Stackhouse’s 10 Weekend Thoughts

1 – RIDER PRIDE  – There is great debate over Mitchell Blair’s column here last week where he, openly, speculated about Rider Pride being dead.  Here’s the reality: everything changed once they moved into the new stadium. It happens with just about every team that decides to move out of an iconic facility. I noticed it in smaller Saskatchewan centres like Estevan and Melville many years ago. Sure, communities still care about their teams but it’s not the same. Look at the Boston Bruins. It’s not the same as the old Boston Garden.  I think it’s why the Cubs have been hesitant to move on from Wrigley Field and why the Red Sox keep renovating Fenway Park rather than build new. Changing your ‘home’ changes a lot of things when it comes to the overall atmosphere, not the least of which being the costs go up on everything in order to pay for the new digs. Now, with the Riders there are many more factors at play and we may as well dive into them:

2 – DIMINISHED INTEREST – Whether you give social media much weight or not doesn’t matter; you can’t ignore the increasing number of people (some of whom aren’t usual posters) who are very eloquently expressing why their level of Rider financial support has dwindled in recent years unless you truly don’t give a hoot. I’m not going to go too deep into it, but the sense of community is gone. There is so much hate and division amongst Rider fans now. There never used to be, even in a time where other issues in society divided us, we could all agree that we loved our Riders and the Riders did a good job at not picking societal sides and that kept everybody happy. Now, we are very much aware of the side the Riders are on and that alienates a certain percentage of fans. Like it or not, it’s true. I don’t care what the temperature is outside, I don’t care if it’s a holiday weekend, I don’t care what time of day the game is being played, and I don’t care what other excuses you may want to come up with but there is a feeling out there that there is a total lack of appreciation to those who do show up. Whenever I go to a professional sports game, there is always some sort of carrot being dangled as I come through the turnstile.  It could be a free tshirt, a discount at the pro shop, a bobble head, you name it.  There’s always something. The price to go to a Rider game is the price and most people accept that. But, they want to know that the effort to be there is noticed. I know people complain about the price of tickets but if there is value added, that will go away.  There are plenty of other ‘treats’ in life that folks are still enjoying despite the increased cost. Rider games are a convenient ‘gripe’ from people when it comes to ticket prices but my experience with those who whine about ticket prices is that they were infrequent attendees all along anyway. The majority of those not going are people who are very capable of it but when the team made the statement that you are replaceable if you don’t like their parameters, they decided to call the Riders on the bluff and it’s very apparent the ‘10 others who will take your ticket’ was never ever a reality and it’s time the organization took steps to rectify the division it created or else just be quiet and accept the fact the new baseline for PAID attendance is right around 22,000 a game.

3 – MOP – It says a lot about a league when you have numerous media types trumpeting a player for Most Outstanding Player when his team is in last place and they aren’t going to qualify for the playoffs but yet here we are and there are folks out there who truly believe Bo Levi Mitchell has been the best player in the CFL this year. His overall numbers are nice but in his last two games against Winnipeg, he had 0 touchdowns and 2 interceptions. In his last two games against Saskatchewan, 5 touchdowns and 4 interceptions. He hasn’t been all that ‘outstanding’ against the league’s better teams. I’m partial to Saskatchewan because that’s the team I watch the most, but the best player I’ve seen this year is Rolan Milligan and I’m not sure it’s even close.

4 – LIONS MAKE CHANGE – The BC Lions went with Vernon Adams at quarterback in the last game of the season and then head coach Rick Campbell announced following the game that Adams will be the starter in the West Division semi-final at Regina next week. BC’s season went off the rails when Nathan Rourke returned from the NFL and for whatever reason, Rourke has not only not rediscovered his pre-NFL form but he doesn’t even resemble a professional quarterback at all and it’s safe to say he only stayed in as the starter for as long as he did because of his reputation. Adams should ensure the game is a lot closer than 39-8 but I still have the Riders as double digit favorites going into the game.

5 – HEALTHY SCRATCH – Load management has reached the NHL as the San Jose Sharks healthy scratched 19-year-old Will Smith from their 8-3 beat down at the hands of the Winnipeg Jets on Friday night.  Apparently Smith has played a lot of hockey that is wearing on his frail 19-year-old body so the Sharks feel as though giving him a Friday night off will preserve him down the road. It’s all nonsense but what’s worse than that from a fan perspective is that with Macklin Celebrini injured, there is abosutely no reason at all for a person to shell out 10-bucks, let alone 100 to go watch the San Jose Sharks. If you are in an NHL city and you see the Sharks coming to town…hard pass.  San Jose is winless in five to start the year so they’ve already mailed it in if they are going to, randomly, sit one of their marquee players. Oh well, it’s not like he’s tearing it up with 0-points and a -2 rating through four games. Maybe he was sat for ineffective play but in the name of protecting hurt feelings, they called it load management.

6 – COWBOYS CRITIQUE – Dallas Cowboys Owner/General Manager Jerry Jones has come under fire for threatening to terminate two sports announcers who were holding him to account during an interview on Monday following his team’s embarrassing loss to Detroit on Sunday. Jones, I guess, owns the radio station that he was a guest on and it only stands to reason that since he’s the owner he should be allowed to control the content. I mean can you imagine how long an announcer for Bell would be employed if he/she openly questioned the legitimacy of their mental health day? They’d be off the air and erased from future broadcasts before the end of the scheduled shift. If the flagship radio station of the Riders put the team president under the microscope with a tough interview during their losing skid earlier in the year, you can bet whoever was behind that would be gone too so I find the Jones criticism to be very selective. Jones, himself, later said that he doesn’t mind doing the tough interviews but why should he do it with people he’s employing?

7 – NFL CONTENDERS – As we approach the halfway mark in the NFL season, the chase for the Super Bowl couldn’t be more wide open. The Kansas City Chiefs are unbeaten, but I don’t get a sense they are invincible unless the referees step in during a close game like they have several times since last year’s playoffs. Buffalo would appear to be their biggest threat in the AFC, but Baltimore is in the picture along with Houston, Pittsburgh, and possibly the Chargers. The NFC is Detroit’s to lose but it feels weird to assume the Lions are going to be there when the smoke clears. Minnesota is, shockingly, unbeaten and then there are a bunch of other newbies in the mix (Washington, Tampa Bay, Atlanta, Chicago come immediately to mind) as well as the usuals in San Francisco and Green Bay. It all makes for an exciting second half.

8 – EVIL EMPIRES – The World Series is going to be my worst nightmare:  The Dodgers against the Yankees.  I’ve never cheered for the Yankees ever and I don’t think I have ever cheered for the Dodgers either although my disdain for the Yankees is much stronger, simply, because I’ve been a Red Sox fan ever since I was a wee boy. Ratings wise, this should be a winner with two huge markets going toe to toe. The massive payrolls these two teams have aren’t going to endear casual fans though. I’ll pick the Yankees to win just because I think they  have a bit more power and better starting pitching and I want to believe starting pitching still does matter (even though it really doesn’t).

9 – RAYS NEED HOME – The recent hurricane that swept through the Tampa area (due to climate change I’m sure) resulted in a damaged baseball stadium for the MLB Rays, who are slated to move into a new facility in 2028. There is speculation that it’s not worth fixing the roof if it’s only going to be used for three more years and there’s also a chance repairs wouldn’t be complete in time for the beginning of 2025 anyway. It’s entirely possible the Rays will be playing in a different city for a couple of years until their new ballpark is ready.  Montreal is already out of the question because Olympic Stadium is in the midst of an $835-million renovation itself.  I guess Quebec loves having state of the art buildings with no tenants, but that’s a story for another time.  Durham, the AAA affiliate of the Rays, has already said it’s not a candidate for the Rays so where could they go?  Because they are in the AL East, Oakland would seem to be a non-starter as well. My guess is that it will be Raleigh or Nashville if it’s not somewhere else in the Tampa area.

10 – SJHL RIVALRY – What a difference being competitive makes for Yorkton and Melville in the SJHL.  With the Terriers and Millionaires running 1-2 atop the standings, the first head to head meeting between the two on Friday night drew a robust 1745 at the Westland Insurance Arena in Yorkton as the Terriers won, handily, 5-1. A year ago, this game would have had half that number in attendance. The same two teams met again Saturday night in Melville with the Mils battling back to win 6-4 for just their second win in their last six.  Attendance was over 1300 at the train station. With the NCAA now accepting major junior players, it only stands to reason that the SJHL teams could lose players midseason to the WHL if it doesn’t risk scholarship opportunities and that has happened with the Mils as first line rookie forward Raiden Zacharias missed Friday’s game against Yorkton because he was playing with Brandon.

(Mike Stackhouse is a freelance writer/broadcaster)