A Canadian sports economist says the Oilers’ cup run will do nothing significant for the Edmonton economy, as people will just spend less elsewhere.Moshe Lander lectures at seven universities, including Concordia where he is a sports economics professor. He admits his net zero concept seems counterintuitive.“For all of the people that you show me in and around the arena, for all the civic pride that goes now into buying merchandise and stuff like that, the belief would be that this is a huge economic boon for Edmonton,” Lander acknowledged in an interview with Western Standard.“The economic impact on Edmonton is zero. And so, that's the shocking realization that comes out of it.”While crowds of excited Oiler fans may fill TV screens, the boring absence of people elsewhere goes, Lander argues.“All of this activity really hasn't created any jobs. It's not that a company has moved to Edmonton as a result of this, or it's not because people have moved to Edmonton because of this,” he says.“The disposable income in Edmonton hasn't changed. So for every extra dollar that people are spending on tickets, hot dogs, going to the area around the arena to the local bars, that's great. But I'm going to show you West Edmonton Mall is emptier than it otherwise would be or the sushi shop down on White Ave is emptier than it used to be.”Some of that economic downside waits for future months, Lander suggests.“When holiday time comes around, how many families are going to say, ‘We have to cut back on gifts because we spent money buying new merchandise that says Western Conference champion’? Or, ‘Those tickets that we bought you to the Cup final was your birthday gift. So, sorry, don't expect anything this year, we're not going to take a summer vacation,’” he mused.“When you start netting all of these things out, it’s very, very close to nothing. It's just that it's moved the economic activity around the city from one part to another.”Lander said the Edmonton Elks did well to hasten their Saturday their regular season opener against the Roughriders to 2 p.m. to not overlap Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Finals.“The city is an Oilers town, not an Elks town. So if the choice is watching the game on TV or going to the Elks game, I don't think that that's even a choice,” he said.“Getting out of the way is the neighborly thing to do, but it's also good business.”Lander, a Flames fan, says it pains him to give the Oilers the edge in his expectations.“If we just list out the rosters and do kind of a checkmark side by side, you can probably give more checkmarks to the Panthers. But they haven't a McDavid or Draisityl and I think there's a big drop off to [Florida’s best, Tkachuk],” he said.“I haven't seen any of the Oilers’ opponents effectively neutralize them. And they're essentially a two-man wrecking crew. They are doing the damage. If the Panthers know how to negate them, then, yeah, they have a very real shot.”
A Canadian sports economist says the Oilers’ cup run will do nothing significant for the Edmonton economy, as people will just spend less elsewhere.Moshe Lander lectures at seven universities, including Concordia where he is a sports economics professor. He admits his net zero concept seems counterintuitive.“For all of the people that you show me in and around the arena, for all the civic pride that goes now into buying merchandise and stuff like that, the belief would be that this is a huge economic boon for Edmonton,” Lander acknowledged in an interview with Western Standard.“The economic impact on Edmonton is zero. And so, that's the shocking realization that comes out of it.”While crowds of excited Oiler fans may fill TV screens, the boring absence of people elsewhere goes, Lander argues.“All of this activity really hasn't created any jobs. It's not that a company has moved to Edmonton as a result of this, or it's not because people have moved to Edmonton because of this,” he says.“The disposable income in Edmonton hasn't changed. So for every extra dollar that people are spending on tickets, hot dogs, going to the area around the arena to the local bars, that's great. But I'm going to show you West Edmonton Mall is emptier than it otherwise would be or the sushi shop down on White Ave is emptier than it used to be.”Some of that economic downside waits for future months, Lander suggests.“When holiday time comes around, how many families are going to say, ‘We have to cut back on gifts because we spent money buying new merchandise that says Western Conference champion’? Or, ‘Those tickets that we bought you to the Cup final was your birthday gift. So, sorry, don't expect anything this year, we're not going to take a summer vacation,’” he mused.“When you start netting all of these things out, it’s very, very close to nothing. It's just that it's moved the economic activity around the city from one part to another.”Lander said the Edmonton Elks did well to hasten their Saturday their regular season opener against the Roughriders to 2 p.m. to not overlap Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Finals.“The city is an Oilers town, not an Elks town. So if the choice is watching the game on TV or going to the Elks game, I don't think that that's even a choice,” he said.“Getting out of the way is the neighborly thing to do, but it's also good business.”Lander, a Flames fan, says it pains him to give the Oilers the edge in his expectations.“If we just list out the rosters and do kind of a checkmark side by side, you can probably give more checkmarks to the Panthers. But they haven't a McDavid or Draisityl and I think there's a big drop off to [Florida’s best, Tkachuk],” he said.“I haven't seen any of the Oilers’ opponents effectively neutralize them. And they're essentially a two-man wrecking crew. They are doing the damage. If the Panthers know how to negate them, then, yeah, they have a very real shot.”
