THROWIN’ ELBOWS WITH BRENDAN MCGUIRE
1. BUBBLE SHOULD NOT BE CFL FOCUS: 2021 will either be a year of recovery or a year of adaptation. The status quo will not do. People will need to be outdoors at events, having a good time. CFL stadiums should be able to fill to at least 10% capacity at slightly increased ticket prices. This will allow the league to inch closer back to viability with help from our federal government who will almost certainly prefer to subsidize a season rather than pay players and staff for doing nothing. Instead of wasting millions of dollars on a bubble that even the other leagues found too costly to want any more part of, the Canadian Football League needs to think about how to return closer to normal. Pro sports bubbles are so 2020 and will be a thing of the past come the new year.
2. FAJARDO PLAYS THE PART: Doing lots of stuff to engage with fans online. He doesn’t spend his winters in Regina like Henry Burris did at first, at least not yet, but he gives you the vibe that he really wants to be here. I’m trying to think of a star quarterback since Ronnie Lancaster who actually did that and I’m coming up empty.
3. JEFF REINEBOLD: One of my favorite all-time characters in sport thinks the CFL should ditch the global CFL 2.0 initiative and focus more on getting people in Canada engaged with the sport. And he’s right. The CFL 2.0 should be about partnering with the Canadian Cricket Association, the Canadian Soccer Association and knocking on doors in Canada’s Asian community to drive new Canadians toward the 3-down game. Commissioner Ambrosie isn’t wrong for pushing CFL 2.0 but just isn’t targeting it properly.
4. GETTING OUR OWN NHL TEAM: Can’t help but wonder if the financial ruin this pandemic is causing the NHL won’t create opportunity for some who want to buy in. Not only will the league come out of this nightmare starved for expansion/relocation fees but the changing world we live in will put downward pressure on attendance and expectations for paid crowd numbers going forward. Would you support our provincial government creating a made-in-Saskatchewan crown corporation to buy a struggling NHL franchise from Carolina or Florida or Arizona to play in Saskatoon at a price-tag of around $1 billion dollars Canadian? Let’s put it this way: Regina mayor Michael Fougere wants to spend up to $100 million dollars to relocate the train tracks off of Ring Road to eliminate a minor convenience. If eliminating 10 of those projects can get us our NHL team and a new arena that could probably be sold back to the private sector after the fact, then I’m all for it. Think about it. Governments waste tons of cash on projects far dumber than this one.
5. CJME SASK PARTY CONNECTIONS: I’m seeing lots of complaining from my socialist friends about all of the donations being made to the Sask Party from people with connections to Rawlco Radio, who own and operate News Talk Radio 980 CJME. It’s a legitimate concern about any organization claiming to be a credible media outfit. There’s no doubt in my mind it’s not a coincidence the owners and some of the folks calling the shots over there have a Sask Party supporter like John Gormley pushing a conservative agenda over the airwaves. However, I did work very closely with their Program Director, Murray Wood, once upon a time and can promise you he takes a lot of pride in the integrity and objectivity of his newsroom. I listen to CJME news every morning and fail to find any bias with its reporting of the facts. Gormley, some days, is another matter. But that’s hardly anything new.
6. RADIO NEEDS RULES FOR LOCAL ON-AIR TALENT: Speaking of the radio world these days, a few of my old radio chums have noticed that much of the Saskatchewan airwaves is packed with “local” shows from all over Canada. Cost-cutting is at an all-time high and yet the CRTC seems to think opening all of these new stations is no big deal. If they’re going to continue to govern the supply of broadcast licenses, then why isn’t the CRTC at least pretending to care about local jobs for local radio stations? Maybe if that local radio station can’t afford to hire local talent, then maybe they just shouldn’t be in business. Perhaps revoking their licenses would limit the supply just enough so that radio stations who do hire local on-air talent can generate enough revenue to not only pay them but pay a decent wage. We make such a big deal about Canadian content rules for artists. Why should it be any different for disc jockeys?
7. ED HERVEY: I don’t get why the GM of the BC Lions would leave now unless a new ownership group is waiting in the wings to take over. I seriously doubt that to be the case. Different people thrive in different situations and after doing a great job in Edmonton, the overall conclusion of Ed Hervey’s time with the BC Lions cannot be remembered as anything other than a disaster. I just don’t get what they’re doing on the west coast. I really don’t.
8. SWITCHING MY FAVORITE TEAM: I don’t switch my home or my spouse very often and I rarely change employers either. I’m a pretty loyal guy. And that’s why it’s been so hard for me to accept the fact that maybe it’s time to switch my favorite NHL team. I’ve been pretty loyal to the Vancouver Canucks since Pavel Bure burst onto the scene when I was 9 years old. But with time, I’ve come to realize that Bure and the organization are largely estranged from each other. The ownership is nuts, the colors are different, the whale logo is ugly and management rarely does what I want them to do, anyway. These are NOT the same Canucks I fell in love with. The team I flirted with in my early days as a fat little kid playing with my transformers watching hockey on Saturday nights from my dad’s farmhouse basement were the Montreal Canadiens. Luckily, the Leafs were so bad, that Hockey Night in Canada spared us, for a time, the torture of having to watch them each weekend and instead gave us Pat Burns, Patrick Roy, Russ Courtnall, Shayne Corson, Stephane Richer and a few others. I’ve decided to once again, obsess about the Habs for a while in the hopes that maybe it will rekindle my love of the sport. Haven’t given up on my Canucks completely but I figure if players and coaches can change teams so often, it’s probably okay if we the fans do it once in a while, too.
9. WORLD SERIES PICK: Money vs No Money. I usually cheer for the underdog which in this case is the Tampa Bay Rays. However, I’m with the Dodgers because they treat their fans with respect, always. But even if Tampa wins, Major League Baseball will see their park mostly empty again next year when they let fans back in and have more evidence that it’s time to, once and for all, move that team to Montreal. So, it’s a win-win for me.
10. DID YOU KNOW: Recently fired Atlanta Falcon General Manager Tom Dimitroff grew up in Canada when his dad was the legendary Quarterbacks Coach of the Ottawa Rough Riders, tutoring future hall of famers Tom Clements and Condredge Holloway. Dimitroff even spent some time working for the Riders living in Regina in the early 90’s tearing up the bike-paths of Wascana Park. A better candidate to take over the BC Lions, I can’t think of.
(Follow Brendan on Twitter at @brendanhowardmc)
