I am wondering if there are too many people in leadership positions that have suffered head injuries related to sports activities. I speak of the news items in the SP (Feb. 1/12) that report explorations to secure a CFL franchise for Saskatoon together with a stadium.
We are living in a period where citizens are struggling to secure affordable housing, expressing concerns about the homeless and growing line ups at food banks, together with a medicare system that may be in crisis. Added to the fray are reports from the Prime Minister and Premier that "revenue challenges" may equate to austerity measures. And yet we have people exploring high-cost sports teams and arenas.
They point to Alberta having two professional teams. Calgary has a concentrated population of about a million people along with numerous wealthy corporate head offices with money to spend. Edmonton is around a half million in population. And the whole of Saskatchewan boasts a little over one million in population spread out over a huge geographic area.
And let's not forget the number of times our Roughriders have claimed financial stress to rally the sports fanatics province wide.
Merciful God let this end quickly.
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Edmonton proper actually has around 800k people and the greater area is over 1 million, so your argument is even stronger. I thougt the same thing reading the paper today. Let's see how the province supports a single team when they go through a few years of terrible results. We're barely a decade removed from a time when the Riders' future did not look good. Once Saskatoon has a few hundred thousand more people then a CFL team might make sense.
ReplyDeleteThis whole "exploring a CFL team for Saskatoon" angle being talked up by CUC seems to me to be a smoke-screen...it's distracting people from the real issues, which are either a case of wrongful dismissal, or a corporate culture that supported luxury junkets to Arizona under the laughable guise of "research into a possible CFL franchise". In my opinion, a nice bit of sleight-of-hand by CUC management/board
ReplyDeleteAnon 1:02,
ReplyDeleteYour assertion doesn't add up, this is not a case of either or.
It isn't a smokescreen to distract as to whether it was a wrongful dismissal or a corporate culture that supporter luxury junkets to Arizona.
If you actually took the time to put a second of thought into it you would realize that the wrongful dismissal is based on the luxury junket the former employees took and to which the CUC board took opposition to.
It is the former employees who are saying the wrongful dismissal is based on the fact that luxury junkets such as their trip were routinely tolerated. The CUC Board is saying that they don't tolerate.
To me it sounds like you have it in for the CUC Board without knowing a single fact around the story.
I'm sure there will be more dirt coming out. But don't start with the false accusations already. Let it play out.
On a side note, considering the CUC is owned by the City (through holding companies) can we ask if this is not an extension of more of the turmoil that is going on at City Hall?
Anon 1:53, I guess I should've put my first comment in context - that was my initial "gut" reaction, and not meant to be an in-depth analysis of the situation. Just seemed like a smoke-screen to me. I note with interest the mayor pouring cold water on the whole idea this a.m.
ReplyDeleteAnd besides, none of us know the facts about the story and are all just speculating here (unless you happen to be privy to actual details of the situation).
Also I don't "have it in" for the CUC, although I do find it a bit rich that CUC management was very vocal that a new stadium project in Regina was not feasible, while at the same time they were exploring the same idea for Saskatoon.
I like the idea of two professional teams in the Province. They could play home games on opposite weekends and then play back to back in each others stadiums. This way us football fanatics could watch a live game every week. We would also be able to kick Winnipeg out of the West division for good. So lets look at some numbers a season ticket costs approx. $600 to have two teams that moves to $1,200 a season. If you look at NFL prices they are way over that. Even NHL season tickets are more. It's all about the number of games you get to go too. Also given that each team plays the same team three to four times in a season those games would have the same fans going and paying the same price. So it is the up front costs that will be the hard sell. If one stadium can't get out of the ground in Regina how do we see two flying.
ReplyDeleteAs MLK once said "I have a dream" and isn't that a good thing?