STACKHOUSE’S 10 THOUGHTS

1 – RIDER SEASON LIFE SUPPORT – Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe gave a very informative, enlightening, and honest press conference on Wednesday afternoon and amongst the tidbits he let drop was the notion that it will be almost impossible for the Saskatchewan Roughriders to see the field this season.  The reality is that even though Saskatchewan appears to be fighting the China coronavirus with great success to this point, there isn’t the same level of success in Ontario and Quebec, where three CFL clubs call home. Calgary has also had difficulty flattening the curve and so even if things are going well in Saskatchewan a month from now, the Riders would have very few options as far as opponents go. I think the time has come to just accept the CFL 2020 season will never come to pass.

2 – OTHER FOOTBALL – It may be early to speculate, but with there likely to be a limit on gatherings, what will this mean for university and junior football?  If there are no Rider games to attend, you can bet Regina Rams and Saskatchewan Huskies tickets will be at a premium provided those teams are allowed to play in front of a capped number of fans.  Throw in the Saskatoon Hilltops and Regina Thunder and there is potential for these outfits to jack up their prices to the level of a pro team and sell to the first 250 people (or whatever size gathering is allowed) who want to buy.  I think they’d have no trouble at all in doing so. I’m optimistic junior football will have a season although various workout camps are going to be delayed. I also think based on the age and top level fitness of junior and university athletes, we should be of almost no concern at all about them practicing together and, ultimately, playing games.

3 – BASEBALL – I like the Major League Baseball idea of using spring training facilities in Florida and Arizona to try and have a season. The realignment is radical, but potentially a very exciting flavour to make things different and I think most fans would have no difficulty at all getting behind it. I also think baseball could really use some eyeballs on its sport because it’s on the decline, especially with young people, and they’d be the focal point if they are the only thing on television. My understanding is that there are a number of plans, many of which have not seen the light of day as far as getting out into the media. I think baseball gets going and I think it may happen quick.  My guess is May 1st there is some sort of an announcement for teams to start converging on a location and by May Long Weekend, we are playing regular season games somewhere in empty stadiums. The plan may even be an evolving one that allows baseball to ease their own restrictions as society also starts to ease.

4 – NHL – I think the NHL is toast for this season. How do they fire back up now in the heat of a playoff race?  It seems too disjointed for me and now that they’ve been off for as long as they have, they may as well just shelve the entire thing.  One thing that could work, though, but I don’t think the NHL would ever go down this road and China West (that’s us here in Canada) isn’t likely to be okay with it either would be to break the teams up into four locations (Brandon, Regina, Moose Jaw, Medicine Hat) along the Trans-Canada Highway and finish things out that way.  It’s possible that by the time you reach the semi-finals, perhaps you could play in front of fans? A lot with the virus changes on a daily basis and it’s such a wild fluctuation of changes, it seems, that almost anything could be possible. But, the reality is that the communities I mention above have been unscathed with the virus and the chances of contamination is very low.  Could you even use a couple of locations in Regina and a couple in one of the other locales to put each division somewhere in the Prairies? It’s actually cool to think about, but it will never happen.

5 – SPORTS WORK FROM HOME – Is it trendy for these sports media personalities to grow facial hair and be frumpy looking when they do their live hits for the various tv shows they appear on? This extends beyond the sports personalities too. More and more I see these talking heads as failed actors and they think their lives are part of some sort of play, or drama production. “Oh we are home, so I have to actually look like what I’d look like if I was on vacation or at home.”  No. You still have a job to do. Put on a suit, get out a razor if that’s your usual way of grooming and make yourself appear as you would on television normally. This is not a holiday. It shouldn’t be too much to ask people who are home all day to get cleaned up and dressed up for work.  If you wouldn’t normally wear a house coat on the air during your morning show while in the studio, then I don’t think a house coat is appropriate hosting from home either, as I saw this week.

6 – SJHL – Premier Scott Moe alluded to expanding gatherings gradually, so could we get to September and be in a situation where 500 people are allowed to be in one room?  That’s not enough for the Western Hockey League, but it probably is enough to get the SJHL back up and running. While the average attendance is above that, the reality is that it’s not too far north of that number to prevent the league from getting back up and running.  Like my suggestion above, teams could probably also raise their prices a little bit and have no trouble putting the max number allowed in the seats and it would be a nice little boon to smaller Saskatchewan communities. The trickle down to the Saskatchewan U18 or whatever it’s going to be called AAA League could mean a spike in attendance for those teams as well.  If you are not sure what I mean, this is the league that has the Regina Pat Canadians in it but also uses an offensive name to identify its league and that will be changing this year.

7 – WCBL – The Western Canadian Baseball League is ready to go as soon as restrictions are lifted, but it’s looking increasingly bleak for them too and being a gate driven league, it’s going to be impossible to have a season, I feel.  Yorkton and Melville were already out for this Summer anyway as they were trying to get their finances in order, but with the virus hitting it would appear both of those teams are now looking at a hill that may be too high to climb permanently.  I think there are some challenges as far as getting American players across the border too when it’s supposed to be closed and then there is always the perceived risk for billets. Nevertheless, I know the WCBL is being as flexible as possible and looking at getting started very quick in the event there is an avenue to play.

8 – WOULD YOU ATTEND – Sports media person Darren Rovell conducted a survey about a week ago asking fans if they’d attend live sporting events in the future and almost 70% said they would not unless there is a vaccine.  Count me in the 30%. I think if people would just be self-responsible we’d have very little to worry about. Of course, you can’t count on that but maybe as we go along through a gradual, methodical process we will start to train ourselves to be more self aware.  That’s my hope. I think the other thing we really need to remember here is that the virus isn’t fatal to healthy people that are in the prime years of life (18-44). I’d even go so far as to say those up to age 65 are going to be fine too as long as they don’t have underlying health concerns, yet a lot of us do because we consume too much junk food, don’t exercise, and don’t practice a healthy lifestyle.  Those things are the best defense against the virus. Now before you go commenting about the virus not killing young people and calling me insensitive, as of Monday when there were over 6200 deaths in New York, their own stats indicate less than 25 were people aged 18-44 without underlying pre-existing health concerns. 25. That’s not 25 percent. That’s 25 people. In a state with 19.5 million. Perspective.

9 – MEDIA – I don’t know if this in all of our DNA or not, but you do realize it’s possible to find Donald Trump’s daily press conferences to be ridiculous and unprofessional and also still find the media to be just as bad or worse? It seems like it’s expected one has to pick sides. Well, I don’t. There is nothing good as far as American people being served when Trump stands at the front of the room and runs a video to try and prove the media is setting him up with fake news all the time.  There is no purpose in this and it has nothing to do with the issues at hand. Having said that, why does the media have to then pick fights with him for the next 45 minutes? If Trump isn’t going to stick to the issues, then the media should just turn the other cheek and be focused on what helps people.  Who cares what Trump did or didn’t do in February or what he maybe did or didn’t lie about. Ask him about how he’s going to restart the economy. Ask about the equipment supply, staff supply, financial aid, potential drug treatments, vaccines, etc. Things that matter. Asking one of Trump’s aides about the phrasing of words that people find offensive (nobody found it offensive by the way) is nowhere near the universe of relevancy.

10 – CANADIAN SITUATION – We have our own problem with media in Canada and it’s worse because their fanboy is the one running the show here.  The public is way underserved and many of us just don’t have the knowledge to comprehend what’s really happening. In a nutshell, our political leaders are only interested in serving themselves and the longer we go with the general public having to rely on the federal government for handouts, the better it is for Justin Trudeau to maintain power and the better the chance he has to have the socialist/communist rule he loves so much.  No, this is not a conspiracy. But this is a very convenient virus for him to lay all the blame for his financial incompetence over the last five years on. Ask yourself why the United States, Germany, and Italy (all countries that have been devastated by the virus (between 3x and 5x as bad) are all mapping out plans to try and restart their economy while Canada is taking a laid back ‘oh we won’t know for many weeks yet’ approach? You got it.  China West. I often wonder if we had Trudeau, the Premiers, and all the top health officials working for the price of CERB and having to conduct all their work from home (I don’t count Trudeau’s self isolation here because he comes and goes as he wants, we just don’t see it) how long would we really be in this self-distancing, lockdown style of society. I will almost guarantee none of them would last half as long as the rest of us.

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