10 WEEKEND THINGS

Rodservations …

1 – BAT CITY: I was at the till paying for my merchandise at an Under Armour outlet in Austin, TX last November when the guy at the next till noted my Canadian accent. He was a man about 70 and was from the Houston area. After the usual, “Where ya from” and “Whaddya do” exchanges, he turned to me and said, “When Corporate America stops subsidizing pro sports, it’s OVER”. Of course he was talking about ticket prices and all the other costly components of supporting sports like merchandise, parking, seat licenses, TV rights fees and the like. We could’ve sat and visited all day but had to get back to our wives. However little did I know that that old guy’s premonition would come to pass less than a year later.

2 – BUT, BUT, BUT: The major sports are still playing … you say. To that I say, “for now”. The NFL is truly the only league that can play without fans for a prolonged period of time but even they can’t do it forever. Take for instance the Las Vegas Raiders. Brand new Allegiant Stadium seats 65,000 and the average ticket price for Raiders games is $100. (I’ve seen reports of far more, but let’s stick with that for now). Do the math, and the Davis family makes $6.5-million per game off ticket sales alone. Since they’ve sold out every game in advance, that’s $65,000,000 they’d be out this year by not being allowed to have fans. The Dallas Cowboys are farrrrrr higher than that. And that doesn’t even include Personal Seat Licenses which range from $500 to $75,000 per seat. Those tickets are sold for this year, but the years ahead are hanging by a thread. How much longer can people pay these prices when the jobless rate has skyrocketed? And the NFL is the best of the best. If they’re taking such a hit, what does that say for the other leagues? Read on ..

3 – IT’S COMING: Somewhere along the line, and the longer the pandemic goes, the financial roof is going to cave in on all these leagues, including the NFL. Without the vital revenue stream that ticket sales provides, the Kansas City Chiefs won’t be able to pay QB Patrick Mahomes $45-million per season. Unless they plan to give him Canadian Tire money, because the real money just isn’t going to be there. If you tune in the games now in any league, you see outfield or sideline advertising for companies like Bud Light, Lexus, GMC, Verizon, etc. All the BIG companies, because they still need to advertise too. But that’s just a bandaid on the major problem for sports which is fans not being allowed into the buildings. The revenue flow has been slowed from a fire hose to a trickle, and that’s in the MAJOR sports. In the minor sports leagues, they’re on the brink of extinction. So, basically, that old guy in Austin, TX saw this coming. Nobody else did, including me.

4 – HOW COME?: When that little kid in your family looks up at you this fall and says, “Why can they play baseball in Korea, junior hockey in Sweden or college and pro football in America but we can’t?”, you can look down and say “government”. We’ll examine Canada’s approach to sports in the weeks ahead.

5 – BUSINESS IS BUSINESS: I’ll admit to not knowing much about this until I owned and helped operate (poorly) a chain restaurant franchise. Until then I was like every other trained circus animal in the sports & entertainment industry who cashed a paycheque every two weeks and cared about little else. Once an owner, I realized our #1 cost was labour and also learned the other vital components to running a successful business like customer service, marketing, workplace culture, the product, technology, margins, and much more. I’d submit that those things have been overlooked and taken for granted in the sports & entertainment business for far too long.

6 – CUE THE RESET: So now you know why layoffs across the CFL and other sports leagues (plus broadcast outlets) are sweeping. Some teams are taking longer than others, but it’s coming to each and every one of them eventually. It’s tragic and traumatic but one thing that’s absolutely stunned me is the daunting lack of sympathy and empathy amongst the fanbase, and the rest of Canadians. For instance I had one Rider season ticket holder say to me this week, “Nobody felt sorry for me when my industry went in the tank!” YIKES! I get it, but didn’t think the fall from grace would be this swift. If there was ever a league that could benefit from a “do-over”, it’s the Canadian Football League but it needs to be handled delicately and wisely. The good news is, the CFL will re-emerge and rise like a phoenix from the ashes. The bad news is, they don’t have much time to do it. And it’ll be unrecognizable when it’s back. Commissioner Randy Ambrosie has long talked about a bigger, stronger, bolder CFL. But would you settle for leaner, meaner and cleaner?

7 – FORECASTING: Lastly on this, the government officials I’ve spoken casually with on this expect no change in the status of large gatherings until spring at the earliest. The Prime Minister hinted at this in his Throne Speech this week. So while we may see a Return To Play at varying levels of amateur sport like minor hockey possibly right up to Junior A, we won’t see any sports that rely on ticket sales well into 2021. And for the CFL, they unfortunately can’t make a budget for 2021 until they know they’ll be playing. The extraordinarily sad thing about that is, people don’t seem to care. That’s what I find shocking and eye-opening. “We’re all in this together”. RIGHT!

8 – OTHERS: I could, potentially, see the SJHL getting on with a season soon (but not before the October 26 provincial election). There are some SJ teams with just two staff on the payroll. … TWO! … (2) … So their costs are incredibly low and could be covered by on-ice and board ads, plus televised games. (They already have an existing TV deal with SaskTel Max TV and streaming would be a bonanza). Playing games would also provide for radio broadcasts in each market, even if the announcers called games off of a monitor. Call it an extremely mini-NHL.

The Western Hockey League is hamstrung because even if things open up in Manitoba and Saskatchewan, they’re still at the mercy of the governments of Washington, Oregon, BC and Alberta where Covid rates are high. Commissioner Ron Robison has already said they aren’t considering bubble cities, can’t play without government clearance, and won’t play unless all six provinces and states are on board. That’s a lot of stars to align.

As for our beloved National Lacrosse League, “The players will be fine,” Saskatchewan Rush GM Derek Keenan told us this week. “They’ve all got second jobs.”

9 – STILL ALIVE: The Dallas Stars beat the Tampa Bay Lightning 3-2 in double overtime Saturday night to force a Game 6 in the Stanley Cup Final on Monday. Tampa is leading the series 3-2 and I’m pulling for them because I want to see Brayden Point and head scout Al Murray win a Stanley Cup. So many people have said, “How could you cheer against Dallas after your Dad worked for them for so many years?” Easy; the team was run by Bob Clarke, Bob Gainey, Ken Hitchcock, Dave Tippett, Craig Button and Les Jackson back then. But those guys are lonnnnnnng gone now. It doesn’t even feel like the same franchise. I cheer for people, not teams.

10 – RANDOMS TO END: Here are the odds for the first coach firing in the NFL: (Adam Gase, NY Jets 1/1), (Dan Quinn, Atlanta Falcons 3/1), (Vic Fangio, Denver Broncos 9/2), (Mike Zimmer, Minnesota Vikings 6/1), (Matt Patricia, Detroit Lions 8/1), (Bill O’Brien, Houston Texans 12/1). …. It makes these Week 3 games much more interesting! … Spoke briefly with Dwayne Mandrusiak, the equipment manager who was let go after 49 seasons with the Edmonton Eskimos. He’s rattled, but knows he’ll survive. For him, it’s more about learning a new way to live. He’s in his early 60s but looks like he’s in his early 40s. But he’s lived ONE way since riding up to Clarke Stadium on his 10-speed when he was in his early teens and asking for a job. 49 years later, he was unceremoniously sent packing in a heartless – yet all too familiar – move. Whether it’s 49 years or 49 days, it’s traumatic. However the sooner he gets over it, the better off he’ll be. The world keeps spinning. … College football and NFL/NHL broadcasts aren’t cutting it for me. Right now we should be enjoying Huskies/Rams, Hilltops/Thunder, Pats/Warriors/Blades/Raiders/Broncos, and all the other fantastic inter-provincial rivalries. Just having “something on to watch” isn’t enough. … Former Regina Pats goalie Tyler Brown has joined the staff of the MJHL’s Winnipeg Freeze as assistant coach. I maintain that had the Pats not traded him to Saskatoon, they’d have won the 2018 Memorial Cup. They didn’t want to burn a 20-year old spot on a goalie that season but as it turned out, they played with only two in the tournament anyway once Jesse Gabriel flamed out. Hindsight is 20/20. But I’m not changing my mind. … I feel terrible for my sports cohorts but last night with pizza and ice cream on my TV tray and NHL, MLB, NCAAF, Nascar and UFC on the tube, I’ll admit to saying to myself “this ain’t too bad”. … If the other leagues can find a way to return to play safely, they’ll be able to join those others on the tube. … Hey look — charitable donations are down 40% in Canada in 2020 and we all know why. However a former Roughrider – who coincidentally is a fantastic person – is facing ruin after being in a car accident and getting slapped with $80,000 in medical bills. They told wide receiver Joe Craig that he’s paralyzed and will never walk again however weeks later, he’s already walking. We are only 2/10 of the way to raising the financial goal and I’m hoping you can find a way to support Joe Craig today right here: He’s a really good guy and I wouldn’t ask you to do it if he was a jerk.

Y’er welcome,
RP
@rodpedersen

The Rod Pedersen show airs daily at 10:00 am MT on Game+ TV Network and is available in over one million homes in Canada and the USA. It’s available in Manitoba on Bell/MTS Cable, in Saskatchewan on SaskTel Max TV, in Alberta & BC on Telus Optik TV and in Washington and Oregon States on TDS Cable. It also airs on Facebook Live and RodPedersen.com/ListenLive