Oilers fans protest high prices, Formenton signing and Babcock hiring at Rogers Place

Something unusual happened at Rogers Place on Thursday night, and it had nothing to do with the Edmonton Oilers losing their first regulation game of the season. In a building that sold out all 41 home dates just last year, over 2,000 seats sat empty as the Oilers fell 4-2 to the Utah Mammoth. The announced attendance of roughly 16,176 was the smallest crowd at Rogers Place in nearly four years, and it wasn't because the team on the ice was bad. Edmonton entered the night on a five-game winning streak with Connor McDavid leading the entire NHL in scoring. The fans weren't staying away because of the product between the boards. They were staying away because of everything else.

Season ticket holders are walking away in droves

The frustration has been building for a while now, and it's rooted in one thing above all else: money. The Oilers are, according to Forbes, the most profitable team in the NHL, having earned an estimated US$244 million in operating income during the 2024-25 season. That figure tied them with the NFL's Los Angeles Rams for third among all sports franchises on the planet. The franchise is valued at roughly US$3.2 billion. And yet, the people who have been filling those seats for years say they've been squeezed to the breaking point.

Dan Tencer, the former host of the Oilers postgame show on 630 CHED, publicly shared that he gave up his season tickets. He explained that his family absorbed the steep price hike after the first Stanley Cup Final run, then tried to stomach the next round of increases after the second. Eventually, the regular season cost became too much. Playoff ticket prices were aggressive too, with costs doubling right out of the gate and multiplying up to seven times during the Cup Final, but at least those could be resold without taking a loss. The 41 regular season games were a different story entirely.

Edmonton sports broadcaster Jason Gregor pointed to the attendance figure Thursday night and laid it out plainly: ticket prices and playoff increases drove away season seat holders who chose not to renew. He added that many long-time holders felt the playoff price hikes amounted to gouging, with no gesture of appreciation or loyalty from the organization in return.

Another former holder, Shannon Stenson, echoed the sentiment, saying she held season tickets for about four years and watched the price climb relentlessly each season. She couldn't resell most games without eating a loss, even when she was just trying to recoup face value. A fan named Chris Curtola noted that the resale market has completely flipped. Buyers have learned to wait, prices drop as game time approaches, and upper deck tickets can be had for $40 to $50. He even got into a Stanley Cup Final game last year for $300 on the day of. For the upcoming Wild game, resale seats were listed as low as $39 on some platforms, well below the cheapest face value of $91.75 in the upper bowl.

The Oilers' own playoff payment structure added to the resentment. Season seat holders were required to commit to a full playoff run in advance, locked in with no option to cancel. When Edmonton was bounced in the first round by Anaheim, those who had paid in full had money for up to three more rounds of hockey sitting with the organization until the season ended. That money eventually became a credit toward this year's tickets or could be refunded, but the experience left a sour taste.

The team has clearly noticed the softening demand. Reports indicate the Oilers mounted an aggressive off-season push to retain holders, with multiple sources saying they were bombarded with phone calls and emails urging them to reconsider. For the upcoming Minnesota game, the organization offered discounted tickets to Edmonton Minor Soccer Association families, a promotion that in past years was reserved for junior-level Oil Kings games, not NHL contests. Over 840 tickets remained unsold for that game, and the Carolina and Calgary matchups later in the homestand had over 1,400 and 1,100 available seats respectively.

The Formenton factor and broader frustrations

Ticket prices aren't the only grievance driving fans away from Rogers Place. In September, the Oilers signed forward Alex Formenton to a one-year, US$850,000 deal. Formenton was one of five players from Canada's 2018 World Junior team who faced sexual assault charges in the Hockey Canada case. All five were acquitted in 2025 and subsequently reinstated by the NHL, but the signing ignited fierce backlash in Edmonton.

Mary Loewen, the beloved superfan known as "Mama Stanley" for her sequined Stanley Cup costume, declared she would not cheer for the team as long as Formenton remained on the roster. She launched a Change.org petition the day after the signing that collected roughly 70,000 signatures, and dozens of protesters gathered outside Rogers Place before the first home preseason game.

One fan named Stan Matthews said his household refused to purchase tickets this year for two specific reasons: the hiring of head coach Mike Babcock and the signing of Formenton. Another fan shared that while he still attends games, his girlfriend will no longer set foot in the building on Oilers game nights because of the Formenton situation. The organization has maintained that the signing followed "a lengthy due diligence process," but the public discontent hasn't faded.

Layered on top of all this are broader quality-of-life complaints. Fans have pointed to $20 beers, $30 parking, the ongoing construction chaos in downtown Edmonton, visible homelessness and the opioid crisis surrounding the arena district, and even the perception that the team's 50/50 draw is far less generous than advertised. There's also the wider issue of hockey accessibility in Canada, where 14 Oilers games this season are streaming-only behind a Sportsnet+ paywall, further alienating fans who can't or won't pay for yet another subscription.

Whether Thursday was a one-off blip or the beginning of a real trend remains to be seen. The Oilers have five straight home games coming up, including matchups against Minnesota, Carolina, Toronto, and Calgary. The Leafs game on October 24 is already sold out, and the Battle of Alberta should draw well. But if empty seats persist against the Flames, it will be hard to dismiss what's happening as a scheduling quirk or a mid-October lull. Edmonton's fans have long been considered among the most passionate in professional sports. Right now, a growing number of them are making their voices heard in the most powerful way possible: by not showing up.