Sports

Scott Stinson on COVID-19: The CFL nears a financial crisis, but forgive the public skepticism – National Post

Published

4 years ago

April 30, 2020

Pity the die-hard Canadian Football League fan who tuned into Justin Trudeau’s press conference on Wednesday morning.

With the CFL having let slip late Tuesday that it was asking the federal government for somewhere between $30-million and $150-million to help it stay afloat as its 2020 season is seriously imperilled by the coronavirus pandemic, this was the first chance to hear what the Prime Minister thought about that. Would he indicate that a life preserver was at hand?

Well, no. Trudeau responded to a question about the CFL’s request with as little detail as it was possible to offer while still acknowledging the question. The government is talking to a lot of businesses about possible supports, he said. The CFL is one of them, he acknowledged. “Those discussions are ongoing,” he said. The verbal equivalent of the blank-face emoji.

This is, to be fair to Trudeau, not out of the ordinary. Politicians give non-answers to specific questions all the time, although Trudeau has really raised his game on that front in his daily sessions outside Rideau Cottage. But for the CFL and its fans, it is akin to hanging from a cliff, asking someone to hold out an arm, and being told that they will take the matter under consideration.

The edge-of-a-cliff metaphor is particularly apt. As has been clear for weeks, the prospects for a CFL season amid a pandemic are exceedingly grim. Even as some provinces begin to ease stay-at-home restrictions, their various proposals for a return to normalcy put large public gatherings at the end of the line, for the obvious reason that one infected person in a packed stadium could undo months of effort to bring the virus under control. And while other professional leagues are considering empty stadiums should they resume operations, that idea isn’t feasible for a CFL that brings in about half its revenues from ticket sales and game-day concessions. Without paying customers in stadiums, the CFL simply doesn’t have a viable business model. And so, the pleas to Ottawa.

But even if the CFL is in desperate need of emergency support, the role of government in any rescue plan will be a tricky one to sort out. It’s a unique business in that almost all of its revenue is derived from spring to fall, when games are played. And while all kinds of companies have been dramatically impacted by a global economic pause, the vast majority were earning revenue until restrictions hit last month. CFL teams have been in their revenue-producing lean times for months, and the normal spring spike has been pushed back indefinitely. They can make an argument for emergency assistance just like those being made by hotels and airlines and any number of industries, including the media.

Shane Bergman of the Calgary Stampeders runs onto the field during player introductions before facing the Toronto Argonauts in CFL football in July 2019.

Al Charest/Postmedia Network

The problem is that the CFL is a modest league with several non-modest participants.

The federal government might quite like the idea of propping up community-owned teams in Edmonton, Regina, and Winnipeg, especially to preserve the many hourly-wage jobs that those franchises provide on game days, but there are six other teams for whom the idea of a handout becomes more complicated. Three teams — B.C., Hamilton and Montreal — are owned by entrepreneurs who are independently wealthy. The remaining three, in Ottawa, Calgary and Toronto, are owned by business that control multiple professional sports teams, and those businesses are owned by various real-estate developers, oil executives and telecom conglomerates. So while a cancelled 2020 CFL season might dramatically impact the specific business of, for example, the Toronto Argonauts, what it would mean in the grand picture of Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment, and beyond that to its majority owners Bell and Rogers, is much less clear.

When the CFL says it would “open its books” to the government to explain the potential losses caused by a lost season, it almost certainly doesn’t mean it would open all those other books, too.

When there is push back, the argument quickly becomes about how the public money is needed because the team will fold or leave town or won’t come in the first place

All of this would be slightly more palatable if the CFL, like other pro sports leagues, didn’t already have the habit of seeking public money to subsidize its business. Tax dollars are poured into stadium construction and refurbishment, even if the business case mostly amounts to “people like sports.” When there is push back, the argument quickly becomes about how the public money is needed because the team will fold or leave town or won’t come in the first place. The list of governments that have been suckered by this ploy is now so long that it’s a complete surprise when a sports team doesn’t seek taxpayer money for a capital expense.

The pandemic is, obviously, something else entirely. The CFL’s teams, especially those that are community owned, are facing a crisis that is unlikely to be solved by a rapidly improving public-health picture. But the public can be forgiven for being suspicious of professional sports leagues that come seeking handouts. Even if this time they really mean it.

Postmedia News

sstinson@postmedia.com

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Canada’s Marina Stakusic falls in Guadalajara Open quarterfinals

Published

4 hours ago

September 13, 2024

Anne Joseph

GUADALAJARA, Mexico – Canada’s Marina Stakusic fell 6-4, 6-3 to Poland’s Magdalena Frech in the quarterfinals of the Guadalajara Open tennis tournament on Friday.

The 19-year-old from Mississauga, Ont., won 61 per cent of her first-serve points and broke on just one of her six opportunities.

Stakusic had upset top-seeded Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia 6-3, 5-7, 7-6 (0) on Thursday night to advance.

In the opening round, Stakusic defeated Slovakia’s Anna Karolína Schmiedlová 6-2, 6-4 on Tuesday.

The fifth-seeded Frech won 62 per cent of her first-serve points and converted on three of her nine break point opportunities.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.

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Kirk’s walk-off single in 11th inning lifts Blue Jays past Cardinals 4-3

Published

4 hours ago

September 13, 2024

Anne Joseph

TORONTO – Alejandro Kirk’s long single with the bases loaded provided the Toronto Blue Jays with a walk-off 4-3 win in the 11th inning of their series opener against the St. Louis Cardinals on Friday.

With the Cardinals outfield in, Kirk drove a shot off the base of the left-field wall to give the Blue Jays (70-78) their fourth win in 11 outings and halt the Cardinals’ (74-73) two-game win streak before 30,380 at Rogers Centre.

Kirk enjoyed a two-hit, two-RBI outing.

Erik Swanson (2-2) pitched a perfect 11th inning for the win, while Cardinals reliever Ryan Fernandez (1-5) took the loss.

Blue Jays starter Kevin Gausman enjoyed a seven-inning, 104-pitch outing. He surrendered his two runs on nine hits and two walks and fanned only two Cardinals.

He gave way to reliever Genesis Cabrera, who gave up a one-out homer to Thomas Saggese, his first in 2024, that tied the game in the eighth.

The Cardinals started swiftly with four straight singles to open the game. But they exited the first inning with only two runs on an RBI single to centre from Nolan Arendao and a fielder’s choice from Saggese.

Gausman required 28 pitches to escape the first inning but settled down to allow his teammates to snatch the lead in the fourth.

He also deftly pitched out of threats from the visitors in the fifth, sixth and seventh thanks to some solid defence, including Will Wagner’s diving stop, which led to a double play to end the fifth inning.

George Springer led off with a walk and stole second base. He advanced to third on Nathan Lukes’s single and scored when Vladimir Guerrero Jr. knocked in his 95th run with a double off the left-field wall.

Lukes scored on a sacrifice fly to left field from Spencer Horwitz. Guerrero touched home on Kirk’s two-out single to right.

In the ninth, Guerrero made a critical diving catch on an Arenado grounder to throw out the Cardinals’ infielder, with reliever Tommy Nance covering first. The defensive gem ended the inning with a runner on second base.

St. Louis starter Erick Fedde faced the minimum night batters in the first three innings thanks to a pair of double plays. He lasted five innings, giving up three runs on six hits and a walk with three strikeouts.

ON DECK

Toronto ace Jose Berrios (15-9) will start the second of the three-game series on Saturday. He has a six-game win streak.

The Cardinals will counter with righty Kyle Gibson (8-6).

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.

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Stampeders return to Maier at QB eyeing chance to get on track against Alouettes

Published

4 hours ago

September 13, 2024

Anne Joseph

CALGARY – Mired in their first four-game losing skid in 20 years, the Calgary Stampeders are going back to Jake Maier at quarterback on Saturday after he was benched for a game.

It won’t be an easy assignment.

Visiting McMahon Stadium are the Eastern Conference-leading Montreal Alouettes (10-2) who own the CFL’s best record. The Stampeders (4-8) have fallen to last in the Western Conference.

“Six games is plenty of time, but also it is just six games,” said Maier. “We’ve got to be able to get on the right track.”

Calgary is in danger of missing the playoffs for the first time since 2004.

“I do still believe in this team,” said Stampeders’ head coach and general manager Dave Dickenson. “I want to see improvement, though. I want to see guys on a weekly basis elevating their game, and we haven’t been doing that.”

Maier is one of the guys under the microscope. Two weeks ago, the second-year starter threw four interceptions in a 35-20 home loss to the Edmonton Elks.

After his replacement, rookie Logan Bonner, threw five picks in last week’s 37-16 loss to the Elks in Edmonton, the football is back in Maier’s hands.

“Any time you fail or something doesn’t go your way in life, does it stink in the moment? Yeah. But then the days go on and you learn things about yourself and you learn how to prepare a little bit better,” said Maier. “It makes you mentally tougher.”

Dickenson wants to see his quarterback making better decisions with the football.

“Things are going to happen, interceptions will happen, but try to take calculated risks, rather than just putting the ball up there and hoping that we catch it,” said Dickenson.

A former quarterback himself, he knows the importance of that vital position.

“You cannot win without good quarterback play,” Dickenson said. “You’ve got to be able to make some plays — off-schedule plays, move-around plays, plays that break down, plays that aren’t designed perfectly, but somehow you found the right guy, and then those big throws where you’re taking that hit.”

But it’s going to take a team effort, and that includes the club’s receiving corp.

“We always have to band together because we need everything to go right for our receivers to get the ball,” said Nik Lewis, the Stampeders’ receivers coach. “The running back has to pick up the blitz, the o-line has to block, the quarterback has to make the right reads, and then give us a catchable ball.”

Lewis brings a unique perspective to this season’s frustrations as he was a 22-year-old rookie in Calgary in 2004 when the Stamps went 4-14 under coach Matt Dunigan. They turned it around the next season and haven’t missed the playoffs since.”

“Thinking back and just looking at it, there’s just got to be an ultimate belief that you can get it done. Look at Montreal, they were 6-7 last year and they’ve gone 18-2 since then,” said Lewis.

Montreal is also looking to rebound from a 37-23 loss to the B.C. Lions last week. But for head coach Jason Maas, he says his team’s mindset doesn’t change, regardless of what happened the previous week.

“Last year when we went through a four-game losing streak, you couldn’t tell if we were on a four-game winning streak or a four-game losing streak by the way the guys were in the building, the way we prepared, the type of work ethic we have,” said Maas. “All our standards are set, so that’s all we focus on.”

While they may have already clinched a playoff spot, Alouettes’ quarterback Cody Fajardo says this closing stretch remains critical because they want to finish the season strong, just like last year when they won their final five regular-season games before ultimately winning the Grey Cup.

“It doesn’t matter about what you do at the beginning of the year,” said Fajardo. “All that matters is how you end the year and how well you’re playing going into the playoffs so that’s what these games are about.”

The Alouettes’ are kicking off a three-game road stretch, one Fajardo looks forward to.

“You understand what kind of team you have when you play on the road because it’s us versus the world mentality and you can feel everybody against you,” said Fajardo. “Plus, I always tend to find more joy in silencing thousands of people than bringing thousands of people to their feet.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.

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