Only 3 out of 11 matches were scheduled for the weekend, owing to previous bookings for the Edmonton Eskimos, the local CFL football team, and the international rugby tournament, the Churchill Cup.

Rick Titus, one of the veteran players, encountered some friction between him and the former president Wylie Stafford, through to head coach Ross Ongaro, and on down to several teammates.

Shortly thereafter, Titus attempted to amend this area of difficulty but as was reported, Joe Petrone, then heading the club, maintained that the damage was done and that the player was not going to be accepted back.

In the same atmosphere, as noted in the Edmonton Sun (July 6, 2004), Waldemar Dutra, a promising local goal-scorer who trained with the Aviators, left for Schweinfurt, a Third Division team in Germany.

Further, as cited in the Edmonton Journal (July 20, 2004, p. A4), the business plan of the team's owners was a source of some concern for local soccer officials.

The club's ownership group, Edmonton Professional Soccer (EPSL) Ltd admitted to the league that the business plan, put in place at the start of the franchise, was flawed.

The team was run on a shoestring budget, transferring away what few skilled players the Aviators had acquired and moving to the much smaller Foote Field where, incidentally, attendance was noticeably better.

copyrighted vs. Toronto Lynx, 26 August 2004 [3] Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply.