STACKHOUSE’S 10 THOUGHTS

1 – JETS ATTENDANCE – Winnipeg’s season average for attendance is right at their capacity, which is just over 15,000 fans.  For the home opener on Thursday against Anaheim, they drew 13,886.  For it being the first home game for fans to see in nearly two years that’s an ominous sign.  Gary Bettman has made it clear the only way the NHL works in Winnipeg is if they sell out every game.  Up until the pandemic, that’s exactly what they’ve done.  Personally, I’ve always attended five games (or more) a year but I’m not this year because I don’t appreciate being treated as though I’m not vaccinated.  I wish them luck.

2 – CANADIAN ATTENDANCE – Saturday’s crowd for the Jets game wasn’t any better although some will say it’s because the Bombers played at home too (their crowd was pitiful for a first place team that’s dominating the league).  It’s early but let’s look at the early returns across the board:  Vancouver hasn’t had a home game yet but every other Canadian team is down as far as % capacity filled in each arena.  The sharpest decline is in Calgary where they’ve gone from 97% full in 2019-20 to 78% so far this season.  Winnipeg is down 108% full to 93%.  Edmonton has gone from 94 to 85, Montreal 99 to 89, Toronto 102 to 97 and Ottawa 66 to 56.  In the US-Vegas, Chicago, Minnesota, Washington, Nashville, Seattle, Colorado, Boston, Carolina, Dallas, St. Louis, and Tampa Bay are all averaging sell-outs or better through the early going.  It’s a rough figure, but I’ve been to enough Jets games to know how much money they are losing and it is in the ‘per season’ range of $21-million by having 2000 empty seats every night.  Right or wrong, it’s worth noting that if you go inside a restaurant in Canada, you have to fill in contact tracing forms, show proof of vaccination, show your ID, wear a mask to your table.  In the US, there doesn’t appear to be a single jurisdiction that makes people jump through this many hoops and their Chief Medical Health officers have equal or greater qualifications than those in Canada (source Anthony Furey).  

3 – CFL ATTENDANCE – Apparently, over 21-thousand showed up at McMahon to watch the Stamps and Riders on Saturday night.  TSN seems to go out of its way to avoid showing the fans on camera but there are times that it’s unavoidable and the place looked half empty.  We can avoid talking about it for now but the reality is that if you don’t have money you can’t run a league with half full stadiums one year after a cancelled season.  Here’s the other thing that hurts the CFL:  the talent isn’t good enough to entice fans to come back.  What are they missing by not going?  Let’s go back 15 years and here’s who the QBs were across the league:  Ricky Ray, Damon Allen, Anthony Calvillo, Henry Burris, Dave Dickenson, Kerry Joseph, Kevin Glenn, and Jason Maas.  Zach Collaros is the best this year but where does he rank on the list from 15 years ago?  How about receivers?  Kenny Lawler is the best this year, just my opinion.  Where does he stack up if you had Milt Stegall, Geroy Simon, Arland Bruce, Jason Tucker, Ben Cahoon, Matt Dominguez, Nik Lewis, Jermaine Copeland, and Ed Hervey all in the league?  

4 – RIDERS WIN – The Saskatchewan Roughriders used a strong second half to finally beat the Calgary Stampeders but penalties almost cost them again and poor play along the offensive line remains a major issue.  You can criticize Cody Fajardo all day long but there isn’t a QB in the league today that would have success throwing a deep ball if faced with the pressure Fajardo sees on just about every snap.  I guess it just goes to show Saskatchewan football fans haven’t changed.  I remember when Kerry Joseph won the MOP and all I heard during the call-in show on my way home was how bad he was.  

5 – REDBLACKS – Monday morning, the Ottawa RedBlacks announced the firing of General Manager Marcel Desjardins.  The team has been in the midst of a free fall since losing the Grey Cup game in 2018, going 5-and-24 overall.  The team has no real option at quarterback and any team that has a void at that position has no chance to win most weeks.  Head Coach Paul LaPolice wanted his Winnipeg pivot, Matt Nichols, to be his starter however he went six games without throwing a single touchdown and that has been a major downfall for the team as they dealt promising QB Nick Arbuckle to get him.  Arbuckle hasn’t been a superstar in Toronto but he would have been a more stable choice with upside to boot.  I think as much as a year off has helped some players (see Zach Collaros), it’s hurt others (Nichols being one).

6 – NFL QBs – There is still a lot of NFL season to be played but it’s worth noting that after seven weeks the top seed in the AFC is Cincinnati and the top seed in the NFC is Arizona.  The top draft pick in 2020 was Bengals QB Joe Burrow and the top pick in the 2019 draft was Cardinals QB Kyler Murray.  After watching San Francisco on Sunday night I can’t help but wonder if John Lynch/Kyle Shanahan bungled their pre-draft trade to get Trey Lance.  Jimmy Garoppolo played as if he has made his last start with the team and Lance has looked totally overmatched when he’s been in there despite some clear athletic abilities.  Meanwhile Mac Jones, who’s style would have been perfect for the 49ers, is playing exceptionally well for New England despite not having nearly the weapons the Niners do.  Granted, it’s very very early in Lance’s career and he didn’t play at all last season.

7 – BLACKHAWKS DISASTER – Marc-Andre Fleury was a reluctant Blackhawk.  He needed time to consider whether or not he wanted to continue his career and that should have been enough of a warning for the Hawks to realize they made a bad trade.  His heart wasn’t in it the day he was acquired and he is playing like it today.  The management structure for this team is in shambles as it continues to fend off sexual assault allegations from an ex-player.  This is a team in need of wholesale changes sooner rather than later.

8 – SCHEIFELE/WHEELER – With only one player in the entire National Hockey League not vaccinated, one can reasonably assume that both Jets stars have gotten their two shots yet it does sound like Wheeler is having a heckuva time shaking the virus off.  It’s a small sample size but a year ago we would have seen the positive cases rip through most of the team so the vaccines are working in that respect but you have to wonder about the effectiveness against seriousness of illness when a top physically fit man like Wheeler is down for the count for a week.  I suppose since he’s not in the hospital and hooked up to a breathing assistance apparatus that this would qualify as ‘guarding against serious disease’ but how risky was it ever for Wheeler as far as ending up in the hospital?  Just questions.  Don’t mistake those questions for opinion.

9 – DECEMBER 2 – The World Series is set to begin and shortly after its conclusion you will start to hear of a potential strike/lockout on December 2nd.  There are a multitude of issues, all of which involve money.  Baseball has been in a decline as far as fan interest is concerned since 1994 and the powers that be know it as this would be the first work stoppage since the infamous one 26 years ago.  Prior to 1994, baseball endured 8 of them in a 23 year stretch from 1972-95.  

10 – LEFT WING NIGHTMARE – It’s Texas and Georgia in the World Series.  

(Mike Stackhouse is a freelance writer/broadcaster. Follow him on Twitter at @Stack1975)