SASKATCHEWAN’S TEAM?
Fans urged to root for Golden Knights
Greg Moore and Justin Reves made videos, visited Vegas, and personally implored Saskatchewan’s new premier to hear them out.
It’s time, they say, for Saskatchewan to officially adopt the Las Vegas Golden Knights as this province’s NHL team — because, well, why not?
“When we say, ‘Hey, you need a team to cheer for in the winter that’s not the Roughriders,’ (Saskatchewan people) are like, ‘Oh yeah, you’re right — we need to keep those skills up,’ ” Moore said Tuesday. “When we say that, it makes sense.
“We can’t cheer for Winnipeg — we’re from Saskatchewan. Edmonton is terrible, Calgary needs a new stadium. So why not pick Vegas?
“And at the time of the video filming, it was cheaper for us to fly to Vegas than it was Winnipeg, Calgary or Edmonton. This just makes a lot of sense.”
Moore and Reves are Reginabased content producers — “It makes me throw up a little bit to say this, but the common term would be ‘social media influencers,’ ” Reves says when asked how the duo would best be described — and last year, they hit on the idea of adopting the Golden Knights.
It started with their love of the team’s colourful Twitter feed, led to a conversation between them and the Golden Knights, included a trek to Las Vegas last month that included press passes and chats with team fans and employees, and featured a live Facebook interview with Saskatchewan premier Scott Moe.
“Your ideas have some merit,” a bemused Moe told them. “And you’re doing some work here, so I think we should have some discussions around this.”
Moore and Reeves, who call themselves #TJAGS, created a petition this week on Change.org, seeking signatures.
They write there: “We want to see the Premier make it official that Saskatchewan can finally have an NHL team in the Vegas Golden Knights, by passing legislation announcing it as so. In doing so he will be lifting the curse of Saskatchewan being the ONLY province west of Quebec without an NHL franchise.”
The duo’s initial video, filmed in front of the Saskatchewan legislature, outlined why Saskatchewan should adopt the Golden Knights. They say it’s had more than 100,000 views on various social media channels.
They also made four videos while in Las Vegas, and popped the question to Moe near the end of a wideranging interview.
“He wasn’t for or against the idea. We said, ‘Hey, he didn’t say no! Let’s keep going!’ ” Moore said.
Reves says Canada’s NHL teams already have big, deep-rooted followings, and that making a trip to Winnipeg or Edmonton provides a little reprieve from Saskatchewan’s cold winters.
“And these other markets — Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal — they frankly all turn their noses up at Saskatchewan,” Reves added. “We know that they do. Whereas, we’ve found the people of Vegas, there’s no nose-turning-up, because they have no idea where Saskatchewan is, until you explain it to them. Then they ’re like, ‘ We just love that you guys care about us.’ ”
Reves answers quickly when asked to assess the odds of Saskatchewan passing his desired legislation.
“Hmmm. I would say, maybe 18 per cent,” he said.
“We only started this show just over a year ago on a whim, for something fun to do,” he added. “Fast forward 15 months, and we’ve got media passes to an NHL game. We’re interviewing NHL players, (we’re) in the press box, and connecting with all these fans. If you had asked me 15 months ago what our chances were of that, I would have given you less than 18 per cent.”