845...The Great One Takes A Break

Rob Longley in the Sun newspapers Sunday reports that Wayne Gretzky is taking a bit of break from coaching the Phoenix Coyotes, a team in tremendous flux, much of it coming from the pressure Jim Balsillie and the bankruptcy courts are putting on the club.

Not only is 99 the coach of the club, he is also a managing partner of the Coyotes and is paid about eight million a year. In bankruptcy court Friday the NHL admitted that they are trying to take over the team and trying to negotiate off that number.

General Manager Don Maloney is quoted as saying the true Canadian Idol "...thought it was better to sit back for a few days and evaluate the situation."

Interestingly this story is getting bigger play in Ottawa, Winnipeg, Halifax than in Phoenix. That should tell Gary Bettman something. It won't, but it should.

WFDS

343...I Lied

Again.

More Hockey.

Front page of The Gazette, Montreal's Anglo newspaper, trumpets the sale of the Montreal Canadiens to the Molson family.

The brewers of Export and other fine ales, the Molson's have owned the Habs off and on since 1957 and are now back in the game paying 550 million, give or take, to George Gillett for an operation that he bought from them for 275 for at the turn of the century.

Would some one please forward this to Gary Bettman with the note that, Mr. B., franchises in towns that enjoy hockey, like Montreal, Ottawa, Hamilton, appreciate. Towns like, oh say Phoenix, not so much on the appreciation.

WFDS

242...Disenfranchised Nova Scotia

I watched CanadaAM from 7 55 this morning until 8 30 and not a bloody word about the Nova Scotia election that is being contested today.

I did have the opportunity to see a man in the centre-of-the-universe [Toronto, doncha know?] who fell into a hole get both rescued and arrested, a story about a fellow who wrote a book about the Canada-United States border south of Vancouver, find out that it is going to be chilly in Regina, Saskatchewan and a live report from Phoenix, Arizona about the fate of the Phoenix Coyotes.

Plus the obligatory Can con music from a band, later this hour was the tease, a band that as per the Canada AM tradition, that is only a household name in their household. This morning it is Dala who, no surprise, are from Tronna.

But nothing, nothing, nothing about the historic Nova Scotia election.

WFDS

208...Statistics and Lies

I believe, working from memory here, I believe it was Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli, who later would be honoured by having Eric Clapton's band Cream name an album after him, that said something like "Statistics and lies are similar". And if he didn't, well, someone else did.

Point being.

In yesterday's Toronto Star which, of course, also serves the Hamilton, Ontario market, there was a statistic, a poll to be more accurate, that Jim "I want an NHL team" Mr. Balsillie paid for in both Hamilton and Phoenix, Arizona, the home of the hopefully future Hamilton Steelers of the NHL.

[Get to the point.]

Right.

Point being, what was polled was the preferences each community had for local professional sports leagues. What smelled of bulls't was that in Phoenix. Phoenix, Arizona. Phoenix, Arizona, USA. In the Southwest corner of the United States of America allegedly 3 per cent of the Phoenixians [?] follow the Canadian Football League.

Get out of here.

WFDS

99...Buzz Words/Follow up to Post 98

Gary, the commish d'NHL, Bettman, throws around buzzwords like market size with great regularity without knowing what they mean.

Hamilton/Vaughn/Winnipeg/Quebec City/Saskatoon are all bigger markets than Phoenix/Washington/Nashville. Not in gross numbers, no, but Gary ain't selling Coke or Hondas, he is selling hockey and there are 10 times more hockey fans in Vaughn than in Phoenix.

Research, Gar', research.

If I can do it from my laptop on Elgin Street in Ottawa, you can do it too!!!

WFDS