The year was 2013. I had recently moved back to Edmonton, started a new job, and didn't have much of a footing in the community or many friends to hang out with outside of work. Because of that, I worked my butt off at my job to prove myself and make some cash while doing so. I had been sent down to Calgary on a work trip to help the company catch up on some backlogged service and maintenance calls, nothing to do with CFL football or the team named the Edmonton Eskimos at the time, right?
You see, the big buzz around my workplace at the time was that our President was a man named Brad Sparrow, who just so happened to be on the Board of Directors for the then Eskimos. The rumor was that if you worked hard and did your job, you may be gifted some Eskimos tickets.
Now, to give you some insight on my knowledge of the EE at the time... I had no clue about the CFL, the players or the local team. My father had an EE sticker in his truck when I was young and Commonwealth Stadium hosted a football team but more importantly, Commonwealth was a huge concert venue. At that point in life I had seen the Police and another act or two in the massive stadium but I never really batted an eye at the stadium's main purpose, I just thought it was a cool big building in the heart of Edmonton that was great for concerts. Silly me.
So back to the story. In the middle of my work trip to Calgary my service manager called me with some news. The company was happy with my performance and they informed me that I had won an Edmonton Eskimos prize pack featuring a shirt, a hat and some tickets. As a renewed hockey fan I knew I was excited for live sports but I had no clue about football rules, players, teams and the league as a whole. You gotta start somewhere right?
Game Day had arrived a week or two later and outfitted with my new team gear, I made my way to Commonwealth with a good friend of mine and parked in the same area that I still park at for stadium concerts and events to this day. As we walked up to the stadium, the sensory overload started to hit and the excitement levels rose. The EE were a team that seldom won in 2013 but when the Riders come to town, both shades of Green are well represented on Game Day. As we marched up to Gate 9 thousands of fans filed into the stadium alongside us, adding to the excitement. Once we made it in we were greeted by stadium staff handing out yellow rally towels. Free stuff upon entry? That's my kind of fun!
We scrambled to our seats to see the team introductions and of course, to figure out where the heck we were sitting for this big affair. Section X, Row 18 would be our landing spot for the game. Once we sat down, I finally got to see the big picture and boy, was it massive. 41,868 CFL fans had gathered to cheer on their teams and the scenery shocked me. 40000 people come to these football games?! What about those "CFL is a joke" comments? The "NFL is better than CFL" debate? Any negative comments I had heard about the CFL instantly washed away once I settled in and watched the ball fly through the air for the first time. The fans of both teams started to get noisy, the horns started blasting and the game went into full swing in a matter of minutes, yet there I was... some guy who didn't care for football except the Super Bowl, completely hypnotized by these two teams in green duking it out on the turf. The beer was cold, the sun was hot and the environment was exactly what I wanted without even knowing it.
As the game continued on I started to get in on the chants and noise. I cheered when the Cheer Team told me to, I celebrated the points when we got them and started picking out some players I could get behind. Fred Stamps was doing his thing, Adarius Bowman was a big name out there and quarterback Michael Reilly was in Year 1 as a member of the Green and Gold. The narrative that year for the then Eskimos was that they were in a rebuild year so when the game ended, I wasn't surprised to see a loss. What did surprise me, however, was the environment in the stadium despite the Eskimos being in a losing year and how much fun it was to cheer on the team with so many other fans. Section X is generally the section that houses the opposition's families and friends which, that should be a deterrent for Home Fans... right? Not for this new fan! If anything, I enjoyed sitting and cheering amongst the opposing supporters.
Once the game wrapped up and the fans filed out of the stadium, I knew I was becoming hooked on the experience of Game Day in Edmonton. I instantly wanted to attend more games and with the company I worked for having season seats in Section X, I knew I would be back to cheer on the EE. For myself, it was only a matter of time and hard work to achieve another set of tickets to the EE show.
For the next two years I would ask the company for the tickets in Section X and I would get most of the games I wanted to attend. In 2015, the EE played the most northern game of professional football in Preseason against the Saskatchewan Roughriders in Fort McMurray, dubbed the "Northern Kickoff". I made the trek up north to see my new favorite sports team play in my hometown with a good friend that was still living in Fort McMurray at the time. As soon as we made it to Mac Island, which houses the Shell Place football stadium, we were welcomed to a full on pre-game party that featured Canadian rockers April Wine, along with the many booths and experiences you would see in Edmonton. I bought my first jersey which, I loved the Signature Series EE jerseys since release day in 2014, so to buy one with a Northern Kickoff crest was the perfect start to what would be a Grey Cup season. The Green and Gold would beat the Riders that day and with that my fandom fate would be sealed. I watched my team defend "Home Turf" in my hometown, with my new Northern Kickoff jersey on in a historical game. As a fan, I don't know if you can ask for more than that, even if it was just Preseason.
For the remainder of the 2015 season I would get the company tickets whenever I could, but now I faced a new challenge; The company wasn't able to give me tickets to certain games because as I stated earlier, these EE tickets were incentive prizes and not just tickets for me to take. I ran into a problem that I didn't expect to have and with that the Season Seat Holder gears started to turn. The Eskimos would go on to win the Grey Cup against the Ottawa REDBLACKS in Winnipeg and once the gold confetti settled and the championship hype died down, the thought of Season Tickets ramped up, but I still wouldn't make the call, mostly because of the potential cost for someone that was still trying to find their footing in Edmonton at the time. The jersey that I purchased at the Northern Kickoff? It was signed by the whole EE team at a practice before the 2015 Western Final and still hangs on my wall with #15 Grey Cup cresting and a note from Michael Reilly that says "Grey Cup Champs 2015!"
Christmas Day would come a month and a bit after the Grey Cup game. At the end of the gifting stage, my father handed me a present that felt like an article of clothing and when I opened it, I saw a big #4 and a Bowman and my excitement levels went through the roof. My Dad knew how much I liked Adarius and that alone had me excited but to my surprise, inside the jersey was a few hundred dollar bills. I looked at my Mom and Dad confused and excited, and they simply smiled back and said "That's for your Season Tickets, Merry Christmas son!"
Some jumps, more hugs and few days later I finally got to make the call I had dreamed of. Section X, Row 6 would become my Game Day home as prescribed and even as I'm writing this, there's still an excitement to sit in those seats and watch the Edmonton Elks play at Commonwealth Stadium.
Today, Section X is still a magical place for myself and now Katherine and her young boys. We blow horns and shake our cowbells with passion every game, win or lose. On every Elks first down many fellow fans in Section X chant "Move Those Sticks!" in honor of Chris Scheetz's announcing days. We still banter with the opposition and even in a loss, we'll shake hands with the opposing fans and give a short congratulations on our way out of the stadium.
Maybe every Seat Holder believes their section at Commonwealth Stadium is the best and rightfully so. Section O has a reputation of it's own as well as other sections so, we will always recommend any and every seat and spot in the 60,081 capacity fortress known as Commonwealth Stadium. Call it Iceteca, call it too big, call it whatever you please. For The Elks Herd, Commonwealth Stadium is home, Section X is the living room and our seats are the sofas.