Sunrise Florida is looking a lot like Oilers town ahead of Game 7 of the Stanley Cup finals, according to St. Albert resident Mike Howes.
Howes is one of a group of St. Albert and Edmonton-area fans who boarded a chartered flight yesterday morning to catch the deciding game in a season that has seen the Oilers repeatedly overcome near-insurmountable odds, including coming back from a 3-0 deficit in the finals to force a Game 7.
“We just picked a random hotel near the [Amerant Bank Arena], and it's just been filling up with Oilers fans,” Howes said. “It’s probably three-quarters Oilers fans.”
When he spoke with the Gazette, Howes was near the arena at a bar, which he described as awash with Oilers jerseys.
Roughly 100 fans, mostly business owners from the Edmonton area, boarded the charter flight this morning, Howes said.
A seat on the flight cost $2,500, and tickets to the game had an even heftier price tag, coming in around $7,000 for two people.
“Not for the faint of heart … It’s a pricey little adventure,” Howes said. “But it doesn’t happen every day … I was at Game 6 in ’06, and that was, what, 18 years ago? I'm 59. I can't wait another 18 years.”
Howes estimated about 20-25 of the passengers on the flight were from St. Albert, many of them “friends of friends” who took a chance to see could be a historic win for a team that hasn’t had a Stanley Cup victory in 34 years.
Whether the team wins or loses, Howes said he’s already had a great time.
“Of course, we’ll be pretty bummed out if they don’t win it,” he said. “But I honestly think they’re going to win it now … I think Florida is as nervous as a long-tail cat in a room full of rocking chairs right now.”
