Stackhouse’s 10 Weekend Thoughts

2 – MOSAIC RENOVATIONS – Word came out this week that Mosaic Stadium needs $8-million in renovations, which are designed to improve LED scoreboard displays and also replace the field turf as well as make adjustments to the playing surface in order to accommodate the new CFL rules on field size and goal post location for 2027.  There doesn’t appear to be a concrete plan on how to deal with high school and university programs that, for now, are still intending to play using Canadian rules instead of the American ones the CFL is moving towards.  It strikes me as strange, to say the least, that the City of Regina is on the hook for changes to their facility that only the CFL requires while every other user group doesn’t require such alterations.  The funding also is supposed to come from a reserve that will have a negative $10.5-million balance yet taxpayers aren’t expected to see any tax increases.  It’s weird math that I don’t even pretend to understand but somehow the Riders are highly profitable, yet coerced the City to forgive $1.33-million in rent during Covid, and they also don’t have to pay for any of the stadium upgrades nor do they have to foot the cost for, what sounds like, weekly changes to the field as far as lines and moving goal posts are concerned.  Meanwhile taxpayers saw rates go up nearly 11% and a reserve fund is in negative balance but don’t worry nobody has to pay any more.  Got it.

3 – ATTENDANCE – Edmonton’s CFL team’s President says their team is financially stable despite losing 13-thousand season ticket holders since ditching the Eskimos moniker in 2021.  Officially, 14-thousand attended their home opener yesterday and with 7-thousand of those being season ticket holders, that’s apparently more than enough for the team to be healthy.  In Ottawa, 13-thousand showed up (it wasn’t raining this time) for their second game of the year yesterday, which sounds like a paltry number but interest in the league remains extremely high if you are to believe the league has a $500-million TV deal despite no public release of that contract and no public release on how many people do actually watch week to week.  Here’s what I can tell you – if a CFL team can be financially stable with 7-thousand season ticket holders, this agonizing over in-game attendance is wildly overrated.  The teams do not need you to actually attend the games in order to survive.

4 – BABCOCK CLEARED – Mike Babcock has been cleared by the NHL but, so far, no announcement has been forthcoming from the Edmonton Oilers.  I don’t really care to do this, but when people are trying to destroy the character of someone I think it’s important that we also look at the character of some of his biggest detractors.  Supposed Insider Frank Seravalli has been a fountain of false information with almost no integrity for many years and some of his comments on other matters (including Johnny Gaudreau’s death) have been distasteful.  I would pay no attention whatsoever to anything he has to say.  Aaron Ward was fired from TSN for an incident where police were called concerning an altercation he had with a female.  Patrik Laine, while has said nothing publicly, is reported to have been a subject of some sort of Babcock controversy in Columbus.  This is a player (while I like very much) who was available to play for Montreal for six months and they simply opted not to activate him.  Johan Franzen, while possibly bullied, was a point per game player for the Red Wings when they won a Stanley Cup so you could argue Babcock found a way to get the most out of him.  Just about everyone else are fringe players who, quite frankly, play almost no roles whatsoever in the success or failure of a hockey team.  The entire point of hiring Babcock is to push the players to the next level and that may mean hating your life some days.  That goes with the territory.  Oh, and say what you want about Mitch Marner but he was 3-0-1-1 and minus-5 in the last three games of the Cup final.  Turns out, he does disappear when you need him the most.

5 – HNIC – Saturday night hockey games will not be on CBC TV next season, marking the first time since 1952 that our national public broadcaster has not had NHL games on its airwaves.  While I’ve never been a CBC fan per se, I do give them kudos for how they packaged sports throughout my lifetime.  While the CBC really didn’t have much to do with NHL TV after the Rogers deal first came into effect in 2013, they still were used as a vehicle to get the games to the public.  When I think back to how CBC did the CFL, SportsWeekend, Olympics, Expos Baseball, and more; I have to tip my hat to those involved over the years.  I guess just add the absence of HNIC to the list of things that have gone by the wayside in this country as it becomes more and more a place that I don’t recognize but I know most of you reading are thrilled with the changeover.  

6 – TRADE GOSSIP – Someone really needs to educate the general public on how to, truly, listen to the words some of these NHL talking heads are using.  In the case of Connor Hellebuyck, we have been told that the Winnipeg Jets are ‘willing to consider listening’ to trade offers.  This does not mean he’s being dealt.  It means they might think about receiving an offer.  It doesn’t mean they’ll even take an offer.  ‘Willing to consider listening’ isn’t even as definitive as ‘considering offers’.  ‘Considering offers’ is also a far cry from ‘wanting offers’.  This same Insider suggests he has no information that Hellebuyck has requested a trade but he feels as though he wouldn’t mind a change.  What does that mean?  “Yeah, I am not requesting a trade but if you guys want to put me up for a deal that would be fine.”?  That’s a request to me.  

7 – FREEDOM250 – The UFC White House Freedom 250 event featured one of the biggest upsets ever as Justin Gaethje stopped Ilia Topuria at the end of the fourth round in the main event.  Topuria’s face looked like a mine field and I don’t know how he doesn’t need some form of facial reconstructive surgery.  Gaethje is 37 and is toying with retirement so who knows if we will ever get to see a rematch or not.  It felt like Topuria went into the fight reading the headlines and didn’t take it seriously enough.  It also remains to be seen how soon he can fight again.  I can’t see him being ready for, at least, nine months.  Meanwhile, Josh Hokit drew the ire of many by randomly stating Michelle Obama is a man during his postfight interview.  I’m not taking political sides because I have no use for Donald Trump either (with his wars to distract from the Epstein files) but how many horrible, rotten, and false things have been said about Trump and his family and nobody gives a damn?  But, again if you are looking for people to back off by pointing out double standards, you will be looking for a long time.

8 – HOT MAMBA – The Saskatoon Mamba are 5-and-1 after starting the season 0-and-4.  Not by coincidence, the arrival of center Jaden Bediako has made a huge difference in the team’s fortunes.  Bediako leads the league in rebounding at 10.6-rpg and is second in team scoring at 17.2-ppg.  The Mamba, basically, did no rebounding at all before Bediako’s arrival and while they still have defensive lapses, the offense is stacked with Tavian Dunn-Martin, Jaylin Williams, Tevian Jones, Dajuan Gordon, and Davonte Bandoo in addition to Bediako’s dominance under the hoop.  So, it’s going to be tough to shut them down as it’s highly unlikely they all go cold at the same time.  On Monday, in their first game at Merlis Belsher, the Mamba were down by as many as 17 in the third quarter and I told myself I was headed home if the deficit reached 20.  Instead, Trey Townsend won it with a jumper in what ended up being the most exciting CEBL game I’ve ever attended.  There are some improvements that could be made (scoreboard being one) at Merlis Belsher but the actual viewing experience is as such this should, probably, be their full-time home.

9 – GOLF ETIQUETTE – Joaquin Niemann was assessed a two-stroke penalty in the first round of the US Open this weekend after throwing his club on the sixth hole in registering a quintuple bogey.  The penalty meant it was an 11, septuple bogey and he finished the round +8 (78).  TV commentator Brandel Chamblee then went off on how the game has changed (not for the better) as you never saw people like Jack Nicklaus, Greg Norman, or Arnold Palmer act like a child or throw constant f-bombs.  He blamed those who watched Tiger Woods and said those are the kids who are now adults and playing on the Tour.  He made an excellent point in saying ‘composure is a skill and throwing clubs and f-bombs is lazy’.  

10 – PATS 1998 – I won’t offer much on Kelly McCrimmon’s scorched earth press conference from this week where he accused Vegas Golden Knights detractors of being jealous of how their organization is run but I think it’s only fitting to comment on how good the Regina Pats were in 1998 only to run into Kelly’s Wheat Kings that ended all thoughts of a WHL championship.  During my time covering the WHL, the 1998 version of the Pats was the best I can recall seeing as far as the Pats were concerned.  On that team was Kyle Calder, who passed away this week at the age of 47 after a ‘short illness’.  Unfortunately, Calder and Josh Holden only played 2 games in the playoffs that year and it was a stacked club with the likes of John Cirjak, Boyd Kane, Dmitri Yakushin, Brad Stuart, Ronald Petrovicky, Brett Lysak, Gerad Adams, Barret Jackman, and others.  But, the Wheats had made a deadline deal for Greg Phillips that changed the complexion of their entire team and they also got Kirby Law back from a broken leg at just the right time as they went all the way to the finals before losing to Marian Hossa, Brenden Morrow, and the Portland Winterhawks.

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