Sporting Madness

One of the growing trends in CIS athletics in recent years has been a shift towards national recruiting. Local and regional recruits used to make up the majority of most university teams, and while they still have an important role to play, we're seeing more and more athletes head across the country for school. One such case is B.C. product Dylan Ainsworth , who I wrote about recently for the South Delta Leader . Ainsworth and his teammate Sam Livingston led the South Delta Sun Devils to the 2008 AA high school championship, and both were sought-after recruits locally. They both elected to head to Ontario after receiving athletic scholarships, though, and will suit up for the Western Mustangs next fall. There have always been some prominent athletes who have gone out of province for school, but they used to be few and far between. These days, these stories are becoming more and more common. There are probably a multitude of reasons behind this shift. We frequently talk about ...

Things aren't looking too good for Setanta, one of the primary worldwide broadcasters of the English Premier League. According to The Times , the company may go off the air "at any moment" after fellow broadcaster BSkyB declined to provide them with a £50 million [ BBC News ] loan in exchange for access to their live EPL rights. They've also apparently suspended new subscriptions [ Ireland Online , found via Brian Zygo ]. Founders Leonard Ryan and Michael O'Rourke are reportedly trying to find a new source of financing, but that isn't easy these days. This could have profound implications for soccer across the globe. Some of the most drastic effects will likely take place in the Scottish Premier League. Check out this passage from the Times article: "The worst effects of a Setanta collapse, though, would be felt in Scotland. Payments currently due to the individual SPL clubs range in size from £70,000 to nearly £750,000, with the Old Firm obviously ...

The NHL to Hamilton situation continues to get stranger by the day. Yesterday, a new group came forward with their own plan for a team in Toronto [ The Canadian Press via The Globe and Mail ], which involves a 30,000-seat arena at Downsview Park (with Olympic-sized swimming pool!), a percentage of the profits going to charity and possibly the stupidest name ever proposed for an NHL franchise, the Toronto Legacy. MLS and WNBA clubs laugh at that name. Even the Oklahoma Thunder snicker at that name. Anyway, add them to the list of prospective owners for a GTA franchise. Of course, that list also includes Balsillie and his Hamilton plans as well as the group led by former Leaf Kevin Maguire , who are trying to bring a team to Vaughan . Even more interesting, though, was today's revelation that Toronto Argonauts owners Howard Sokolowski and David Cynamon are apparently interested in buying the Coyotes and leaving them in Phoenix [ Paul Waldie , The Globe and Mail ]. Here's the...

Very interesting stuff here from The Globe and Mail . Apparently, a group led by Paul Pellegrini and Andrew Lopez has lined up $1 billion in financing and scheduled a news conference for Friday to discuss application for an expansion franchise, a potential arena site and a name. I wonder if this group is at all related to the one that provoked the earlier Vaughan rumours I covered back in April ? If Vaughan is indeed the plan, that would make a lot of sense. Vaughan is a better site than Hamilton in my mind; it wouldn't affect the Sabres as much, and there are more people within close range of the arena. Plus, an expansion franchise (especially one with this amount of cash) would allow Gary Bettman and co. to cut Jim Balsillie off at the knees and maintain their control of where franchises are placed. Furthermore, a generous payment could stifle any potential objections from the Leafs and Sabres and prevent what could be a nasty antitrust fight in court. If these guys are seri...

One of the interesting things that came out of yesterday's media conference call on the filing of the official application to move the Phoenix Coyotes to Hamilton was the information about the NHL's application process. The application covers the territory required by NHL By-Law 36.5, and there are some curious inclusions and omissions there. First, the application includes substantial information about the Coyotes' financial picture in Phoenix. Here are four of the key points made in the application, excerpted word-for-word from the media backgrounder I received: "- Since inception the Club has recorded cumulative EBITDA losses in excess of $316 million. - The Club has been unable to generate a significant fan base in Glendale demonstrated by a lack of interest in attending a game live, with the Club ranking 5th in attendance interest in that market behind the NFL, MLB, NBA, and NCAA Football. Historic support is weak, attendance is low, ticket sales continue to dec...

The Canucks may be out of the playoffs, but it may be a busy offseason for owner Francesco Aquilini . Kevin Nesgoda of Bleacher Report writes that rumours are swirling in Indiana regarding Aquilini's potential interest in purchasing the NBA's Pacers and relocating them to Vancouver. Nesgoda's initial report has been cited by some politically connected sites in the area, including Capitol Watchblog and Howey Politics , and the B.C. media are starting to look into it as well; Don Taylor mentioned the idea on Sportsnet Connected 's Pacific edition a few minutes ago. At first, this seems like a somewhat implausible rumour, but upon further reflection, it makes a lot of sense. First off, the NBA was not entirely a failure in Vancouver the first time around. Attendance was bad, but much of that was due to poor on-court performance by the team and ineptitude on the part of the management. The team also wasn't really given much time; they were only in Vancouver for six...

I'll be live-blogging tonight's Toronto FC match against D.C. United (7:30 p.m. Eastern/4:30 p.m. Pacific, Rogers Sportsnet) here and at The 24th Minute . It should be a good one; D.C. leads the East with 13 points from a 3-1-4 record, while TFC is in second with 12 points from a 3-2-3 record. Thus, the winner of this one will take over or hold on to first place. One question for Toronto is if defender Adrian Serioux will be fit to play ; he suffered a neck injury against Columbus last week and missed the midweek clash against Vancouver. Sam Cronin also missed the Whitecaps game, but is expected to return to face D.C. tonight. Another interesting element is what's going on off the pitch. Everyone knows about D.C. United's stadium struggles, and they've led to threats of relocation if they can't find a new stadium. The D.C. United supporters are going to be marching to the match [ Jason Davis , MLS Daily ] to show their passion for keeping the team in D.C.; Ja...

The perfect storm continues to build and a second NHL team in Southern Ontario comes closer by the day. Back in October, this was only informal discussions among NHL governors; late April saw NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly engage in protracted meetings with interested parties about a team in Vaughan . I predicted a while back over at Out of Left Field that NHLPA executive director Paul Kelly would have to be heavily involved for this to have any chance, and lo and behold, the players' association jumped in full force [ Tim Wharnsby on the side of this relocation. The next crucial element was a team in significant trouble; enter the Phoenix Coyotes, a team heavily in debt, apparently run by the league [ Greg Wyshynski , Puck Daddy ] and entering bankruptcy protection [ Craig Harris , The Arizona Republic ]. All that remained to be found was a prospective owner rich enough to buy the team, throw enough cash into the black hole to keep them operating in Phoenix until he coul...

The Vancouver Whitecaps are expected to announce a deal with the provincial government today to build a $30 million training facility/national development centre at John Oliver Park in South Delta [ Phillip Raphael , South Delta Leader ]. This is quite an interesting move and may considerably affect Canadian soccer. For one thing, this kind of new facility will only further shift the balance of Canadian youth development to the West. The Whitecaps already have the most comprehensive youth academy in Canada and are producing and developing a lot of Canada's young talent; this facility should help them attract even more of the top prospects. The climate also favours a Western shift, as the B.C. soccer season goes year-round, unlike much of the rest of the country where snow prevents extensive play in the winter. I don't have many details on this yet, but it certainly sounds like a move that would aid Vancouver's youth development system and Canada's youth development a...

There's big news in today's Globe and Mail from columnist David Shoalts (as well as Jeff Blair , Roy MacGregor , Paul Waldie , Andrew Willis and Jane Taber ) on the idea of another NHL team for Toronto, which I initially wrote about back in October . Then, it was informal conversations between NHL governors; now, it's moved on to a two-and-a-half hour meeting between deputy commissioner Bill Daly and a group of interested businesspeople. Sounds like it's getting more serious by the minute. The primary problem involved in bringing a new team into southern Ontario is getting the Maple Leafs and Buffalo Sabres to go along with it thanks to their territorial rights. This is where location becomes a key issue, and it's more of an issue for the Sabres than it is for the Leafs. The Leafs already have a huge market to draw from with the massive suburban population of Toronto, and they're in incredibly good financial shape. There's an almost inexhaustible demand...

The University of Calgary announced [ Ben Matchett , University of Calgary Sports Information Director] today that they will cut varsity funding [ Neate Sager , The CIS Blog ] to the men's soccer and women's field hockey teams. There's a chance that those teams could still survive if they're able to raise funds through alternative methods, but it doesn't look good for them. Tennis and golf have also been lowered to competitive club status. By contrast, women's soccer will be returned to fully-funded status and women's hockey is applying to return to CIS play after winning the Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference. After the changes, Calgary will have eight fully-funded team sports (men’s and women’s basketball, football, men’s and women’s hockey, women’s soccer, and men’s and women’s volleyball) and fully-funded teams in cross country, swimming, track and field and wrestling. This isn't all that surprising, as plenty of American and Canadian schools hav...

This is interesting. After the media flurry the other day about apparent threats [ Friends of Soccer ] by the party to axe the proposed retractable roof for B.C. Place, which I wrote about here , the NDP has come out with a statement calling the whole thing a " Liberal lie " and claiming that they've always been at war with Eurasia in favour of a retractable roof. That does seem to be a bit of a reversal in my mind thanks to the ads they have ran and the lack of specific provisions for B.C. Place in their platform, but it could also have been a misinterpretation. Regardless of who's to blame, the important thing for B.C. soccer fans is that both sides in the election now are committed to the renovations, which is a great thing for both the Whitecaps and the B.C. Lions. That's as it should be in my mind; this team and their move to MLS are too important to be used as political pawns. Regardless of who takes the election, the future of the renovations now appears ...

Wednesday's announcement [ Geoffrey York , The Globe and Mail ] that the Dalai Lama will be barred from visiting South Africa until after the 2010 World Cup was rather interesting. After all, as the Globe pointed out in their editorial on the matter, this is a country famous for producing civil-rights advocates like Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu . This move seemed a step back from the recent success of South Africa, and more in tune with the country's ugly past under apartheid. Government spokesman Thabo Masebe told the Globe the move “would not be in South Africa's best interests.” That depends on the interests you're considering. There's a good reason "Follow the money" is one of the most memorable lines from the film version of All The President's Men , one of my favourite journalism books of all time. You can often learn quite a bit from the greenback trail. Let's try and apply that methodology here and see where it takes us. South Af...

One of the things we often forget about democracy, especially at the level of student politics, is the impact some decisions can have. That was evident at tonight's AMS Annual General Meeting, where around 800 students packed Ban Righ Cafeteria and almost unanimously approved the athletics department's request for a $120 fee increase [myself, Queen's Journal ] over four years. It's easy to see why we often have voter apathy, though; much of the rest of the meeting was consumed with the petty squabbles and meaningless arguments more frequently found in politics, and it's a credit to those who managed to stick it out until the Athletics motion. Still, this one decision was incredibly important and will be remembered as such. Yes, there was a long process of research, polling and discussion leading up to today, but in the end, the future direction of the department all came down to this vote. Without the increase, Queen's sports would have been reduced to a shell...

Few things during my time at Queen's have depressed me more than finding out yesterday [myself and Emily Davies , Queen's Journal ] that the dream of a new hockey arena on Main Campus was all but dead. Sure, they've been talking about it for a while and there are some financial benefits (although no one I talked to yesterday could confirm if those numbers are still accurate), but for me, the arena was always one of the big selling points of the Queen's Centre. New gyms and student space are great, but the sports experience I probably miss more than anything else here were the Friday night hockey games at Jock Harty I'd go to with my buddies from the dorm floor back in first year. There was great student support, beer gardens and just generally a tremendous atmosphere. I've been to plenty of great Queen's hockey games since, including this past weekend's Carr-Harris Cup , but it's never been quite the same; even though the Memorial Centre is a good...

Ben Knight has dug up a really interesting press release from the Montreal Impact on Montreal dropping its MLS bid, which I covered over at Out of Left Field a couple of days ago. Here's the release: "RECTIFICATION REGARDING MONTREAL'S BID FOR MAJOR LEAGUE SOCCER Following MLS Commissioner Don Garber's statements regarding Montreal's bid, the Montreal partnership group would like to bring one important rectification: Montreal did not withdrew its bid from Major League Soccer but was informed that the league did not retain its bid. Out of respect for the Grey Cup festivities, the partnership group will not make any additional statements over the weekend. However, the President of the Montreal Impact [and] Saputo Stadium, Mr. Joey Saputo, who is spearheading Montreal's MLS bid, will meet the media: Monday, November 24, 2008, 10:30 am, Saputo Stadium, 4750 Sherbrooke Street, Montreal." That's fascinating. According to this release, it wasn't tha...