL's Arizona Coyotes are looking for a new home. Of course, the NHL went to the wall keeping the team in Phoenix, and I assumedthat a big part of the reason was the arena. It had been paid for by the Phoenix suburb of Glendale, which was slowly paying off the debt with a tax on tickets. If the Coyotes - as the arena's only tenants - were to leave, the city would be on the hook for hundreds of millions of dollars and no way to pay it off. While I'm sure the NHL doesn't really care about the finances of an Arizona suburb, a debacle like that would make it hard for the next team that has to go begging to the local municipality. But apparently I was wrong; the NHL, like all sports leagues, is so intent on screwing everyone, that they can't even strategically not screw people when it makes sense. Except on the uniforms.