STACKHOUSE’S 10 VERY SERIOUS THOUGHTS

1 – JAYS FUTURE – On Thursday, Mark Shapiro told media members the Blue Jays didn’t even ask the Canadian government about ‘when’ they may be able to return to Toronto. This should be telling for sports fans in Canada but I think many of us are fast asleep or are in denial about the very shaky future of sports in this country. I’m not saying the Jays are done in Toronto but here’s what I will say: fans of American sports teams will be at stadiums watching games for a long time before it’s considered here in Canada.  

2 – JAYS STADIUM – The Jays, pre-pandemic, were looking to build a new stadium. Do you think they are eager to do that today? If they need a new park, aren’t welcome in Canada, and can’t put enough bums in the seats even if they do get the border situation straightened out, how long do you think Rogers will accept such a money losing proposition before selling the team?  

3 – JAYS VIABILITY – Look at TSN. They are making money, just not enough and yet that’s still cause for concern at Bell for them to chop hundreds of  jobs across the country. I assure you Rogers isn’t any less ruthless. If their baseball team can’t make money in the foreseeable future and if that, in turn, makes their television station less profitable they won’t hesitate to get rid of both entities. They can make lots on cell phones and internet subscription fees.

4 – CANADIAN SOCIETY – I haven’t dove too deep into this, but I would say most sports leagues that operate out of a free country do not have teams from communist ones as part of the group. There is a lot happening in Canada with regards to freedoms and the population is, as I mentioned, in deep hibernation. To some degree, we are unofficially communist already and if we can just keep the pandemic going for an additional 9-12 months passed when everyone else gets back to normal, the population will have no choice but to cede everything to the government and the Blue Jays will be the least of a sports fan’s worries.  

5 – FLIGHTS – I know many of you think I’m crazy and, personally, I hope you are right. I hope I am crazy. But let’s look at the flight situation. Last summer, the federal government scored brownie points with Canadian people (including sports fans and sports media) when they deemed it to be too dangerous for sports teams to fly in and out of Toronto on private planes in order to play the Blue Jays in an empty stadium. Most of you had no clue that dozens upon dozens of commercial flights were landing and taking off from Toronto for American cities each and every day without much scrutiny at all. In fact, a prominent Toronto sports media person argued with me on this and said I was wrong at the mere suggestion planes were already coming and going in significant numbers. Several Toronto sports media were at the front of the cheerleading bus to keep baseball out of this country and now they get their wish for a second year in a row.

6 – WASTED REVENUE OPPORTUNITY – Toronto supports the Blue Jays in big numbers, attendance wise, when they are a good team.  They will be better than good this season and, in fact, I have them pegged to win the American League East.  That means the potential for 40,000 a game is merely a fantasy despite it being reality if we just used our brains and if other teams throughout the US start drawing those kinds of numbers while Rogers has their hands tied to 5,000 a game in Dunedin and maybe double that in Buffalo afterwards…they are going to be extremely sour.  They’ve poured a ton of money into this ball team.

7 – SPORTS IN CANADIAN SOCIETY – A very difficult conversation that needs to be had and perhaps it should be taking place now is just where does sports fall in the realm of importance in this country.  I picked a random small American city (Bozeman MT) and checked their attendance for university football.  Bozeman’s population is just under 50,000 people and yet they draw about 18,000.  Now, let’s look at Regina where there are over 200,000 and the average attendance for the absolute best level of hockey available (Pats) was 4,700 in 2019-20.  Isn’t hockey in Canada similar to football in America?  But let’s also compare football.  If you have nearly 2 out of every 5 people in Bozeman going to a football game, do you think Regina could have 55,000 on a regular basis go watch the Riders?  I don’t and Regina is the most rabid football city in Canada.  I’m also not singling out Regina.  Pick any city in Canada and you will get similar apathy when it comes to sports.  So, during a pandemic when you have Canada axing sports everywhere, it’s low hanging fruit because most people don’t care if we have it or not and those that do simply aren’t large enough in numbers to make a difference.

8 – HOCKEY IS STUCK – For years and years and years hockey has been caught in a situation where organizers want the sport to appeal to all people and not just diehards because there is no future in that. We need to grow the game. They’ve listened to what the public has been critical of and they’ve made mass changes (most of them for the better) in the areas of bullying, diversity, head injuries, other safety measures, hazing, etc. Yet, registration numbers aren’t up. In fact, they are down and as we are seeing during this pandemic, those most critical of hockey have no intention of enrolling their kids or even attending a game.  Hockey needs to refocus on an audience that WANTS to play but isn’t. How do we get them more involved and never mind the general public overall who want to lecture for the sake of virtue but otherwise don’t care.

9 – AGREE WITH ROD, BUT – Rod’s right. The CFL needs to play. They want to play. Their efforts may even be classified as ‘extremely determined’. But, the government holds the cards. You can press as hard as you want, but if the government says NO, you aren’t playing. That brings me back to most of the points in my article today. Where is sports on the list of priorities for Canadians? I believe the Trudeau government can kill the CFL and while that will generate outrage in a few cities that already despise Trudeau, it won’t move his popularity needle nationwide one bit in a negative direction and that is the ONLY thing he’s concerned about. 

10 – SASKATCHEWAN SITUATION – I’ve asked this question a few times and have never gotten an answer. Last summer when there were, essentially, no virus cases at all I wondered why if it was still unsafe for the CFL (or any sport at any level) to play games at that point, what is the mark at which Saskatchewan would say ‘okay it is now safe enough to play’?  My assumption was that if you couldn’t play last summer, you can’t ever play until a vaccine is injected into enough people. If that’s true, then just say it so people aren’t clinging to false hope. But, also if it is true, I’d like an explanation as to why sports can proceed in many other jurisdictions, including North Dakota and if the answer to that is merely ‘different level of risk aversion’ then why can’t you put this to the general public as a question and allow us to decide how much risk we want to assume?

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