DAYTONA HOMES FRIDAY RODSERVATIONS

MY THOUGHTS

– Sorry for the delay in today’s News & Notes column.  We’re still in Las Vegas and it’s the last official day of my vacation time.  The lure to sleep in was just too strong.  But away we go…

– I awoke to the news the Regina Pats had shipped star forward Morgan Klimchuk to the Brandon Wheat Kings for forward Jesse Gabrielle (two years younger than Morgan).  Obviously the move proves the Regina Pats will be sellers rather than buyers in 2015 and although that will dishearten a portion of the fanbase, it’s a stance we’ve been championing on this blog for months.  “If you’re not in contention to win it all, sell” is the age-old rule-of-the-thumb in major junior hockey.  Today was a step in the right direction.  Now the question is: Who’s next?

– You can catch Jesse Gabrielle in a Pats uniform tonight when the Queen City Kids host the Moose Jaw Warriors at 7 pm in the Brandt Centre (620 CKRM).  It will be interesting to see how the Pats players approach the game knowing the chance to contend this year is being extinguished.

– You wouldn’t think here in Sin City that hockey would be a very hot topic – and it isn’t – but billionaire Bill Foley is betting he make Las Vegas a hockey town.  In fact, that’s his message on the newly formed website www.lasvegas-hockey.com where Foley is asking people to leave their name and contact info to gauge interest in bringing an NHL team here.  Foley made his billions mostly in real estate in Florida but he spends a great deal of time here and feels it’s time Vegas got a team in the Big Four (NHL, NBA, MLB or NFL).

– Foley has gone so far as to say he’d like to call the team the “Las Vegas Black Knights” and there’s already an arena being built on the Las Vegas Strip across from Mandalay Bay.  I’ve been doing some poking around this week, asking questions, and learned while everyone here has heard the name Bill Foley, no one has seen him or met him.  That’s a stark contrast from his partners in the NHL venture, the Maloof brothers, who everybody in Las Vegas seems to know.  They are notorious nightlifers who owned The Palms Hotel & Casino as well as the NBA’s Sacramento Kings.  Foley was asked and says he’s not concerned about the Maloof’s reputation.

– Want to get the best intel when you come into a city like this?  Ask a doorman, a bartender or for darn sure a cab driver.  Cabbies know where the bodies are buried in each town.

– It would seem The Palms has gone downhill since the Maloofs sold their shares.  That’s where we’ve been staying all week but I’m not sure I would again.  It’s several blocks off the Strip and it’s been fairly dead.  True, it’s been nice to be away from the noise and craziness but it’s a pain to cab it anywhere you want to go.

– AND we haven’t seen any snowflakes since we’ve been here!!  I don’t know where the news networks got the TV footage of snow but although it’s been chilly, there hasn’t been a trace of snow where we’ve been.  The locals were bracing for it however, as 1-3 inches of snow where forecasted and a cop told me, “There’s not a snow plow for 100 miles from here!”  In the end, it wasn’t necessary and even at the lowest of temperatures, you could still see people in t-shirts and shorts.

– Back to the hockey business: it was great to see former Moose Jaw Warrior Troy Brouwer scored the winner for Washington in a 3-2 victory over Chicago in the 2015 NHL Winter Classic in Washington.  Troy’s in-laws, Eugene and Shannon Diekreger from Milestone, SK, where in attendance at Nationals Park for the game.  We ran into them in the airport on the way down here.

– It looked like a fun game on television but I have no interest in going to an outdoor game, especially if it’s in a baseball stadium.  How do you see the action?  It would be like watching a game in the old TacomaDome, which was built for football.  You can’t see the action!  Why go?  However if you’ve been to an outdoor game and think I’m all wet, please let me know.

– It’s tough to say if hockey is gaining popularity or momentum in the USA – it’s been around down here for 100 years as it is – but the sport is definitely not a secret.  There was an 8-page supplement in the USA Today this week featuring the Winter Classic.  That’s America’s national newspaper and I couldn’t believe the amount of coverage.

– Still, in the sports books in The Palms and the Mirage, the primary TVs were tuned to college bowl games and NBA games while NHL broadcasts were relegated to secondary TVs along the sidewalls.  It’s coming, and I think it could work in Las Vegas.  And if I had a choice to start up an NHL franchise in either Las Vegas or Saskatchewan, I’d take Nevada any day of the week.  The reason?  $$$$$$$$$$

– Speaking of the sports book, Scruffy asked me to lay $20 down on the Cubs to win the World Series.  I did and if the bet pays, we stand to pocket $220.  I’m stunned it’s not more since they haven’t won a World Series in 100 years.

– Back to Las Vegas on New Years for a second … It’s been a thrill to be here because every trip is but I’m pretty certain I won’t do it again.  Obviously the Las Vegas weather in late-December leaves little to be desired (although it hasn’t been much warmer in Phoenix).  As you can imagine, millions of people have descended upon Sin City to bring in the New Year which has meant inevitable line-ups, congestation and its own brand of problems.  From now on we’ll likely stay in Regina for Dec. 31 and maybe even throw a bash of our own at Casino Regina’s Show Lounge featuring Rory Allen and the like.  Maybe we could get some Roughriders to come by and make it a real big deal!

Jorje from the Rockhouse in Vegas

– Speaking of the Roughriders, I have been doing some business down here and stopped in the unofficial Rider bar in Las Vegas, the Rockhouse in the Venetian to speak with the managers.  Jenn and Jorje are the managers and they LOVE the Rider Nation.  I asked Jenn how many people came to the Rockhouse on my recommendation to watch Rider games this past season and she said “Hundreds”.  Mark that down for the next time you’re in Las Vegas.  THE ROCKHOUSE.

We’re coming back in April and will meet further on the association between the two entities.  Apparently fans of other CFL teams come to the Rockhouse and while they will find the games there, Jorje says it’s not the same.  Plus he said other teams’ fans go nuts when he tells them the Roughriders have the best friend.  Of course he’s just telling them what they already know.

– Who knows if Las Vegas is a hockey town but it certainly is a sports town and in fact all of America is nutso about sports.  They’re going absolutely insane over the first-ever college football playoff championship game on Monday, January 12 in Dallas between Oregon and Ohio State University.  New Year’s Day was just bonkers with the Rose Bowl and Sugar Bowl, the two semifinal games which set up the national championship.  This is the first year they did away with the old BCS system (computer-generated match-up for the national championship).  Kudos to the NCAA — it appears they finally got it right.

– Speaking of, around midnight last night ESPN was replaying the Rose Bowl to a national TV audience.  Why not?  TV networks pay all this money for the rights fees so why wouldn’t they milk it for all they can?  It would be nice if TSN would replay its hockey, football or basketball telecasts later that night like they used to.  ESPN is so far ahead of the industry it’s ridiculous.

– Canada is ahead of the USA in one facet:  the elimination of the penny.  What a pain it is carrying those around in your pocket.  I wonder how long it will be before America follows our lead?

– OH!  I have to get in a review for ventriloquist/singer Terry Fator (that way I can write-off the cost of my ticket).  It’s by far the greatest Las Vegas show we’ve ever seen.  It’s been five years since Fator won America’s Got Talent with his cast of puppets and he’s been packing them in every night at the Mirage ever since.  It’s 90-minutes long to the second and very reasonably priced at $99 per show which includes a buffet meal at Carvings.  It’s not exactly G-Rated but it’s not raunchy either.  That’s a show you have to see if you come to Las Vegas.

– Back to football: It was barely a day after he got fired in Chicago that Marc Trestman was linked to the vacant offensive coordinators job in Jacksonville.  Who knows where he’s going to go – and I haven’t asked him.  I know for a fact Marc would’ve been hurt by his dismissal by the Bears on Black Monday.  I spoke a few weeks back about George Cortez and Richie Hall being ousted and how traumatic that likely was for them.  People say they’ve been through it all before but so what?  Have you ever a lost a job?  It doesn’t get easier.

– Let me give you an illustration — I’m walking through the casino at the Palms Monday night and on EVERY big screen television is Bears Chairman George McCaskey at a news conference telling everybody why he fired Marc and the team’s GM.  He was explaining his 92-year old mother was “pissed off” at the performance of the Bears the past two years.  So imagine if YOU got fired and the entire country got to see just why and here it explained on national TV.  It would be humilating.  So I hope he winds up back in the NFL because that’s where he belongs.  He’s got nothing left to prove in Canada.  However he could probably sit on his duff for a year and collect a healthy stipend from Chicago and that’s likely what he’s deliberating now.

– And the notion that Trestman’s firing will somehow hurt and CFL coach’s chance of going to the National Football League is utter hogwash.  Who comes up with this stuff?  Any reasonable football person would look at the dysfunction in Chicago and the coach-killing quarterback and deduce nobody would’ve had a chance at success there.  It may be a long while before a CFL coach heads to the NFL but it won’t be because of anything Trestman did.

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WHEW – that’s a long one and likely enough for today.  Thanks for reading and HAPPY NEW YEAR!

RP
@sportscage