Stackhouse’s 10 Weekend Thoughts
2 – POOR CROWD – The official attendance was 4657 at Sasktel Centre, a paltry number and, perhaps, their lowest crowd of all-time. Clearly, the Rush returning to contender status has not brought back the fans and with dwindling crowds, seemingly, across the board in all sports in Canada, it’s fair to ask what’s the future of live sports in this country? More urgently, what’s the future of it in Saskatoon? The Blades drew just 2514 on Wednesday night against Kelowna and have a middle of the pack team for fans to watch. I’ve written before in columns about how poorly supported the USports teams are despite being a perennial top 3-4 school in football and a ladies basketball team that won the national title in 2020 and 2025. It’s laughable when I hear someone say Saskatoon could support an NHL team. For one night, sure. For a season, maybe the novelty would last that long. For a decade? Not a chance. I’m not sure whatever happened to that dream of bringing soccer to Saskatoon, but hopefully it’s dead in the water.
3 – LEAFS ATTENDANCE – The Toronto Maple Leafs are also having a hard time with attendance and are on pace to establish season low records. They’ve sold out only six of their first twenty dates despite being a team that sold out every home game for years at prices that were amongst the most expensive in the NHL. In Toronto’s case I believe what we are seeing is a changing demographic where the city is made up of such a melting pot of cultures that hockey simply isn’t that appealing to the people who now make-up who live there. Depending on what numbers you believe and how you define an immigrant, the city’s population is nearly 50% foreign-born and hockey isn’t popular enough worldwide for it to be something a newcomer is going to fork hundreds or even thousands of dollars at in order to see. Corporately, more and more businesses are foreign-owned and I don’t imagine as many of them see the benefit of throwing sponsorship dollars at the NHL although we have yet to see a decline in that area. The other issue at play is affordability for longtime fans. Despite what the CBC and my federal government are telling me about how well everyone is doing, I am not seeing it and I think choices are being made as far as where disposable income goes and not as many people have as much of it and it’s starting to show with Leaf attendance.
4 – RIDERS ATTENDANCE & MONEY – The Saskatchewan Roughriders have no problems with attendance if you believe what they announce on a weekly basis. They also use a unique formula called ‘tickets distributed’ to determine how many go to the games but the reality is here is that despite how you dress it up, the Riders aren’t what they used to be for people either. The other issue I believe that affects them is relatability with the fan base. The Riders, in 2024, negotiated rent relief to the tune of $1.33-million during Covid because they felt if they didn’t use Mosaic Stadium why should they have to pay. They also, seemingly, bragged that the issue at hand wasn’t whether or not they had the money but simply a matter of principle. While many other businesses were forced to find a way to pay expenses during a time where no revenue was coming in, the Riders were able to just go to their municipal government and get a large chunk of it wiped off the books. Meanwhile, the taxpayers who, ultimately, are the ones who are on the hook for all of this, have been hit with another exorbitant tax increase, this time 11% after hitting citizens with a near 7.5% increase in 2025. It’s a bad look when a community owned team says it can afford to pay but isn’t going to while those who are stuck with the bill get increase after increase at what feels like every turn.
5 – WHL PATS AND BRONCOS – The Regina Pats traded leading scorer Julien Maze to the Calgary Hitmen for a pair of third round picks, which has left fans scratching their heads as the team claims to be committed to competing for a playoff spot this season and that type of transaction would appear to signal the opposite to be true. The Pats have lost eight of their last ten games but sometimes hockey teams can improve on-ice performance through addition by subraction and they have split their two games since the trade. It could be worse. The Swift Current Broncos have lost 12 in a row and not tasted victory since November 14th.
6 – NHL JETS – Someone who follows the NHL closer than I do will know the answer to this but I’m wondering if a team has ever gone from winning the President’s Trophy one year to finishing in the league basement the very next year? The Winnipeg Jets may very well pull off this dubious distinction. The Jets are tied with three other teams for the fewest points in the league and they are showing no signs of making any changes. They don’t mind running out Gustav Nyquist (0 goals) on their top line, they aren’t splitting up Kyle Connor and Mark Scheifele to try providing a bit of balance with their offense, and they refuse to promote well deserved AHLers like Brad Lambert, Daniel Zhilkin, and Nikita Chibrikov which would infuse some much needed speed and juice. Lambert and Chibrikov have gotten small tastes of the NHL but they haven’t been put in spots where they would be asked to contribute goals. The Jets haven’t got an even strength goal from their forwards in three games. The Scheifele-Connor marriage is very similar to the Scheifele-Blake Wheeler one that, eventually, saw Paul Maurice throw his hands up and walk away…which tells me the person running the show here may not be the coach.
7 – BOXING – Jake Paul finally got what has been coming to him for a long time as he was knocked senseless by Anthony Joshua in the sixth round of their boxing match on Friday night. Paul ran for four rounds, got battered in the fifth, and then stood defenseless in front of a thunderous right hand in the sixth that broke his jaw in two places and will have him eating out of a straw for the next 6-8 weeks. While on the subject of taxes, Joshua and Paul both received, approximately, $93-million (which is insane and stupid but it is what it is) for their match but Joshua is set to turn over $66-million of that in taxes to both the US and UK governments. While it’s true Florida has no state tax, the feds claim 37-percent and then, in order to return to Britain he has to pay another $12-million to that government. I have a hard time wrapping my head around why the UK is entitled to any of this but they get away with it and nobody has the ability to stop them so that’s just the way it is.
8 – ANNOUNCER SUSPENDED – The Philadelphia Flyers have suspended radio play by play man Tim Saunders for two games after he made a joke during a commercial timeout but while his mic was live on the air. The reception amongst those who heard it seems to be overwhelmingly positive or funny but nevertheless the Flyers have taken action to appease those who will never like them or spend money with them.
9 – WNBA COLLECTIVE BARGAINING – From the ‘if a tree falls in the forest…’ department, the WNBA players have authorized its executive committee to call a strike when necessary in response to collective bargaining negotiations with team owners. For the most part, the WNBA players seem to want pay equity with their male counterparts. I say give it to them and then let the chips falls where they may.
10 – SKATE CANADA – Figure skating made the ‘news’ this week with word they will no longer sanction events in Alberta as a response to a law Alberta has that won’t allow boys/men to compete in the same class as girls/women. I don’t know why I even find myself in these debates. It’s the simplest of simple. You are born and have certain genitals and that’s how we know whether you are a boy or a girl. You can do whatever you want throughout various life stages to try and change that and as much as society is willing to play along with it all, the fact remains that when competing at high levels of sport, a girl who used to be a boy has a very distinct advantage and if that wasn’t the case, we would have boys who used to be girls dominating boys sports and that has never ever happened.
(Mike Stackhouse is a freelance writer/broadcaster. Follow him on Twitter at @Stack1975)
I look forward to reading this column every week and appreciate that Mike doesn’t hold back sharing his perspective (much of which I 100% agree with). Merry Christmas Mr. Stackhouse!
Merry Christmas, thank you for the kind words.
Umm…….you do realize that there was a once in the winter blizzard in Saskatoon on Wednesday with sub -40 windchills?
An NHL game wouldn’t have got 5000 people to that game IN ANY CITY, especially in the soft United States.
Snow and windchills are a part of life in Saskatchewan so if that’s what keeps people away, I will re-iterate how laughable it is for Saskatoon to even get mentioned as a potential NHL city. I get that it was a larger than normal snow storm but the Blades have lots of dates where the crowd is 3500ish or less. Why do they need such a big arena then? Just build a 7500 seat facility to accommodate a special event but otherwise just accept this is a city where you can’t really expect north of 5000 to attend a regular… Read more »
Bro, read the numbers. It’s always uneducated yapping instead of digging into real numbers with you. The Blades attendance is 5th in the WHL. The Blades attendance is up 29% in the 4 years since Covid over the 4 years before Covid. The Prince Albert Raiders are up 5% over the same period. Yes, Moose Jaw, Swift Current, and Regina are down, but the rest shows a pattern as a micro issue in certain markets of the WHL rather than a macro issue. Who else isn’t going to games? American markets by and large. Wenatchee…..2655 per game in 2025, so… Read more »
Once in a lifetime? In Saskatchewan?
One in a winter snow storm. Heavy snow and 90 km/h winds + sub -40 temperatures. How often a winter do we get one of those? Not often, probably one a year.
The invasion from within has been going on since the 90s , the major cities are a lost cause. Diversity is our strength don’t you know, just ask Australians.
Hockey is slowly finding out some of the spinoffs of promoting multi-culturalism is not in their favor. For the most part, only multi-generational upper-class Canadians will fork over big dollars for hockey equipment and/or hockey tickets. You can play basketball and soccer for much less and there is nothing in those sports for a fan to get passionate about so we don’t even really know what would happen as far as attendance at a basketball or soccer game goes (although I would submit a top Rattlers team in the CEBL would draw very very well but they have been terrible… Read more »
100% spot on with your posts on 4 – Saskatchewan Roughriders (their freebies will be coming to a end soon).
7 – Jake Paul got 💥🥊smashed. Actually this whole article a pretty good read today! Thank you Mr. Stackhouse. Ohhhh, and Merry Christmas to you and your significant people close and Dear to you.
I really appreciate the compliment. Thank you! Merry Christmas.
11 – Brad Treliving has been nothing but a disaster since the moment he was announced the Toronto Maple Leafs Gm coming over from the hapless Flames. Upper management, those that made the definitive decision to hire Treliving, not a sound hockey decision, a amateur move and its costly. Why doesn’t he trade away the useless Morgan Rielly plus Tavares?
PS,
Tired of the Saskatchewan Roughriders Football Inc. deceiving the gullible people who support that bloated organization.
I may have to write a bit on the Leafs. They get a ton of coverage so I try not to but … how about starting with why is Auston Matthews killing penalties? There was nothing wrong with his game when he was scoring 60 goals and not killing them. If you need him to score 60 AND kill penalties..you are in a bad way as a team. If the answer is ‘to make him a more rounded player’ then why isn’t Scott Laughton on the powerplay?
It’s Treliving directive.
The Rush are a sad example of what happens when an organization loses touch with its fanbase. While their games are a blast to attend, allowing leftist media mouthpieces tied to the organization to call their fans all kinds of names for not supporting pride games did irreparable damage. The Rush and Blades have since quit with that stuff and their baseball team never started, but some actions have consequences that span over a few years.