STACKHOUSE’S 10 THOUGHTS

I really enjoy reading the comments people make after my articles are posted.  Some of them are extremely unflattering and that’s okay, it’s to be expected. Last week, however, every single one was very complimentary and I thank you all for reading. Several of the comments motivated me to incorporate those remarks into my thoughts this week.

1 – SPORTS APATHY – The pandemic proved a lot of things about a lot of people in this country and one of them is that we aren’t sports fans. The Regina Pats have a superstar player in Connor Bedard. Actually, let me rephrase that. The Pats have, perhaps, the best player in franchise history and yet fans aren’t flocking to the Brandt Centre. This topic came up recently in a discussion I was having with another friend and my theory on this is that there simply aren’t that many die hard hockey fans in Regina to sustain high level attendance after going nearly two years without any WHL hockey. People have simply moved on to other things and have come to realize they are not all that passionate about the best level of hockey available in the Queen City. The Pats have their work cut out for them. If, simply, having a player like Bedard on the roster isn’t enough to draw out more fans then what will it take to get all these people back? Surely, it’s not human bowling. I don’t have the answers and don’t envy those who’s job is one that is responsible for putting bums in the seats.

2 – FAN BASE – I look at the Saskatchewan Roughriders and they have a much deeper passionate fan base than the Pats. But, even with empty seats at Mosaic Stadium, it’s clear we don’t have enough people here who are going to just, religiously, attend their favorite team’s games. The Winnipeg Jets were 800 short of a sellout in their NHL home opener last week. Unheard of five years ago. Every single game was a sellout and resale tickets went for more than face value. So, this fan apathy isn’t restricted to the Regina market. It’s all over Canada, to some degree. Do you think if the Winnipeg Blue Bombers were playing like the Roughriders they’d have crowd numbers to brag about? I do not. And, even the Bombers aren’t sold out every game. The Bombers are somewhat lucky they sucked for 30 years because being dominant is a novelty to the fan base and it’s allowed them to keep their crowd numbers healthy. Every other CFL team has attendance troubles and I believe, it’s mostly, due to the fact we don’t care all that much about going to sports games. We were given other things to do during the pandemic and we are too lazy to go back. I look at myself. I used to attend 6 NHL Jets games a year. I went to 0 last year and don’t plan on going this year either. It’s expensive and I don’t care enough to try and budget so that I can afford to go.

3 – SPORTS PERSONALITIES – I’ve often felt that because I have worked in sports media that my interest in the personalities who bring us the games is overstated compared to that of the average sports fan but some of your comments tell me otherwise. When it comes to the Canadian networks, especially, one has to understand their absolute number one focus is to achieve workplace diversity and inclusion. They will sacrifice any and everything in order to meet it, including broadcast quality. If you don’t like it, you have to tune it out and pain needs to be felt at the sponsorship level. Sportsnet has, to some degree, recognized this is a problem as they’ve held meetings on how to get more eyeballs on their intermissions for hockey but changing up the personalities or the demographic of the personalities is a non-starter. Plain and simple.

4 – MODERN DAY BROADCASTS – What I’m waiting to have happen is a Manning Cast of sorts for NHL and CFL games. Surely, there is a way to have a game on the video screen and pump audio in from an alternate source. You don’t need to be broadcast-trained in order to be entertaining. You just have to have a personality and have something interesting to say that keeps people’s attention. Is there money in this?  Time would tell, but my guess is that there absolutely is. The most likely person to capitalize on it is a person in his (or her) basement who watches games alone and is bored and has nothing to lose. Sportsnet, I think, is already doing this with one of their personalities, who they’ve passed off as some Leaf superfan. I don’t know what he’s drawing for numbers during these watch parties and because I despise the Leafs I will never give him a chance. My guess is he’s also neutered because of corporation rules but there is a void out there for someone to emerge during live games on tv that renders these mainstream personalities redundant or needless and we know what broadcast companies do with announcers they deem to be financial liabilities.

5 – HIGHLIGHT SHOWS – As I type some of this article, I’ve decided to watch a highlights show on one of the sports networks. I never do this anymore. It’s almost embarrassing. How the mighty have fallen. Gone are the days of Michael Landsberg and Brendan Connor. Landsberg, for me, is the Foster Hewitt of voicing highlights. My favorite part of doing television sports as a full-time job 25 years ago was the 90 or so seconds of describing the Wheat King highlights when I worked in Brandon. Stefan Cherneski used to score from right in front of the net frequently and I thought I was so clever stealing the Matchbox 20 lyric, ‘Happiness is a mat that sits on your doorway’. I’d want to crawl under a mat if I heard myself today. Perhaps my favorite personality was Mark Hebscher. Hebscher used to deliver the Plays Of The Week in a way that was iconic.  The Hebsy Awards, he called them. He also, like Chris Berman of ESPN fame, would invent clever nicknames based on the last names of the players involved. I’ll never forget Joe ‘The Headache’ Magrane. Nobody will beat Berman, though. Willie Green, the color of money. Shawn Jefferson, movin on up. ‘The well dressed’ Amani Toomer. Jake ‘Daylight Come And You Gotta’ Delhomme.  

6 – GUARDIANS DON’T TRY TO WIN – The Cleveland Guardians mailed in Game 5 of their ALDS against the New York Yankees by starting Aaron Civale in the decisive game. Civale entered the game with an ERA of 10.00 against the Yanks this season, yielding ten runs on twelve hits over nine innings. Yet, somehow, in a game of over-analyzing data, the decision was made to put him out there and he promptly allowed three more runs in 0.1 of an inning. I guess starting Shane Bieber on three days rest would have sent him to the operating room (Yanks used Nestor Cortes on three days rest and he went 5 innings allowing 1 run). Heck, if Bieber wasn’t an option, go with Zach Plesac. At least the Yankees hadn’t really seen him this season aside from one inning in this series.

7 – HOCKEY CANADA – The more I think about the bloodletting at Hockey Canada, the more I think whatever ends up happening with this organization, it will somehow end up being worse than it was. There is no doubt changes needed to be made but, for me, the focus isn’t where it should be. The focus needs to be making the actual game itself better by trying to keep the game safe for all to play, but also get back to making it a physical sport. The people that don’t have interest will never have interest no matter what you do.  You need to reach the people that have been lost.

8 – FINE WAS OK – Mason Fine did about as well as one could expect as the Roughriders lost yet another game. I don’t think he’s the answer, but I love the anti-Cody Fajardo/anti-starting quarterback fanbase. You don’t have to search very long to find comments that are in love with his performance and are quick to make excuses for it not being better. I guess we will see once the regular season comes to a close just how serious the powers that be are about righting the ship. This has to go down as one of the worst seasons in history.  There isn’t a single spec of positivity one can draw from and build on. The broom needs to go through the entire organization. Top to bottom. Anything less than that should be unacceptable.

9 – F FOR FAJARDO FAILURE – From a public relations standpoint, Cody Fajardo gets an F. The vultures were out early in the season even when the team was 4-1. It was obvious, to me, that he wasn’t going to be able to handle the criticism (justified or not) and once it got loud, it was just a matter of time before he reached his expiry date and I found myself more and more wincing at his quotes that would come from media conferences and scrums. It did look as though his teammates quit on him or he quit on them. Either way, it doesn’t matter and hopefully he finds a clean slate somewhere else and I wish him nothing but the best. I’m in the minority but I think he can play and I’m super curious to see who the Riders bring in that will be better. I think Fajardo can learn from this disastrous season and be an adequate quarterback in a league that, badly, needs competency at the position.

10 – BLM – Bo Levi Mitchell is 32 and quite possibly has a bad shoulder. For me, age isn’t a problem. CFL quarterbacks can play at an elite level until their late 30s, so he could come here and be excellent for the next five years if he’s healthy. That’s a big ‘if’. Mitchell as a Rider seems like an odd match but so too does Fajardo in Edmonton with Chris Jones. Both of those possibilities could come to fruition and as far as CFL drama goes, I’d be ‘all in’ for seeing that play out.

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