Well, good to see this is still here, I would’ve thought the WordPress people would’ve deleted this place for inactivity long ago. So now that school is over and I have time, to you know, breathe, I thought it would be nice to muse about things going on in the world.
First, the wide world of sports. Now I hate to say it because I know it might provoke the one Canadian who frequents this place, but Jim Balsillie will never own a team, and the Phoenix Coyotes will never move to Southern Ontario. Sorry, but this is simply not going to happen. Ever. No, it’s not because Gary Bettman is the spawn of Satan, George W. Bush’s secret fraternal twin, or Ronald Reagan’s illegitimate son. First of all, this is because Jim Balsillie is a spoiled brat, and behaving like it. If he can’t get his team legally and through proper league procedures, then he’ll just break the rules (and possibly the law) in order to get it. Look at his behavior in regards to his attempts to purchase the Pens and Preds. Trying to get the Pens out of the Pitt was a bad idea in the first place, mostly because Mario Lemieux remains one of the classiest guys ever, with undying loyalty towards his team and because Pittsburgh is a great hockey town in general. Though his legitimate attempt to purchase the franchise probably helped keep the Pens in Pittsburgh, it still was not the smartest move ever. But where Balsillie lost me, and probably the rest of the NHL establishment, was his behavior in regards to his attempts to purchase the Nashville Predators. What gall, after promising to keep the Preds there at least a season, to putting up season ticket deposits before he even bought the team! That’s right up there in the Clay Bennett-Bill Laurie-Michael Heisley level of owner sketchiness. I’d use another term, but I want to try and keep this respectable. In his obviously fervent desire to bring another team to Canada, he proceeded to alienate basically everyone south of the 49th parallel. For that reason alone, Balsillie has been basically the worst thing to happen to Canadian expansion. The most obvious candidate to own the next Canadian team is now the least desirable. He proceeded to make Gary Bettman angry, ignored the Board of Governors and the other owners, drive a wedge between Canadian fans and those who desire to see the game of hockey expanded, even to non-traditional markets. He has single-handedly guaranteed it will be at least another ten years before another Canadian hockey professional hockey team will be founded, and there is no one else to blame but Balsillie. Had he been patient and played by the rules, there would most likely be another Canadian team, whether in Southern Ontario, Quebec, Winnipeg, or Saskatchewan. But now, don’t expect it.
Which brings me to my next topic, that whole ‘non-traditional market vs. Canadian’ debate that is going around in most hockey circles. The argument from the Canadian side is basically the “don’t give your pearls to swine argument,’ which for all it’s provincial, anti-American sentiment, is completely understandable. Because is played on ice, having a team in the desert doesn’t make a great deal of natural sense. There are better places to have a hockey team, even in the United States. Seattle, Vegas, where there are no other major professional sports teams, Wisconsin, Indiana, even another team in New England would probably better bets financially speaking than in Phoenix. All of this I admit freely. However, one thing I would like to point out is the Coyotes have sucked for a long time. As demonstrated by Colorado this season who after basically a decade of winning, now have run out of gas, Chicago for a decade, and Boston since Bobby Orr, fielding a winning team is pretty important to putting backsides in the seats. No one wants to see a losing team all the time. Perhaps the only expection would be the Clippers, because of the unique dynamics of actually being able to afford to see a basketball game. When the Coyotes played well, they were financially ok. When they sucked on the ice, they didn’t. That’s basically all there is to it. Plus, the Coyotes had a unique opportunity, had they put together a winning team, to lodge themselves in the Phoenix sports market, which consisted of the Worst Team In The History Of Sports (The Arizona Cardinals) and a pretty decent baseball team that sold it’s soul to win a championship way too early. The basketball team was pretty entertaining, but they are on the downturn, and again were very bad when the ‘Yotes moved from Winnipeg. But they blew it, and now look what happened. Plus, the overriding problem with the “They don’t deserve a hockey team” is the economy, which hit Phoenix especially hard because of it’s suburban nature. So to put it bluntly, a lot of things went wrong with Phoenix, not just the fact that the team is in the Desert. There could be a lot more said about what it would take to grow hockey, or any sport really in a non-traditional market, but the potential is there. Especially with the Suns on the down turn.
Which brings me to my final sports rant for the day, which is this: I don’t get (professional) basketball. I just don’t. That sport holds utterly no appeal to me. The broken salary cap system, the blatantly manipulated playoff scenarios by both the league and the sponsoring companies, the absurdly bad and more than likely corrupt officiating (you really think Donaghy was the only ref to be corrupt?), the poor arena/game atmosphere, the stratospherically expensive tickets (not that hockey is any better, but you can at least justify the expensive tickets in relation to basketball because it’s expensive to keep an ice rink running, especially during in the warmer climes), the flopping, and until recently the basically gangster nature of the players, the outlawing of one of the two defensive systems possible in the game of basketball, the lack of any real developmental system for players outside of college basketball (which is alright, but the absurd draft eligibility system is the subject for another rant), the worst Last Two Minutes in sports, all of which leaves me with a simple question. How can anyone like the NBA? I just don’t get it. How this league is more popular than the NHL will always baffle me. I don’t care if the NHL is basically a regional league at the moment, though that is largely changing thanks to a renewal in amazing talent and the bigger media markets. The on-ice is far superior to what the NBA puts out, especially since the rule changes. Maybe I’m just a hockey homey, but I just don’t get it. I get baseball, I get football, I even college basketball. Some one please, explain to me the appeal of the NBA, before I go crazy.
~ by Mark on May 22, 2009.
Posted in Basketball, Commentary, Hockey, Sports
Tags: america, anti-americanism, Basketball, bettman, boston, boston bruins, canada, chicago, chicago blackhawks, colorado, colorado avalanche, corruption, coyotes, david stern, gary bettman, Hockey, indiana, jim balsillie, las vegas, nba, new england, nhl, officiating, phoenix, phoenix coyotes, professional sports, referee, refereeing, relocation, salary cap, seattle, sports ownership, tim donaghy, vegas, wisconsin
Some Actual Musings!
Well, good to see this is still here, I would’ve thought the WordPress people would’ve deleted this place for inactivity long ago. So now that school is over and I have time, to you know, breathe, I thought it would be nice to muse about things going on in the world.
First, the wide world of sports. Now I hate to say it because I know it might provoke the one Canadian who frequents this place, but Jim Balsillie will never own a team, and the Phoenix Coyotes will never move to Southern Ontario. Sorry, but this is simply not going to happen. Ever. No, it’s not because Gary Bettman is the spawn of Satan, George W. Bush’s secret fraternal twin, or Ronald Reagan’s illegitimate son. First of all, this is because Jim Balsillie is a spoiled brat, and behaving like it. If he can’t get his team legally and through proper league procedures, then he’ll just break the rules (and possibly the law) in order to get it. Look at his behavior in regards to his attempts to purchase the Pens and Preds. Trying to get the Pens out of the Pitt was a bad idea in the first place, mostly because Mario Lemieux remains one of the classiest guys ever, with undying loyalty towards his team and because Pittsburgh is a great hockey town in general. Though his legitimate attempt to purchase the franchise probably helped keep the Pens in Pittsburgh, it still was not the smartest move ever. But where Balsillie lost me, and probably the rest of the NHL establishment, was his behavior in regards to his attempts to purchase the Nashville Predators. What gall, after promising to keep the Preds there at least a season, to putting up season ticket deposits before he even bought the team! That’s right up there in the Clay Bennett-Bill Laurie-Michael Heisley level of owner sketchiness. I’d use another term, but I want to try and keep this respectable. In his obviously fervent desire to bring another team to Canada, he proceeded to alienate basically everyone south of the 49th parallel. For that reason alone, Balsillie has been basically the worst thing to happen to Canadian expansion. The most obvious candidate to own the next Canadian team is now the least desirable. He proceeded to make Gary Bettman angry, ignored the Board of Governors and the other owners, drive a wedge between Canadian fans and those who desire to see the game of hockey expanded, even to non-traditional markets. He has single-handedly guaranteed it will be at least another ten years before another Canadian hockey professional hockey team will be founded, and there is no one else to blame but Balsillie. Had he been patient and played by the rules, there would most likely be another Canadian team, whether in Southern Ontario, Quebec, Winnipeg, or Saskatchewan. But now, don’t expect it.
Which brings me to my next topic, that whole ‘non-traditional market vs. Canadian’ debate that is going around in most hockey circles. The argument from the Canadian side is basically the “don’t give your pearls to swine argument,’ which for all it’s provincial, anti-American sentiment, is completely understandable. Because is played on ice, having a team in the desert doesn’t make a great deal of natural sense. There are better places to have a hockey team, even in the United States. Seattle, Vegas, where there are no other major professional sports teams, Wisconsin, Indiana, even another team in New England would probably better bets financially speaking than in Phoenix. All of this I admit freely. However, one thing I would like to point out is the Coyotes have sucked for a long time. As demonstrated by Colorado this season who after basically a decade of winning, now have run out of gas, Chicago for a decade, and Boston since Bobby Orr, fielding a winning team is pretty important to putting backsides in the seats. No one wants to see a losing team all the time. Perhaps the only expection would be the Clippers, because of the unique dynamics of actually being able to afford to see a basketball game. When the Coyotes played well, they were financially ok. When they sucked on the ice, they didn’t. That’s basically all there is to it. Plus, the Coyotes had a unique opportunity, had they put together a winning team, to lodge themselves in the Phoenix sports market, which consisted of the Worst Team In The History Of Sports (The Arizona Cardinals) and a pretty decent baseball team that sold it’s soul to win a championship way too early. The basketball team was pretty entertaining, but they are on the downturn, and again were very bad when the ‘Yotes moved from Winnipeg. But they blew it, and now look what happened. Plus, the overriding problem with the “They don’t deserve a hockey team” is the economy, which hit Phoenix especially hard because of it’s suburban nature. So to put it bluntly, a lot of things went wrong with Phoenix, not just the fact that the team is in the Desert. There could be a lot more said about what it would take to grow hockey, or any sport really in a non-traditional market, but the potential is there. Especially with the Suns on the down turn.
Which brings me to my final sports rant for the day, which is this: I don’t get (professional) basketball. I just don’t. That sport holds utterly no appeal to me. The broken salary cap system, the blatantly manipulated playoff scenarios by both the league and the sponsoring companies, the absurdly bad and more than likely corrupt officiating (you really think Donaghy was the only ref to be corrupt?), the poor arena/game atmosphere, the stratospherically expensive tickets (not that hockey is any better, but you can at least justify the expensive tickets in relation to basketball because it’s expensive to keep an ice rink running, especially during in the warmer climes), the flopping, and until recently the basically gangster nature of the players, the outlawing of one of the two defensive systems possible in the game of basketball, the lack of any real developmental system for players outside of college basketball (which is alright, but the absurd draft eligibility system is the subject for another rant), the worst Last Two Minutes in sports, all of which leaves me with a simple question. How can anyone like the NBA? I just don’t get it. How this league is more popular than the NHL will always baffle me. I don’t care if the NHL is basically a regional league at the moment, though that is largely changing thanks to a renewal in amazing talent and the bigger media markets. The on-ice is far superior to what the NBA puts out, especially since the rule changes. Maybe I’m just a hockey homey, but I just don’t get it. I get baseball, I get football, I even college basketball. Some one please, explain to me the appeal of the NBA, before I go crazy.
~ by Mark on May 22, 2009.
Posted in Basketball, Commentary, Hockey, Sports
Tags: america, anti-americanism, Basketball, bettman, boston, boston bruins, canada, chicago, chicago blackhawks, colorado, colorado avalanche, corruption, coyotes, david stern, gary bettman, Hockey, indiana, jim balsillie, las vegas, nba, new england, nhl, officiating, phoenix, phoenix coyotes, professional sports, referee, refereeing, relocation, salary cap, seattle, sports ownership, tim donaghy, vegas, wisconsin