Winnipeg Whiteout 'doesn't make sense anymore'
The Jets season has come to a close with Winnipeg fans attracting almost as much attention and adulation as their team because of our infamous "Whiteout."
It is a credit to the solidarity and the creativity of this city's faithful followers that they rise above NHL fans everywhere with this tradition.
At the same time, it is perhaps just as laudatory that many of us stuff our opposition to the Whiteout in our blue jeans and cover up with a sheet or whatever else white we can find because we don't want to rain on this pale parade. Because it just doesn't make sense anymore.
Eventually, all those folks who like to go snow blind come spring are going to have to change.
It has been almost 30 years since Rod Palson of Palmer Jarvis Advertising came up with the idea for the white out. The idea exploded like white noise and it has been a tremendous boon to this city's image as faithful followers of its local sports teams.
Most every city wants to claim they have the best fans in the world and we got to stake our claim big time with all the international attention that was paid to the Whiteout.
And by the creative looks of some of the fans who are packing the MTS Centre these days, we just keep adding to that image.
When Palson initiated the idea, fans rarely even wore jerseys to the games. His idea was for fans to throw on a white shirt or a jacket or whatever (as a sportscaster with CKND at the time, I was provided with an all-white jumpsuit).
Nowadays, it is not enough to try and rise above the crowd by wearing white jerseys or even renting an expensive white tuxedo and top hat (by the way, "tuxedo night", which was held one year, never did catch on).
We've got folks dressed up as white Phantoms of the Opera, space men, in bee keeper outfits, bath robes, spiked hair everywhere, a zombie or three and pretty much anything else a human form can take (in white). Very creative and very entertaining.
C of Red
The Calgary Flames like to take credit for initiating the Whiteout by making Winnipeg fans respond to their "C of Red" during the 1987 playoffs.
But if the Flames can take credit for anything, it is the common sense to make sure their fans in their stands match their team on the ice (although Palson claims the "sea of red" just looks like a bunch of empty seats).
The whole idea is to intimidate the visiting team by making them see opposition colours wherever they look — at the hulking forward bearing down on them, at the bulky defence about to make them part of the advertising along the boards; so blinded by that colour that it's all you see when you look for space to score.
And there is no relief in sight when you raise your eyes to the heavens.
If it all matches.
Right now in Winnipeg, it doesn't.
Having the home team wear white jerseys used to make a lot of sense because fans got to see the variety of colours the visiting teams would bring to town. Toronto blue, Montreal red, Boston yellow, Philadelphia orange and so on.
Perhaps this proved to be too confusing for some American markets unfamiliar to hockey, or maybe teams felt that darker jerseys were more intimidating. A decision was made to keep it simple: the visiting team would always be the one in the white uniforms.
And so by maintaining this Whiteout in Winnipeg, our home team fans are basically dressed in the uniform of the visiting team.
There are some other arguments to be made against the concept, such as the fact white generally means "surrender", white is pretty bland, and you can't wear it after Labour Day.
But it just basically doesn't make sense anymore.
I am no fashion expert, but I imagine some very creative designs and ideas can be conjured up out of blue.
Perhaps it is going to take some sharp business entrepreneur who sees a way to market a lot of blue fabric to initiate the change, but it has to happen some day.
Don Marks is a Winnipeg writer and the editor of Grassroots News.