It was announced a few days back that the Octane Dance Team will not be
riding in the back of the pickup truck with the Gretzky statue as the team moves to
Rogers Place. This was met with shouts of “good riddance!” by some and continued cheerleader shaming by
others. I for one liked the Octane, saw great value in what they did and will
miss them now that they are gone.
In an era where everything seems to offend everyone the
Octane came into the league with an 11,000 person petition looking to prevent the team from dancing at Rexall Place. Nevermind that the Eskimos and Rush both
had dance teams in Edmonton, much less every NBA teams and NFL team on the map. No,
this was part of a larger effort by mysterious powers that be to over sex
professional sports. And cheerleading was certainly invented by the Oilers then
and there.
Credit to the Oilers brass at the time they ignored the
complaints. They must have sat back and
said “we are gonna ice pretty much garbage for the infinite future. Better
bring in some babes to keep the masses entertained.” Now with McDavid sure to
entertain us 3000% more for a mere 30000% increase per ticket, they have declined
to bring the dance team to the new barn.
For years the Octane have spent way more time in the
community than the actual Oilers – which highlights more issues in the
organization but that’s a story for another day. For many little kids at hockey
games they were one of the highlights of going to Rexall Place – particularly when
the main attraction stunk out the building.
I’ve been friends with Octane over the years and these were highly dedicated people who worked hard day in and day out for a shockingly small amount of money. They were leered at by us guys at the games, chirped online by the trolls and yet came to work with smiles on their faces night after night.
THANKS OCTANE
How many times did we walk around the concourse at games and
see the Octane patiently posing for pictures with little kids who had stars in
their eyes? Plenty. This was hardly
the oversexed image the boo birds projected onto the dance team while they were
around and in post mortem.
How many nights in the past decade of Oilers
hockey where the Octane looked like the only people employed by the OEG who
were actually interested in entertaining us Oilers fans? Plenty.
How many charities and organizations will now get no Oilers’
representation at events because the players aren’t asked by the team to attend
anything ever and now there is no Octane to send in their place? Plenty.
Is the Octane being scrubbed the biggest news in years? No.
But as someone who has sat bored in Rexall on many a night only to find myself
non-pervertly gawking at the Octane I thank them for what they have done and
the effort they made to have fun on many a funless night.
So long Octane. You were a solid #4 on the list of things keeping
me entertained at Oilers games since 2010.
I for one will miss you.
WHAT KEPT ME GOING AT REXALL PLACE
1.
The Esso Car Race on the scoreboard
2.
Rexall Beer
3.
Jordan Eberle’s short shifts and long eyelashes
4.
The Octane
5.
The roast beef sandwich on the second concourse
level
Well said, Wanye!
oh no, not the Octane squirrels!! and the giant hotdogs with chili and all the fixins you want on an oh so soft bun that were on the second concourse are what kept me going because the hockey had been so bad, it wasn’t necessarily for that. good thing i only went a few times a year because each dog is about 1 billion calories! 😉
Did they announce it on the Gretzky Trade (Sale) anniversary on purpose?
I’ll second that emotion. I still don’t think a cheer team works in hockey rink (NFL has sidelines, NBA has stoppages when the team can run onto the floor), but there’s no shame in a business trying something new and those young ladies did a great job with the role.
Edit: Also, any intermission event involving those big inflatable bubbles and people running into each other is hilarious each and every time I see it.
“these were highly dedicated people who worked hard day in and day out for a shockingly small amount of money. They were leered at by us guys at the games, chirped online by the trolls and yet came to work with smiles on their faces night after night.”
This seems like the exact reason why they shouldn’t continue this. I’m sure the women of the Octane are all very nice and dedicated people, but I’m not sure poorly compensated employment based on titillating horny and drunk men is a particularly great tradition to carry on. At least in football or basketball there is room for cheerleaders to move and engage in an actual routine. A scantily clad woman dancing in one spot at a hockey game realistically only serves one purpose and I don’t think it’s a particularly good one.
Scantily Clad? Hardly. Long or short sleeve Oiler shirts and skirts.
I might have missed this, but who’s bright idea was to have them in the first place?
Joey looks like a fan.
I was never a fan of cheerleaders at hockey games. This is Canada and the whole cheerleader thing seemed to me so American. If that is what a person is going to hockey games to see, then that person and I have different interests.
I am torn about it.
Being completely objective, I like good looking girls as much as anybody (sometimes more), but, having visited a few arenas where they had ice girls but no cheerleaders, the ice girls seemed a better idea. It kind of keeps you with your eyes on the ice and it is just a little distraction. Especially for markets where hockey is not that big (the girls in LA, Dallas or Anaheim come to mind).
When it came down to the Octane, and comparing them to NFL cheerleaders, total night and day. The Octane girls are very good looking, yes, but NFL cheerleaders are athletes on their own, they are out of this world built… if you ever see one closely enough you can tell that she is ripped and works out… a lot… in NFL they put more of a show though and they are very involved in the entertainment during half time and pauses… I do not know if there is that space in Hockey.
Last, the “classiest” NFL organizations do not have cheerleaders: the packers, the steelers… they want to keep the fans going to watch football and not something else. They want to keep certain kind of bravado and pride of not having a bunch of girls dancing in short skirts. Good luck getting a ticket in Green Bay or Pittsburgh…. I am saying that the Oilers do not need cheerleaders, they attract big enough crowds.
I will not miss the Octane, most of the times I do not even remember they are there. However… since now they are not paying the octane, the cost is lower, are we getting a rebate on the ticket price?
I’ve been to a few NBA games and I tell you those women are BOMBS! And how good looking are the Ducks ice girls? (Hint – EXTREMELY). You’re right in that they are fitness fanatics and I have to be honest – I really appreciate any woman that puts that kind of effort in at the gym.
Buuuut we’re in an age where being fit and even trying to be personally better is massively downplayed. We’re all about “inclusivity” now. And yet, who wants to watch a bunch or regular people performing at a sports event? Certainly not me but I guess I’m in the minority.
That was the problem. Every year the Octane tried to fit into Edmonton’s borderline Mormon social norms. In doing so they lost their appeal. I mean, those outfits the last couple of years were basically granny dresses. Yuck!
The Octane should have been real Ice Girls. They should NOT have been afraid to show off a bit. They should have been proud of being fit, healthy and good looking instead of being ashamed of it. Unfortunately, they never got a chance. We forced them to be ordinary and they lost their appeal.
Beautiful post my friend, you are right on the money. I was last year at a 49er game and saw “the gold rush” selling calendars and they were all at least 5′ 11″, full of beauty (clearly) but also extremely trimmed…. The octane was your regular chick you could run into in milestones (not even cactus club)
And please …. For anyone about to call me sexist… The concept of cheer leaders is sexist itself so if we are going to do it, at least let’s do it all the way and not half ass it for the sake of political correctness!
I don’t think they got paid
I wonder what Geno will think.
https://youtu.be/hqbaPz8XQcg
https://youtu.be/gGAzM6xqaFI
THE BULLIN WALL!
How ’bout that?
I thought the same thing.
It must be August… Some more ghosts of Oilers past: https://youtu.be/zlTrTxCbIpA
Too bad. By far the most positive sexy thing out of the Oiler organization for 10+ years.
Glad to see them gone.
Compared to other teams cheerleaders they were an embarrassment for manifold reasons.
The individuals may have been working hard, but the end product was low grade – an indication of how generally lousy the off-ice entertainment package has been in EDM for years (decades?).
Hopefully the people responsible for the new building entertainment will have gone to other rinks and consulted with them so as to bring the oil product up to par.
…oilersnation cheerleaders please.
The concept was new and the cheerleading aspect didn’t fit into pre-existing fan culture so it was a risk on management’s part.
But their community service role did fit into fan culture and the few fans that were aware of it, including myself, appreciated the Octane for it.
My wish is that management should have adapted the Octane in this manner. That their community interactions are more prominently shared during intermissions, and in using them to get the community involved in some of their initiatives.
At the same time, it seemed like a lot of hard work with not a lot of pay. A decent salary, with benefits, seems the right way to do something like this.
With that in mind, it could be argued that this was ill-conceived, but that’s management’s problem, not the problem of the dozens and dozens of ladies that put their time and their sweat into this over the years.
I am not a fan of cheerleading myself, and I think that whoever is in charge of presentation at games could do a lot more to get fans pumped, but I never spoke out against it because numerous sports feature them. Despite this, I feel bad for the Octane because the early renders of Rogers Place featured an elevated section where they could dance, and I thought it would be nice for them to watch games from that vantagepoint, exclusively to the girls that made the Octane team. Heck, they should make that an Octane alumni area as a thanks for their hard work.
I’m torn. The fact of the matter is that these girls WANT to do this job. It isn’t like anyone is holding a gun to anyone’s head to make them apply. I think, but do not know, that part of the reason they apply is because they like to be “cheerleaders”. Part and parcel of that gig is being attractive. You can’t be a lifeguard if you can’t swim and all that sort of thing. I really don’t think that the show they put on is particularly objectifying, but can acknowledge that any job that requires you to look a certain way has an element of that inherent in it.
Community involvement is a wonderful thing, and many of these girls help fans connect in a way that the players, who are less and less accessible than ever, usually can’t. I really doubt that the Oilers will be sending their players to the events that these girls typically go to. That connection may well be lost.
On the other hand, I have a daughter. I’m really concerned about a world that puts such a premium on physical appearance. I’m not naive. I know it exists but I have different feelings about it as time goes by. Whether it is the Octane, waitresses working in bars with short skirts, or the pretty girl in the office that deals with extra attention from the old boys, this world exists right or wrong.
By the same token, I do believe that feminism does call for letting women make choices about what they want to do. I’d like to think that part of our culture is allowing people to decide for themselves. If my daughter wants to be an Octane dancer, a doctor or both, and she has the abilities and capabilities to do so then let her. I’d rather let her make the decision as a person than have someone impose their moralities or sense of what is PC upon her.
Let’s be clear, these girls are essentially cheerleaders–they aren’t sex workers.
If people don’t want to watch they don’t have to. God knows there are so many stupid things that happen at hockey games that I have to avoid seeing surely people could just look away.
‘Let’s be clear, these girls are essentially cheerleaders–they aren’t sex workers’
If they were, they would starve.
Actually, that might have been a good thing. Less beef and they might still be dancing away.
I’m sure the girls are great and it’s too bad they won’t be doing community events but with all that said, they really didn’t add to the in game experience for me. Personally I liked it more when they would have random contests with fans so they could give away some prizes. I have nothing against the octane but it’s just not my cup of tea. I would much rather see the crowd get involved, more kiss cams and contests.
Really indifferent over it. In my mind hockey is not a sport that cheerleaders are for. They got them in some of the southern US markets cuz the game doesnt sell there like here. Cheerleaders are associated with football since high school. Likely same with basketball. How many Canadian university hockey teams have cheerleaders. Answer i bet is zero. They did great things in the community. That will be sadly missed but at the game… A nonfactor and never got the fans going. Hell in the way sometimes… Wont miss them.
This is how I saw the octane:
https://youtu.be/sAGqV_CpcGg
Is that going to help us with the salary cap?
Snack wards cam!
Best friends daughter is a Eskimo cheerleader and we all have her picture hanging in our man caves. Ouch…he ripped mine down pretty quickly. He can’t tell his 21 year old daughter not to cheer but at the same time he compares it to glorified stripping.
The beautiful fit ice girls are the answer. Kill two birds with one stone
Waitaminit. They just changed the name and added dudes. Nice article Wayne, but you got got.
The Oilers finally realized cheerleaders in a rink was a stupid idea. Congratulations. Took long enough but it is Edmonton
Ahhh Fire Scorpion. Middle of August and your on ON commenting on Oilers Cheerleaders. You sir are a mix of Hope Solo ,Bill Cosby and Donald Trump rolled into one…..pure class.
Put down the bag of Doritos your bottle of Coke Zero and go back to playing Warcraft. Loser
can’t have pure class when you have no class.
Can one buy surplus Octane outfits for one’s wife? Asking for a friend.
Why would you friend want to see your wife in an octane outfit?
Might be time for a talk.
All was not right in the state of Denmark. More of an Oiler thing than an Octane thing.
The Oiler thing remains employed, the octane get axed, theres a pattern here.
Finally the curse has been removed. The mighty Oil have never made the playoffs with the Octane.*
* Tongue planted firmly in cheek.
Just throwin it out there, but would anyone have interest in getting their beer from a beer tub boy?
I’m pretty sure there are a few places in town where that works.
Yes, Wanye. Lament the loss of Octane with all your might. I mean, the dance routines and outfits were all look at my body ….and that gave you something to watch.
I hate watching the Esks cheerleaders from so far away. It forces me to watch the athleticism. I’d rather ogle someone dancing in place. Unless I’m near the aisle, then I’m forced to look away because like everyone else on the jumbotron, I don’t wanna get caught looking like Mr. Perv.
Wait … O….M…..F….G… They switch stairs …THEY SWITCHED STAIRS….amazing. Simply amazing.
And my boys hate it so much when Nanook and Punter and Homer come around. At 6 and 8 and 12 they know a guy in a mascot costume sux and that a smiling girl with glittery pom poms and flashing Pom Poms is better, well, maybe only the 12 year old. But whatever. A little drunk drool is good for a 19 year old. Learn the world kid.
———
My theory? I’m in Canada. It’s hockey time. Let’s go. Never really watched, always laughed at the concept, and found something shiny on Twitter to read when they were standing in place on the stairs.
Buh-bye,
Oh, and I must admit…..I agree with Wanye. Many was a time where I WASNT going to give to the charity event I went to, but I saw Octane and went, well….the Oilers are here so I guess it’s worth it. Here’s a hundo.
It’s a slooooooooow offseason on ON
I wasn’t surprised that a lot of conservative people in the most conservative part of Canada were upset by the idea of having attractive women featured as part of a sports presentation. That the Octane met as much resistance as it did says a lot about the culture and mindset of most of the elders in the community, who can’t look past the attractiveness of a woman to think about the overall contribution she’s making, or who never quite figured out that a pretty girl in a team themed dress smiling at you or dancing during a break in play isn’t doing it to seduce you or to try and sexualize the NHL experience.