STACKHOUSE’S 10 WEEKEND THOUGHTS

1 – PHASE 5 – The Saskatchewan government is indicating Phase 5 on the re-open plan is about a full 365 days away.  What’s in Phase 5? Full sports stadiums like Mosaic to watch a Saskatchewan Roughrider game.  At the time of this writing, we have 1 person in the hospital with the China-started coronavirus and just had 1 person test positive out of 682 tests administered the previous day. There are over a million people who live in this province and approximately 11-million in Western Canada with a grand total of 550 active coronavirus cases and a whopping 66 people in the hospital. You are keeping professional football closed over this? The only thing more outrageous and ludicrous about proclaiming Phase 5 being that far away is the fact that nobody in the Roughriders (or Saskatchewan Rush) office is yelling and screaming about this.  Government is stealing the livelihoods of everyone employed with this franchise and they are robbing fans of simple enjoyment. But, hey … if you wanted to burn down Cornwall Centre because you feel the police should be defunded and you wanted thousands of your friends to join you as you take this violent stance, which is also a very serious criminal offense….that appears to be no problem. No tongue lashings for risking your health and no jail terms for arson. What a messed up world.

2 – CUTHBERT JUMPS SHIP – Many people are wondering what this means for CFL play by play on TSN now that Chris Cuthbert has jumped ship to Sportsnet, presumably to be one of (if not the top) main play by play voices for the NHL. Cuthbert was still doing a lot of hockey on TSN and NBC as well as his CFL gig. He had it pretty good, not to mention TSN is a much better employer than Rogers based on general feedback I’ve received from people I know in the industry (job security would be a bonus at TSN based on recent history).  I actually am wondering if Cuthbert is nervous about the future of the CFL based on the pandemic overreaction. If he is thinking that perhaps his football announcing days are over, moving to Sportsnet to do everything hockey makes that much more sense. The tenuous future of the CFL is even more reason for the Roughriders to forget the politically correct virtuism of ‘protecting the vulnerable’ and to start advocating for themselves before it’s too late. They too, are vulnerable.

3 – BEACHES/MEMORIAL SERVICE – A few hundred on a Saskatchewan beach?  Not okay. Thousands attending a memorial for George Floyd? Perfectly healthy, just don’t try that for your own loved one, okay?  Could we have, say, 10-thousand fans at Mosaic for football next month?  Nope.  Dangerous. But, the State of Texas says their sports stadiums are good to go up to 50% capacity (which is 25-thousand for the Texas Rangers). Locking us up in the name of science was quite universal around the globe. Opening us in the name of science seems to be a much more confusing task. Don’t question it though. The health experts know what their doing and government is here to help you. Just ask Justin Trudeau. He wouldn’t lie.

4 – FANS WILL BE BACK – Call me crazy, but as long as the NHL hub cities are in the United States, professional sports won’t be played in empty buildings for very long. I suspect Orlando may open facilities for fans to watch NBA games in small numbers eventually. If Texas stadiums are open at 50% as of today, many other places will do 25% or more in the near future. I know in Saskatchewan, with 20 or so active cases, it’s way too dangerous for fans at Mosaic but Americans think a lot differently. Buildings will open. People will go. Mortality rate will not increase. NHL teams playing in front of, even, 5000 fans a game upon restarting helps mitigate losses and establishes a blueprint going forward to open facilities to larger numbers.

5 – LEAGUE PROMOTION – Full disclosure, I work with the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League.  However, my opinion on the televising of the Bantam Draft would be the same whether I worked with the league or not. It’s a smart move and it provides a great avenue for the league to promote itself all the while also giving Sasktel a quality program for local programming content. In addition for friends and family of the 15-year-olds selected, the draft should be of interest to all SJHL fans as the telecast provided excellent insight from former Weyburn GM Tanner McCall on how the inner operations of each team work as well as some breakdowns on better understanding the list system and certain strategies when it comes to building the future for each franchise. 

6 – CFL DRAFT – The Canadian Football League is its own worst enemy when it comes to stuff like this. I realize TSN doesn’t give even a sober second thought when it comes to non-Toronto based sports; but this (draft) is easy content in a day and age where we have far too many sports channels and not enough quality to fill the days on them. TSN should look at this as an investment in their CFL product. Introduce the fans to the players so that there is some familiarity, especially with those who may be casual viewers but are on the cusp of being engaged on a more regular basis.  If the CFL can’t convince TSN to put something on, Facebook is your friend when it comes to vehicles like this. Ask Rod Pedersen as I hear he hosts a daily sports show on Facebook and it seems to be going fairly well.

7 – WE NEED MORE WWE – A week ago when Chase Elliott collided with Joey Logano during the short track race in Bristol, handing Brad Keselowski an easy win, I stayed with the broadcast beyond the checkered flag because I was hoping to see Logano pop Elliott for screwing things up. Never happened. You can bet that if it did, the sports networks and social media would have been all over it and you never would have known who actually won the race. For me, this is Nascar’s ticket to breaking through even further towards securing more fans.  WWE it up.

8 – NASCAR ISN’T ALONE – I don’t know why or how it’s happened, but sports have allowed the politically correct to take over and it’s hurt the popularity of these pro leagues to some degree.  When Milan Lucic tells a Montreal Canadiens’ player in the handshake line that he is ‘going to kill you next year’ that should be promoted and hyped up. Instead, we decry it as senseless violence and wonder if the offending player will be okay as he will be stressed about the threat all summer long. Baseball is a dying sport, but fans were loving it when Jose Bautista and Rougned Odor were at one another over the famous ‘bat flip’ incident.  Gerry James used to go on the radio in Yorkton and say all kinds of outlandish stuff to try and fill the rink.  Guess what?  It worked.  He’d be suspended for over a month for the same stuff today.  We used to make fun of players for being ‘soft’.  Now, we expect everyone in society (not just sports) to be ‘soft’ and if you aren’t, you are an incredibly bad and inconsiderate human.

9 – MLB LIFE SUPPORT – Major League Baseball can’t get out of its own way.  They have the ability to capture a full audience of sports fans starving for live content during the month of July and they, not only, are going to fail at that, but it wouldn’t surprise me if they are the only professional sport not to play in 2020.  We live in a capitalist society, which means nobody puts a cap on how much a professional baseball team owner can make.  That also means there is risk associated with this potential for sky high earnings.  The fact that baseball players have already agreed to a 50% pay cut based on the assumption that the season will be 50% as long is a gift for the owners. It’s very likely fans are going to be allowed to attend as the season moves along and there are other avenues to be investigated for increasing revenue as well.  This also was the perfect year to experiment with speeding up the pace of the game to see what works and what doesn’t.  Yet, baseball seems intent on sewering itself for 2020 and beyond.  I don’t think fans come back.  I’ve been one for 40 years and I’d already be gone if it wasn’t for fantasy baseball drafts with my friends.  If I’m on the brink of quitting on baseball, I’m willing to guess many more already have and young people weren’t exactly lining up for tickets or watching on tv as it was.  It’s a fascinating self implosion of the sport.

10 – TENNIS – Why isn’t professional tennis being played?  The biggest tennis stadiums sit about 15,000 and I’m no expert on how money is made on the ATP Tour but I have to think a big chunk of it comes from sponsorships.  This is another sport that could use a resurgence and the full attention of sports fans.  Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, and Roger Federer are known worldwide, but the days of Agassi, Sampras, Becker, Edberg, Courier, Ivanisevic, Chang, etc. were the glory days.  

(Mike Stackhouse is a freelance writer/broadcaster and the lead Voice of the SJHL. Follow him on Twitter at @Stack1975)