Proposed new Winnipeg Jets logo!

Now that we have the matter of selecting a pope over and done with, we can get on with other priorities like creating a new Winnipeg Jets logo.

Why do the Jets need a new logo? It's a perfectly fine logo, although I did nit-pick it somewhat when it came out.

However there is a reason all teams except the Detroit Red Wings and New Jersey Devils have come out with so-called "third jerseys" or alternate uniforms: marketing. There is always more money to be made from the fans, and a new jersey with a new logo is one way to do that. It also gives the fans more choice.

By the way, it makes sense to me that the Red Wings would resist creating an alternate jersey and logo -- they have a classic original six look that's hard to improve upon. Possibly the best overall uniforms in the league -- but the Devils?? The Devils have one of the worst logos in the NHL: an "N" and "J" fused together into a deformed faceless demon. There are sooo many things you could do with their logo, like this or this.

I am sure the Jets will come out with an alternate jersey at some point. Whether it's a WHA-era retro jersey or something completely new, it's going to happen.

An alternate logo should be a different look and feel than the original. For example, if the original is cartoonish or playful, then the alternate should be more sedate or formal. Some teams choose to go with throw-back uniforms and logos pulled from the past, or designed to look like they came from the past. Some replace their picture-based crests with plain text logos. This is fine too.

Phoenix shows us an example of what not to do. Their alternate logo is in the same style as their regular crest, making it almost completely pointless ...

The Jets' crest is of the more serious variety, therefore I envision something a little more playful or whimsical as their alternate crest. For this I look to their farm team, the St. John's Ice Caps. I happen to like the Ice Caps logo. It has a nice bold aesthetic.

It is certainly in a different style than the Jet's current logo, and it has the additional shade of blue which could be worked in to the redesigned uniforms, along with the grey.

So what might this new logo look like?



Ladies and gentlemen .... the new Winnipeg Jets logo!

The alternate Jets logo above is the property of the author of this blog. If you wish to use this logo for commercial or personal use, please contact the author in the comment section of this blog post or by email at: cherenkov *at* live *dot* com

Winnipeg's golf courses: Wrap up

Previous posts:
overview
action items: part I
action items: part II

In the current state of affairs, the City of Winnipeg owns 12 golf course complexes, under 5 different management systems, with losses of $1 million per year and increasing.


My goals are:
1) stop the downward spiral of massive losses, and hopefully make golf a break-even proposition for the City
2) improve the quality of public golf in and around Winnipeg
3) increase public green space
4) increase urban density

Some of these goals may seem contradictory. It may sound like I'm asking for too much, but hey ... shoot for the stars.

So of the city's 12 golf courses:


My grand plan scraps 5 of them:


Three of those are definitely obsolete money losers. Both Kildonan and Windsor Park require $1.5 million in upgrades just to get back to the condition they should be in, according to the study done for the city. Even then, their layouts and amenities are substandard. Ditto for Canoe Club, which has deferred capital requirements of $775,000. This alone will go a long way towards stemming the losses of Winnipeg Golf Services.

I feel kind of bad about blowing up St.Boniface, but it was sacrificed because of it's potential for excellent river-side green space and infill development, in conjunction with neighboring Windsor Park.

My arm could be twisted enough to spare Wildewood as well, since reports are that it's a nice little track. But if so, then the nearby Canoe Club should be scrapped and Wildewood should be sold to a private golf course operator. In fact, that's probably the better option. Maybe the nordic spa can purchase land next to Wildewood instead of Canoe Club.

So either Canoe Club or Wildewood -- whichever one we're keeping -- should be privatized. Also, Blumberg:


Which leaves 5 public courses, one for each quadrant of the city, plus Harbour View, which is a beginner par 3 course:


For more on the logic, or lack thereof, behind these decisions, please review the previous two posts. There are some very good comments in those posts as well.

5 courses is a reasonable number for a city to own. Much more reasonable than 12. Some might say that 0 is the only reasonable number, but that's a big leap from where we are. Now, if the city is going to own courses, it should not run the courses. The city has done a lousy job with the courses that it currently operates and maintains. Farm out the responsibility to a third party, complete with service level objectives and penalties for letting service or course condition slide.

How does this accomplish my objectives?
1) big money-losing courses are gone, replaced partly with development that will generate greater property tax revenue. The remaining courses should have decent attendance.
3) yes, green space does increase. A golf course is not "green space", depending on your definition. Green space to me is free public space that anybody can access any time. That is not the case for a golf course. I'm convinced that many people who are fighting to 'keep the golf courses as green space' are more concerned about losing their view than having actual space to picnic and frolic in the grass. My plan increases actual green space along the Seine River, up by Kildonan Park, and little bit in Wildewood.
4) new houses will be built somewhere. You can either build out and decrease density, or you can use space available within the city and increase density. Perhaps some of this golf course space can fill our need for new units until that Kapyong Barracks fiasco gets sorted out.

See, there you go! Oh right .. I forgot number 2.

2) As a golfer, I have a direct stake in the golf environment here in Winnipeg. There are indeed some sacrifices here, but in the end, of the 5 courses that were scrapped only two were public, and those were inevitable. Meanwhile, my plan calls for two previously semi-private courses to be made public, both of which are far better quality than the two that were scrapped. Public golf will actually improve.

The big losers are the patrons of the semi-private courses. However there are several very good private courses around that people could become members at if they have the dough. I have heard that some of these aren't doing great and could use new members. As well, I am hopeful that the loss of some of these marginal courses in the city will be mitigated by new courses springing up just outside the city. It is possible that golf course developers are spooked by the large quantity of city-owned courses.

So there you go. Whew. That was a long fours posts. Time for me to sit back, relax, and sip on a fine single malt as I watch the smart people at city hall spring into action implementing everything I wrote.

Winnipeg's Golf Courses: Action Items Part II

To recap Part I:

• sell Crescent Drive golf course
• destroy Windsor Park, Kildonan Park, and St.Boniface golf courses
• preserve river banks as park space, develop the rest as residential

Onward ...

4) Destroy the Canoe Club

Much like Windsor Park and Kildonan Park, the Canoe Club is an obsolete golf course. It is only 9 holes, and it is split clean in half by a major road, leaving two small but separate parcels of land.


Parcel 1: This is easily accessible by road. In fact Glenlawn Avenue comes to a dead end right at the golf course, almost as though they intended to develop it and had a last second change of mind. Meanwhile, with Dunkirk on one side and Fermor on another, this is hardly prime park space. That makes this an easy decision: extend the adjacent residential development into this space. Bonus: close to a school!

Parcel 2: This area is on the Red River, so in accordance with my policy of reclaiming riverbanks I toyed with the idea of turning this into greenspace. However there are three factors working against that. 1) The only access is from the north, past existing condominiums. 2) There is no trail access except via a large culvert under Dunkirk Dr, but the river banks both to the north and south are clogged with private properties, making this a somewhat useless and isolated greenspace. 3) One of Winnipeg's largest unbroken stretches of river-side greenspace -- Churchill Drive Park -- is a mere 5-iron away just across the Osborne bridge. It is remarkably greedy of people in this area to demand more greenspace when they have so much just a short walk away.

What I therefore envision for this spot is a condo-park of sorts. More condos, since the ball is already rolling on that, but spaced out enough that it's a pleasant sort of place to walk around. Maybe a retirement home, or maybe row-house type units. Something like that.

5) Destroy Wildewood

Oooo, the residents of Wildewood aren't gonna be happy about this one. Wildewood, directly across the river from the Canoe Club, is a quiet park-like enclave, and the residents want to keep it that way. This is a neighbourhood were the residents even fought to kill a cell phone tower.

Wildewood golf course, much like Canoe Club, is a short 9-hole semi-private course, but given it's tucked-away location many people may not even know about it, rather is seems more like a plaything for the residents of this litte Shangri-La. I wonder if it would be profitable if they had to pay more than $1 in annual lease fees. Maybe it's time we let other people into this elite enclave by developing this course. It appears taylor-made for it when you look on Google Maps. You could build a series of bays with single family homes that would integrate seamlessly into the surrounding neighbourhood.


*****

By now you're probably thinking: "what the hell dude, you're blowing up all our golf courses!" Don't worry, the destruction is over ... but the changes are not ...

*****

6) Sell off John Blumberg

There are two courses in this complex: a 9 holer and an 18. The 9 hole track is fine for what it is. The 18 is easy, and mostly wide open. It is a decent length, yet it's not up to the standards of a modern golf course. I would like to see what a private owner could do with it, perhaps improving drainage and irrigation, maybe adding another set of tee boxes, planting some trees or moving some dirt to make the holes more interesting ...

Blumberg is way out in Headingley, barely even part of the City. Turning it into a park would be useless, and developing it would add to sprawl, but it's potential as a golf course is being wasted in the current arrangement in my opinion.

7) Keep Tuxedo

Like Kildonan Park and Windsor Park, Tuxedo is an undersized 18 hole course, but it is margially longer, has a better layout, and has a driving range. It is also the only course in the SW quadrant of the city.

8) Convert Assiniboine, Rossmere and Transcona to public courses

I'm sure it's not as easy as that. You probably have to wait for the lease agreements to expire, and then what do you do with existing memberships? Grandfather them out? Buy them out? Hang 'em out to dry? I don't know, but I can tell you this: the city should not own semi-private courses, much less subsidize them with $1 lease agreements.

Assiniboine
I was waffling on this one. Although it sits right beside the airport, it certainly could be developed as residential housing. In fact there are houses on either side of it. People who are hearing impaired need someplace to live too. In the end, I decided to let it live to represent the NW quadrant of the City.

Transcona
If the city trashes Windsor Park as recommended earlier, that will leave a public golf void in SW Winnipeg. That's where Transcona fits it. This would be a poor place to develop as residential because:
1) It is out on the edge of the city. Developing it would reduce density, not increase it.
2) It is across the street from an industrial park. The small number of people who already live there created a minor uproar when a hog processing plant tried moving to town; if we create a whole new subdivision it may be even harder to draw industry to the industrial park.
3) It is in Transcona. Who wants to live in Transcona?

Meanwhile it is a decent golf course. A little on the short side, but it would make a good public golf alternative if it were opened up to everybody. I am convinced that some of these courses don't get the number of green fees that they should because of their semi-private status.

Rossmere
It is a sea of green in the residential grid that is North Kildonan (or is it East K? I don't know where the line is.) You could do anything with this space. It could easily be converted to infill residential, or into a park for the low-to-mid income masses that live around it. However, there is not much public golf in this area, especially if we kill Kildonan Park Golf Course. But if we keep it as a golf course, it should be as accessible as possible. It should be public.

9) Keep Harbour View

Lastly, we have modest little Harbour View. At 1124 yards, it is the shortest course in the city, yet it is a far more interesting par-3 course than Crescent Drive. It has elevation changes and water holes, and it also has a driving range. It is a great little course for beginners, and resides in a nice park-like setting. Although it has been many years since I've golfed there, it would be a shame to lose it.


Next post: the wrap-up!

Winnipeg's golf courses: an overview

A recent commissioned report by Golf Convergence Inc ("The Report") on Winnipeg Golf Services shows that the agency is $8 million in debt and losing over $1 million a year. In the words of The Report -- and this is a quote -- "The City’s Special Operating Agency model for golf is broken." Also, "without immediate action, massive losses will continue" and "the City’s golf courses are in an accelerating downward spiral". You get the idea ...

I will not discuss why we had to wait until our golf courses were $8 million bucks in the hole and in a death spiral to hell before we decided to consider doing anything about it. That would be futile (and also par for the course for this city). Best to look forward at this point, and discuss how to get out of this mess and make things better.

In a follow-up post I will make some specific recommendations about what to do with our golf courses keeping the best interests of the city in mind. But first, let's look at our golf operations from a golfer's point of view and take stock of our courses. It is critical to look at this from a golfer's viewpoint because, firstly, I'm a golfer and I say so and this is my blog so there. But also because it will help explain why WGS is losing so much money, and how that trend can be reversed.

Here is an overview of the public and semi-private courses in and around Winnipeg, including some key stats and a rating based on the acclaimed Cherenkov Golf Scale:



Course	Holes	Par	Yardage	Rating	Notes
Assiniboine	9	36	3137	**	s
Bel Acres	18	72	6947	***	p
Canoe Club	9	34	2652	*	s
Crescent Drive	9	27	1376	*	p
Fantasy Lake	18	54	2281	*	p
Harbour View	9	27	1124	**	p
John Blumberg	9	34	2739	**	p
	18	72	6343	**	p
Kildonan Park	18	69	5494	*	p
River Oaks	18	72	5909	**	s
Rossmere	18	70	6442	***	s
Shooters	18	57	2879		p
Southside	18	63	4596		s
St.Boniface	18	71	6348	***	s
The Meadows	18	72	6801	***	p
The Player's Course	9	36	3015	**	p
Wildewood	9	36	3003		s
Transcona	18	71	6291	***	s
Tuxedo	18	70	5644	**	p
Windsor Park	18	69	5176	*	p

blue = owned by the City of Winnipeg
p = public
s = semi-private

The first thing you probably noticed is that the City of Winnipeg owns over half the golf courses around here. If you have a keen eye, you may have also noticed that most of the courses suck, particularly the city-owned public courses. The only public courses that rated 3 stars are the privately-owned Meadows and Bel Acres.

A common small-talk conversation starter on a golf course is "So, where do you normally golf?" Honestly, I seldom golf on City-owned courses, nor do any of my friends. This is because the public courses provide a poor golf experience. They are too short, poorly constructed, typically have poor amenities, and are poorly maintained. The Report puts is this way: "the price exceeds the experience"... and the price is not very high by most standards.

The semi-private courses owned by the city are better quality courses, but they are hard to get on because they have restricted tee times. The best times are reserved for members. Twice last year I tried to get on St.Boniface but was denied. I am used to rejection, but that doesn't make it any funner. I guess when you only pay $1 a year for your lease, you can afford to be a snob and turn away paying fares. I have been able to golf the Transcona course a few times in recent years, but knowing the Golf Pro may have helped. Otherwise, I don't even consider them an option. So basically, the City is driving golfers away by giving them only two choices: a crappy golf course, or a crappy tee time at an OK golf course.

Where do I golf? I might golf at Blumberg or Tuxedo once a summer, but that's it for City courses. I'll usually look to The Meadows at East St.Paul and Bel Acres for a round or two, but otherwise I get in my car and drive ... 40 minutes or an hour away, to any of the nicer public courses around southern Manitoba.

The solution to me is obvious: scrap some of the crappier golf courses, and convert some of the semi-private courses into public courses just as soon as their leases expire. This will improve the overall quality of public golf available within city limits, and will keep more golfers like me from hitting the highway.

Any remaining courses should be sold off to private operators. The city has no business owning semi-private courses. Some, including The Report, will argue that the City has no business being in the golf business at all. This is a valid argument, but it's also very common for a city to own a few courses (municipal courses, or "munies") to ensure there are some affordable golf options out there. You can look at it as a service, much like hockey rinks or swimming pools, but if we do decide to stay in the golf biz it should be drastically downsized to a small base of decent quality courses.

Next post, or the one after that, I will get into the nitty-gritty of exactly which courses should stay, which should go, and what we should do with any freed-up land. Stay tuned!

**** tales from the golf course ****

Kildonan Park: I returned to this course for the first time in many years this past summer. They don't water the fairways at Kildonan, only the greens, so the clay-based fairways were bone-dry; yet I managed to lose a ball in a mud puddle. This phenomenal achievement was made possible by a broken sprinkler in front of one of the greens. I had hit the ball directly at the green (yay!) expecting the ball to bounce up onto the green, but stood in amazement as my ball disappeared into a large mud pit that had formed because of a faulty green-side sprinkler that nobody thought to fix. The poor conditions made it all the more unbelievable when the bitter course marshal came by to tell me to move my cart onto the cart path. No, not a motorized cart -- a pull cart! I had it stationed on the fairway about 6 feet off the green, and the marshal wouldn't leave until I moved it. Are you kidding me? I could detonate a bomb on this fairway and you would barely notice.

Windsor Park: Like Kildonan, this is a short and cramped layout for an 18 hole course. It is so cramped in fact that one hole doesn't even have a real tee box. The teeing area for the par 3 6th hole is on the edge of the 5th hole's fairway, and as there is no room for a tee box, they provide you with a ratty old driving range mat to hit off of. Note: I have not golfed here in about 6 years, so perhaps they have replaced the mat since then.

Crescent Drive: If you golf here, avoid putting anything sharp in your golf bag, as you will most likely slit your wrists half way through the round. Although this is only a par-27 nine hole layout, the pace of play is so slow ... and I'm not exaggerating here ... you can fly to Scotland and golf Loch Lomond and fly back to Winnipeg in the time it takes to golf one round at Crescent Drive.

The NEW Winnipeg Jets!

What can I say? Amazing first game here in Winnipeg. Just a few of photos from the game:

Hitting the ice:

Last 20 seconds of the first Jets WIN in 15 years!:

Schram Hockey

Back in high school we had a phys ed teacher named Schram. He had a first name, but nobody used it. Anyhow, one of almost every student's favourite activities during phys ed class was a sport we dubbed "Schram ball". The rules are as follows:

1. there is a net in opposite corners of the gym
2. put the ball in the other team's net

Those are the rules. You can kick the ball, throw the ball, carry the ball. You can body check, grab, tackle. Whatever you want. I suppose eye gouging was frowned upon, but there was no explicit rule against it.

I tell you this, because last night's game 7 Stanley Cup final was not unlike Schram Ball. It was not the same sport that the Canucks excelled at during the regular season. It was a slightly different sport. One where slashing, holding and interference were legal. Now, I am generally a fan of physical hockey and "letting them play", but you don't need dirty hockey to have an exciting game. The 2011 Winter Olympic final is a good example of that.

Set the tone early by chucking people who hold or interfere into the bin, and then pull back a bit and refrain from calling any marginal stuff. That gets you good hockey. You know, I'm not sure that Aaron Rome's hit that earned him a 4 game suspension would have even earned him a minor penalty last night.

And this is certainly no excuse for the rioting after the game. That unfortunate debacle could ruin the chances of us watching the Jets on the big screen at 201 Portage if they ever make a playoff run. However, when you get so far only to have the rules changed on you, it would be very aggravating. Especially when the new rules hurt your best players and favour the other team.

It was certainly a deliberate decision - one that the refs discussed prior to the game. Perhaps they even received direction from league VP of Hockey Operations Mike Murphy on how to call the game. The same Mike Murphy who suspended Rome for 4 games based not on precedent, but on a gut feeling. The same Mike Murphy who overturned a Canuck goal in the first round last year upon video review, then later admitted it was the wrong call -- according to this wiki article.

Whoever made the decision, it's something for the league's owners and new director of officiating to think about before next year's playoffs. (note: I am a little bit bitter because I was cheering for the Canucks, so you can take that into account. )

related local post: S&M

Return of the Jets / Portage & Main party

As a Winnipeg blogger I am obligated by an obscure bi-law to write a post about the return of the NHL to our fair city. Okay, I'll do it, but it will be mostly pictures.

The long awaited moment -- even longer awaited than IKEA -- has finally come! The press conference this morning confirmed it. Chipman was professional and passionate in his announcement. Bettman looked like he was telling his patient that he had inoperable brain cancer. Premier Selinger's speech went something like this:

It's such a pleasure to be here for this announcement. It wasn't long ago that we retired Mark Keane's jersey. Mark was such an outstanding player and he sold me a great mattress. No wait, that was David Keane. Haha. Yooooouuuu'll find us! I love that guy! Except he drives too fast. No wait, that was Steve McQueen. Great actor. Loved it when he sang happy birthday to the President. No wait, that was Norma Jean. Norma Jean is not my lover.She's just a girl that says I am the one. Haha. Where was I? Oh right, welcome back to the NFL!

Oh well, we all make mistakes. The important thing is: we're getting the Jets back!

You hear three things as you approach Portage and Main from the south: wind howling through the buildings, beer cans clanking along the road, and the din of a crowd. The closer you get, the more the crowd noise takes over, until you find yourself in the midst of a mob. Here are a few photos and a video of a conga line that eventually encircled almost the entire intersection.

Winnipeg's new NHL team unveiled

The end of the Phoenix Coyotes' season is nigh, and with that comes the announcement of Winnipeg's new NHL team. The accountants and lawyers have worked out all the details under the shroud of a secrecy agreement to prevent information from being leaked out, but it's tricky to keep everything under wraps. And so it is that I have come across some important information, via a friend of the Peanut who happens to be connected with the Chipman family.

Ever since rumours of the Coyotes coming back to Winnipeg started, there has been speculation about what the name might be. Will they be called the Jets again, or something else? If something else, what?

Well, I have the answer for you. And not only that, I have a prototype of their jersey. They will not be called the Jets, primarily for marketing reasons. Virtually everybody in the city has a Jets jersey in their closet at this point, so there will be a new name and new colours, forcing all true fans to buy new gear. The name will have a connection to the City of Winnipeg, it will invoke the pride of Manitobans everywhere, and will symbolize the best of what we have to offer the world.

Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you:

drumroll....

There is of course a back-up name, in case this one doesn't work out for some reason, though I can't understand how there could possibly be a problem. But just in case: welcome to the Falcons!

(yes, I'm recycling material. Whatcha gonna do about it.)

Thoughts from the past week

The dance of the yellow machines

Hearing about the snow-clearing problems in New York and London may give you a new appreciation for the efficiency of the snow clearers here in Winnipeg. I was caught behind a small fleet of loaders this past weekend as they made their way through suburbia cleaning up the intersections. They each pick their intersection or back-alley or driveway, scooping away the snow with their twenty-thousand pound machines, mindful of the impatient drivers like me trying to squeeze past them. They do their thing, leap-frogging each other up the street, and before you know it they're gone.

They ought to be good, of course. They do it enough. But unless you are unfortunate enough to get caught behind a convoy of graders on a long stretch of road, the daunting task of clearing the city of snow gets accomplished without a whole lot of inconvenience to anyone. Here's to the big yellow machines.

***
Two tier hydro

You may have read that there is a move afoot to force Hydro to provide different rates for poor people. I think this is a great idea. For too long elected and accountable officials have held a strangle-hold on social policy. Having to explain your policies to the taxpayers is really quite onerous. It's unreasonable, when you think about it. I mean, suppose you as an MLA or Premier wanted to engineer a social policy that, to the majority of voters, seems ill-advised. You simply can't do it because the pleebs might vote you out of office. Why not offload policy implementation to crown-corporations and unaccountable arms-length organizations, via government controlled boards? That way you can execute your vision without having to worry about answering to the common folk.

We should have thought of this a long time ago. Imagine the perfectly regulated paradise we would be living in if we could utilize all of these other avenues to implement policy rather than having to plan for everything in the government budget and explain it to the voters.

***
Max style

Max Poulin's number is being retired by the Winnipeg Goldeyes. There is no more deserving person than Max, who was been a such a key part of the organization for so long. In minor league ball, you really have to appreciate it when a talented individual like this stays with the club for so long. Too often a club such as the Goldeyes cannot retain talent and character long enough to really form an identity with the fans, but Max was certainly an exception.

Not only was Max a good ball player, but the guy's got some style too:

source: ChrisD

He looks like he was yanked straight out of 1925. I could never pull off that look. It's a good example of how each person has their own individual look that works for them. I still haven't found my "look". I hope to God it doesn't involve cross-dressing because I really don't want to do that.

***
Speaking of looking good...


Have a good week, all.

Jon's great adventure

Jon Montgomery, Manitoba's own beer swilling Olympic gold medalist, had a good summer. He was flown all over the world by companies that wanted him to give a motivational talk to their employees, or cut a ribbon, or pose for a picture; and in the process he swam with great white sharks, golfed with Retief Goosen, travelled to Africa with Right To Play, and got engaged to his girlfriend Darla while vacationing on a tropical island.


He did more in one summer than I have in all of my summers combined. Somewhere in that whirlwind "off" season he cobbled together six days to film a television pilot for the Discovery Channel: Best. Trip. Ever. Here's a preview:



Go to the website to view bonus video and other features, but more importantly set your PVR to the Discovery Channel, Saturday at 6:00 pm ... because I know the kind of people who read this blog have way too much going on Saturday nights to watch TV.

(also on at 10:00 PM, according to the Discovery schedule.)

Canadian Women's Open : notes from the practice round

• Ai Miyazato is not only the world #1 right now, and about 3' 2" tall, she is also very friendly and positive. She would be fun to golf with even if she sucked.
  
  
  
• Sam Katz is not a horrible golfer. I saw him tee off on the par 3 #8, and not only did he not hit anybody in the face, but he got it on the green.
• Phil Sheegl was also out there golfing. I wonder how many other city bureaucrats were in the pro-am, and I wonder if they paid the $3000 $10,000 to do it out of their own pockets. Hmmm.
• Cute little Korean girls are to women's golf what leggy blond Russians are to women's tennis.
• Notoriety draws the attention, not talent. While Ai Miyazato is currently the #1 golfer and last week's winner, her crowds were small while Michelle Wie had a floatila of media and fans following her.
  Michelle teeing off on #15:
  
  
  ... I don't know what happened to the sound with that video.
  
• Although Michelle made the birdie putt after the above tee shot, putting is definitely the weak part of her game.
  
• If the temp tomorrow is supposed to be 27, I had better wear my mesh tank top to stay cool, 'cause I was damn warm today and it was only 21.
• Canadian or Bud Light: $6.25. Negra Modelo: $6.25. I don't understand the pricing, but I'll take the Negra Modelo thank you.
  
  
• Yummm. :-)
  Oh ... I was, ah, still talking about the beer. Ya.. That's it.
  
  

Bombers, freeways, football and parks

I don't know how I managed to post 9 times in June, but I suspect I'll fall well short of that mark this month. That's okay though, because I will make up for it by posting about five different topics in one shot here (most of it being commentary about crap in the Saturday Free Press, but gimme a break man ... it's summer. I've been concentrating on important things like drinking, and baseball, and drinking while playing baseball.)

***

Now I haven't been to a Bomber game yet, but when I do go I must make a point of watching the new "flag men", just so that I can try to reconcile this:

The Blue Squadron has captured the attention -- and imagination -- of fans and media, who've marvelled at the new game-day feature.

with this:

And please, please, PLEASE get rid of the flag men. This is the most embarrassing “innovation” I’ve ever seen at a sports game. There is NOTHING good about it. It sucks. I’d rather have Mike Kelly return as coach than see these nimrods shuffling around the field. Am I being clear?

(I'll give Frogger the benefit of the doubt and assume he didn't know they were soldiers and fire fighters when referring to them as "nimrods")

***

The kick coverage woes of the Bombers make me think of Jamie Stoddard. Yes ... Stoddard. Really. He was more than a reliable but seldom used receiver -- he was a role player who was often on the coverage team. In fact he was an excellent coverage guy. Bring back Stoddard!

***

I say this every week, but I really shouldn't read Colleen Simard columns...

In fact, three different tribes have claims to the Stanley Park land.

So this public outrage is about more than just a name change, it's about a shift in power. Nobody wants to give up claim of a treasured landmark to indigenous people.

Or .... maybe the opposition has something to do with the fact that Stanley Park is an internationally known attraction, and renaming it could cause confusion, and necessitate an expensive rebranding effort? Also, if three different tribes lay claim to the area, how wise it is to name it after a specific village for a specific tribe? What about the other tribes? Oh don't tell me: they all lived together in the same village and "celebrated".

***

Ok ... let's forget about that and keep flipping through the paper ... Oh look: the new Peguis Trail extension is getting an underpass!

The eastern extension of Chief Peguis Trail will include an underpass below Rothesay Street as part of a $110-million deal to build a freeway across North Kildonan

Freeway? Does a street with one underpass constitute a freeway now? I guess in Winnipeg it might...

Let me ask you something: if we can build an underpass here, why can't we build a grade separation on a street that will see far, FAR more traffic; at an intersection that's already rated an "F" and will be twice as bad in a few short years? I'll even help you out on how to do it.

Oh ya .. I love this part too:

"It would have been nice if all our streets were built with minimal stopping and starting," he (Mayor Sam Katz) said, citing the environmental benefits of reducing idling times

Holy fuck Sam ... is that what you've been doing all these years? Minimizing stopping and starting?!? I can count one underpass (Waverly) and one functional round-about (Lakewood) in all your years in office. Now how many stop lights and four way stops have we added?

***

Lastly: congratulations to Spain!

A while back, after the Winter Olympics, I mused about how a successful performance and the national pride it generates can help to crush separatist spirits and unite a country. Well, perhaps it will work for Spain as well.

That is certainly the view of Vicente del Bosque, Spain’s football coach. “There are players from all over Spain here in the squad. We are united and I hope the same feeling of unity occurs back in Spain,”

related: Endless Spin

New Bomber Stadium, Parking, part II

Following up on my last post, I had a quick look at the U of M stadium location in comparison to the Edmonton stadium location. The parking ban around the Edmonton location covers residential areas from 0.8 km to 1.4 km at it's farthest reaches. So, just for kicks, I drafted a proposed residential parking ban area for Fort Richmond:

Red areas represent residential areas that might be covered by the hypothetical ban. It covers all housing (at least that I could tell from memory and Google Maps) within 2.4 km of the new stadium -- a far larger area than the Edmonton no-park zone, yet there is far less housing. Sure, some people have no problem walking further than that, but a 2.4 km zone ought to be good enough.

I think the map above demonstrates how little residential there is to worry about at this location. By comparison, Commonwealth Stadium in Edmonton is almost completely surrounded by residential areas:

Without building on the fringes of the city, you would be had pressed to find a location where fewer people are impacted.

There is also the distinct possibility that some people in the area are Bomber fans, and are happy that the stadium is moving into their neighbourhood.

New Bomber Stadium, Parking, and Hooligans

When I go to a Bomber Game, I usually park in a residential area. I never get enormously sloshed mind you, and I don't urinate in people's yards. I am generally respectful, but I realize that not everybody is.

I therefore understand the concerns of the group that appealed the construction of the new stadium today.* However, I am also glad that it failed. Delaying the construction could mean sinking more money into the current dump of a stadium, and probably an extra season of me cramming into a seat with 10" of leg room. It's painful, and I don't want to do it anymore. We need to build a new stadium and we need to build it now.

The good news is that we can build a new stadium and address the parking concerns of the surrounding neighbourhood. One option that we may want to look at is the system that they have in Edmonton. They have a parking buffer zone surrounding their stadium, with a ban on non-local vehicles. LINK

Parking is restricted on all signed streets from the start of the game and for the next two hours. Any vehicle not displaying a valid residential parking permit will be tagged and towed at the owner's expense.

I know people who live in that zone, and it seems to work well for them.

The buffer zone would force more people to park in lots surrounding the stadium, potentially generating more revenue for the organization (or the UofM). It may also increase use of rapid transit (are we still doing that, Sam?) or ordinary transit.

Anyhow, I'm sure we could do something like that, or put our heads together and come up with a creative new solution that will keep pissed off drunken Bomber hooligans from crapping all over your yard after an embarrassing loss to the Rough Riders. Oh wait ... Mike Kelly is gone now! I mean: joyful and festive bomber fans, after a dominating WIN over the Riders!


* or the zoning variance, or whatever it technically was.

The Jets are coming!

The rumour mill is churning extra hard these days in Winnipeg: engineers and architects inspecting the MTS centre, the Saskatoon Blades checking out new homes, conversations overheard in the Fairmont Hotel lounge, Gary Bettman sightings in town ... That's right boys and girls: the NHL is coming back to Winnipeg!

The current variation of the rumour started last year, as far as I know. There was a Regina sports reporter who heard something, and this post on a Saskatoon blog last October from "Trusty Rusty":

the Atlanta Thrashers people are in Winnipeg looking over the MTS centre with plans to expand seating to 18,000. It gets better.

The rumour also goes that the Moose would move to Saskatoon and then Jack Brodsky would move the Saskatoon Blades to Winnipeg, giving the MTS a NHL/WHL combo like Edmonton and Calgary.

You have to believe him. After all, he is trusty! Now, every internet forum in town is buzzing.

If the rumours are true, there will be an announcement tomorrow (Thursday) -- right after the trade deadline. So ... it is safe to say that we will be hoisting the Stanley Cup in three years, but what will be the team name on the trophy? According to this Toronto Star article, "The NHL earlier this year contacted Canadian regulators to reinforce its trademark on the Winnipeg Jets name." I heard that the "Jets" name was owned by Barry Shenkarow. Somebody else said that the NHL owned it. I have a vague memory of winning the rights to the name in a coin-snatching competition after a night of Yukon Jack and tequila, but try as I might I cannot find the paperwork.

Regardless, even if Chipman can get rights to the name, the name will probably change so that everybody who currently owns Winnipeg Jets gear (approximately 80% of the city) will have to go out and buy new gear. That means that you and I will need to be prepared to provide input into the team name so that we don't end up with some disaster like The Raptors or Mighty Ducks.

With that in mind, I have come up with some preliminary ideas for team names. Vote for your favourite in the comments or suggest your own! Here we go:

1. The Manitoba Flood
2. The Winnipeg Level 4 Puck Theives
3. Winnipeg World Class
4. The Walleyes
5. Shakin' All Over in the 'Peg
6. The Winnipeg Falcons
7. Hey Everybody, We've Got A Helicopter
8. The Manitoba Monopolies
9. The Volts (in honour of our great hydro resource, you see...)
10. The Voyageurs
    
    and my personal favourite:
    
    
11. The Burtons!

late addition:

12. The Manitoba Rebellion

Congratulations Jon Montgomery!

Anybody Want A Peanut? would like to congratulate Jon on his Olympic gold medal.


You can proudly display that gold medal on your shelf next to the frozen turkey!

What? You don't have the turkey any more? Oh well .. that's ok ... I'm sure the medal will look just fine on it's own (or with all your world cup medals).

Code of conduct, and your Friday video

Well, this is certainly interesting:

Kelly was fired at about 8 p.m. Thursday, just hours after being arrested and charged with assault following a domestic dispute in the morning at his home near Philadelphia.
...
If the team can show cause, they will not be on the hook for the final two years of Kelly’s contract.

Well isn't that fortunate timing? We were going to fire him anyhow, then bingo: he just let us off the hook for the rest of the contract!

I'm not so sure. How can you reasonably argue that he was fired because of his getting arrested? especially after saying this:

It’s a tough decision but I’ve been saying repeatedly to you for the last six weeks we were reviewing the performance of the head coach and we came to the conclusion tonight that based on that assessment it was time to move on and find a new head coach. We recognize that an incident did take place but in the eyes of the law these are allegations and allegations only.

Oh well ... time to move on. And let's never again give both the head coach and GM job to somebody who has never done either.

***

After putting you to sleep the past two weeks with Black Box Recorder and The Sugar Cubes, I am going to slap you out of your coma with Probot -- Dave Grohl's heavy metal side project. Turn up the volume on your netbook and call your boss over for this one:

Mostly Moose. Some other stuff

I went to the Saturday night Manitoba Moose game. It was an entertaining, but low scoring game, with the good guys winning in the OT shootout after a 1 - 1 tie.

Thumbs up goes to:
- the Moose defense, for keeping the Toronto Marlies to around 20 shots on net, and to goalie Cory Schneider for only letting in one of those (and only one in the shootout.)
- the game programs. The free handouts are four pages, with one page devoted to the lineups, and another filled with various stats and analysis.
- the scalper who sold me a 3rd row center ice ticket for $20.

Thumbs down goes to:
- the MTS Centre cleaning staff. The seats where really dirty. General grime, dried beer, feathers ... it was kind of gross actually. Time to pull out the Bissell for a quarter-season cleaning I think.
- Santa Claus, for causing all of the streets downtown to be closed off. Although parking was a snap once I decided to drive around the barriers.
- The Moose offense. That's not really a fair assessment though, because they worked hard all night, got over 30 shots on net and plenty of scoring chances. It just comes down to a lack of scoring ability. For example, at one point Marco Rosa had an open third of the net and hit the post ... from six inches away. That's what happens when everybody on the team who is capable of scoring more than 10 goals a year (and isn't over 40) gets pulled up to the parent club.

Other notes:
- best fan comment: "Hey Deveaux. How do you explain to your friends that you aren't even good enough to make the Maple Leafs?"
- former PC party leader Stu Murray was handing out St.Boniface Hospital lottery leaflets. Good to see him out doing the nitty gritty promo stuff.

Summary / Jets rant:
The Moose are a good fit for Winnipeg. It's affordable, the team is relatively successful, and the entertainment isn't bad most nights. I can't really complain. Could I have bought a $20 3rd-row ticket for a Jets game? Not a chance, but I probably could have bought a $50 ticket for the top of the cramped balcony, and the calibre of play would have been better. I feel like a traitor saying this, but I can live without the Jets. It would be cool to have an NHL team again, but Winnipeg is about 300,000 people and 5 or 6 big head offices too small to have the economic base for a successful team. Our arena is also very very marginal. Rexall Place in Edmonton holds 16,800 and the owners there are saying that's too small, and are pushing hard for a new downtown arena. Having said that, I do think the NHL will come back to Winnipeg. Where there's smoke there's fire, and there's more smoke all the time. As not-profitable as the New Jets will be, they will still be far more successful than some of the struggling US teams, like the Old Jets for example. I think it's going to happen.

~~~~~~~~

Hey, since I have my thumbs all warmed up, a big thumbs up to Mary A Welch for her article about wind farms (or lack thereof), and to the Free Press editors for sticking it on the front page of the weekend edition. This is something that deserves more attention. And thumbs down to Minister Wowchuk (I'm having an "I Married an Axe Murderer flashback right now. Woooooo-Chuck! Anyhow ... back to the program ....) for idiotic comments:

it's not fair to compare Manitoba to Ontario, since our province already relies almost exclusively on renewable energy but Ontario is powered largely by dirty coal.

And that makes a difference how? Maybe in a world where exporting electricity was impossible ...

And, she said, Manitoba is blessed with cheap power, meaning ratepayers would take a hit if the province threw open its doors to wind power

Oh, you mean those artificially cheap rates that contribute to us being among the biggest consumers of electricity in the world, and to Hydro's massive debt, which will be much more of a problem when interest rates rise again? Those cheap rates? That is why we're not building more power even though we've potentially over-committed on power exports and may face blackouts according to an independent auditor?

~~~~~~~~

Also a thumbs up to Gordon Sinclair for a good column about the Bomber's management woes. How about that, eh? I said something nice about Gordon! Although he still had ... let's see ... 1..2 .... 34 one sentence paragraphs. You still need to work on that, Gordo.

~~~~~~~~

Still with the Freep ... to borrow a gambit from Kate at SDA: Now is the time when we juxtapose!

Mia Rabson

Aboriginal inmates in Canada make up too high a percentage of Canada's prison population and tend to get harsher sentences and less programming, a report from the country's prison watchdog said Friday.

Colleen Simard

Waywayseecappo Chief Murray Clearsky went to court for another drunk driving charge. It ended up with Clearsky getting a light sentence with no jail time. ... The worst part is this wasn't the first time Clearsky had been convicted of a drunken driving charge. He's been charged three times since 1983, and also has a dangerous weapon conviction.

~~~~~~~~

*UPDATED* Olympic Golf in 2016?

We'll find out tomorrow if they make the cut:

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) will announce a shortlist of two sports on Thursday and in two months’ time a final vote will decide whether they will be part of the Games programme.

Squash, rugby, softball, baseball, karate, rollersports and golf are bidding to make that shortlist which will be announced during the IOC executive board meeting in Berlin.

My vote is for golf, and here's why:

• It is a truely international sport. The top 20 men in the world golf rankings represent 10 different countries and 6 continents. The women's game is also very diverse, with the best player hailing from Mexico, and various Asian and European countries being well represented on the LPGA money list.
  
• It is a well established sport. It has been played competitively and remained popular for generations.
  
• Both men and women compete at a high level and attract viewers.
  
• New facilities do not need to be built. Any country that's properous enough to bid for an Olympics game will have a number of championship golf courses available. Aside from facilities for spectators and media, there would be no additional infrastructure cost.
• It is spectator-friendly
  
• It is an individual sport and thus will add fewer competitors to the games than a team sport would, reducing cost and strain on Olympic facilities.
  
• It is the only one in the list that I'm any good at, and therefore is the best reflection of true skill, talent and good looks.

If that's not enough to convince you, here are some of the knocks against the other sports:

• Team sports like rugby, softball and baseball are cumbersome, because a lengthy tournament schedule needs to be set, and a larger number of atheletes need to be accomodated. Team sports are also not consistent with the original Olympic ideal of individual achievement.
  
• Rugby and baseball are played primarily by men. As much as I may enjoy a good game of bikini football, I have a hard time seeing women's contact sports being played at a competitive level.
  
• Squash is played by accountants, and its not spectator-friendly.
  
• Karate is not needed because there are already enough marshal arts represented. Marshal arts do not attract much of an audience, and judging is sometimes subjective. If you are going to add one, you should get rid of another, like Judo.
  
• Rollersports? Are you kidding? What, like roller derby, or roller hockey, or X-Treme roller cross? Leave that shit for MTV.

In my humble opinion, the Olympics need to get back to basics, hacking off "sports" where judging is purely subjective, and fringe sports that nobody cares about. (You already know one of the sports that I think should get chopped.) Get the cost down so that hosting the stupid event doesn't bankrupt a country. At the very least, they should implement a one-in-one-out policy where new sports displace old sports, so the total package doesn't grow.

** I have added a poll to the sidebar to see what you think. Which of the 7 sports do you think should be added?

****UPDATE****
The vote came in and golf made the first cut, (along with rugby). Final selection will be in October.

If golf is in, you will see 60 competitors for each gender. The top 16 in the world rankings get in automatically, plus up to two more per county based on their ranking. Given current rankings Canada would have two men in there (Weir and Ames). No sure about women. Probably none. The PGA spokesdude expects that about 30 countries will be represented for both men and women.

EDIT: it is possible that Ames may choose to play for Trinidad and Tobago. I hope not, but he might. Wouldn't surprise me.

Pollute the Earth Day

So what did you do for Earth day? I burned 1.2 litres of fuel waiting in a massive line of cars to drop off a 13" TV at the one-day-only e-Waste drop-off. I feel good about that. Does the planet love me now?

Actually, I ended up throwing my TV in the box of the pickup truck in front of me. He had all kinds of crap in there. Might as well take mine too. No point in both of us waiting in line. I did get his permission ... turns out he was dropping off a bunch of TVs from the Public Safety Building, including what must have been a 40" TV with a giant hole in the screen. Nice.

Anyhoo ... have to get back to watching hockey. TSN's Pierre McGuire tells me that the Flames / Blackhawks game could have an incredibly potential finish. I don't know what that means, but it sounds exciting.