Is It Time For The Edmonton Oilers To Change Their Name?

First off, let me preface this argument by saying that I’m not trying to kill anyone’s lifelong or generational fandom. I get that it’s sacrilege to even suggest what I’m about to suggest. And I happen to love the Oilers branding. The logo is perfect and iconic. I also get that the name might suggest a gritty, blue-collar attitude that is revered in sports. And I respect all of it – the history, the legacy, the team, the logo, the brand of the Edmonton Oilers. 

But hear me out. Should we be calling a team ‘The Oilers’ in today’s reality? Should we be calling a team by the name of the very thing that is accelerating the demise of our one shared home? The thing that causes 7 million deaths a year from people breathing the air? The thing that is causing an uptick of extreme weather events that annually kills millions and costs billions? The thing that is driving people out from their homelands because they’re becoming inhabitable and facing elimination due to sea level rise? The thing that we’ve known for decades is polluting our air, warming our planet, melting our glaciers, rising our seas, bleaching our corals, both scorching and flooding our lands. The thing that our governments continue to subsidize with our tax dollars in an industry of the world’s richest companies? The thing that fuels these richest companies and makes a small share of people rich, people who have hidden the truth, lied to the public, manipulated powerful decision-makers, and altered the natural systems of Earth merely for their own short-term materialistic gain? No, this thing called fossil fuels, of which oil is the star, is a thing we should not be calling anything other than what it is. The greatest calamity humans have ever perpetuated. 

Team names eventually become part of something bigger. You may not really think about the meaning at all. It’s just a name. It’s just a logo. We root and cheer and sport the gear. But when a name represents something so destructive and appalling, perhaps that is something we should not ignore. Because even if nobody is really thinking about oil or fossil fuels when they’re wearing that orange and blue, the fact remains that we are linking something positive (sports) with something catastrophic (the fossil fuel industry). And in this era that we are living in, the era of climate change caused by the burning of fossil fuels, which continues before our eyes…it feels very wrong to celebrate the oil industry even indirectly. 

It’s nobody’s fault. The name was grandfathered in. I don’t blame the Oilers organization, the fans, the NHL. I only blame the oil industry, the fossil fuel industry, and all its enablers for making it what it is and refusing to let it go. A name is a thing taken for granted, that becomes background noise, almost invisible and inconsequential when it’s been the same for so long. And that’s precisely the reason why it won’t matter much to change it. Sure, at first the whole endeavor will make some noise, ruffle feathers, and in this case probably spark some culture war nonsense. But eventually the new name will fade into the background, and the same challenges and triumphs of operating a hockey club will still exist, no matter what you call it. The meaning behind the original team name will always remain. The logo enshrined in the Hockey Hall of Fame, not only in reference to The Great One and its 5 Stanley Cups, but also as a design icon that stood the test of time. But the Oiler name does not stand the current test of time. It needs to be retired so that a new era of Edmonton hockey can emerge with a future just as bright, only now not promoting our planet’s end days. 

There’s a world of possibilities when it comes to a new name. It’s a great opportunity to get the fans involved, as the newly formed Utah Hockey Club is in the process of doing right now. To really go the distance, the Oilers could use a renaming as an opportunity to promote a cause they’re proud of. Their opponents this year and winners in the Stanley Cup Finals, the Florida Panthers, won a shred of my respect when I learned that a partial reason for their name is to draw attention to the endangered Florida panther that resides in their state. The Panthers hold awareness nights during the regular season and donate to nonprofits trying to protect the species. On the other side of the country, not too far from Alberta, is the Climate Pledge Arena, home to the Seattle Kraken. I give props to Amazon for naming the arena not after themselves, but after an important and timely initiative that draws attention to positive actions, business decisions, and ways of operating that are good for the environment. Climate Pledge Arena stands as an example of how an entertainment venue can operate more efficiently while avoiding harm to our planet. These are examples of what a name could mean to not just the hockey organization and its local fanbase, but the influence a name can have on a much larger scale. 

Alberta is much more than its vast oil reserves, and trust me, I am not naive to the fact that it’s been the lifeblood of the province since its discovery in 1947, and that opposition to anything other than the status quo will be an uphill battle. But that’s the very essence of the global energy transition – we have to change everything in order to save everything. And we have to see that there is so much more to our legacy than burning fossil fuels for energy. It’s the same for Alberta, as there is much more to its land and people than oil. It also enjoys pristine nature and the Rocky Mountains, of which there could be plenty of prime names waiting to be picked. I’ll leave all that to the great people of Alberta. Let’s just all agree that at least for the sake of a name, with all that’s at stake, the time has come for an Oil change.