Long story short -- and this is being written with the full awareness that it's going to come off asa little pathetic -- plans to travel to Halifax for the CIS Final 8 have been abandoned. I apologize for promising to hang the moon and failing to deliver, but ultimately, cost won out over ideals. The practical reality is Out of Left Field is more of a passionate hobby than a professional endeavour (so far) and plane fare isn't cheap these days, especially at March Break.
It would have been great to go, but as Mick mused, you can't always get what you want. Halifax is a hometown to yours truly for a time and there's still many friends there (thanks again, Pat and Catherine, for agreeing to put me up). This is also the last time the Final 8 will be held in hub city of the Maritimes for some time, so it would have been good to say goodbye to an old friend, so to speak. Ultimately though, between going out of pocket to travel there, and the Final 8 being in Ottawa for the next three years starting in 2008, it just makes sense, even though I'll never know what I'm missing.
Maybe this can read as me being deadlocked over committing to writing about university sports. There's been some thoughts here to starting a spin-off blog that would focus on the CIS since it's not everyone's cup of coffee and tweaking Out of Left Field's focus, maybe putting it mostly on baseball and general all-around quirkiness.
So again, I hope readers understand. The bottom line is that not many 30-year-olds who are paying off their arts degrees while being barely a year removed from working for meagre pay at small-town newspapers have the wherewithal to go jetting around the country to cover a niche sport. That's not an attempt to garner pity; it is what it is.
CIS GETS WIRED
- The upshot is this is poised to be the most wired Final 8 of all time, even if TSN doesn't get it.
Sports Business News publisher Howard Bloom will appear on Prime Time Sports on The Fan 590 tonight around 6:30 p.m. Eastern (it may also air on Sportsnet later tonight) to discuss the CIS vs. NCAA issue. So at least the disparities in media coverage is getting into the discussion.
(UPDATE: Mark Wacyk of cishoops.ca just sent along word that the CIS Final 8 quarter-finals, early semi-final and consolation side games will be available as a pay-per-view webcast at http://events.news-cast.com/. It's $7.95 per game -- a hell of a bargain, if you ask me.)
As well, Mark and David Larkins of The Point After are apparently going to be the Final 8. The CIS will have a gamecast during the tournament for those among you who just have to know how many rebounds Concordia's Dwayne Buckley has or how the Carleton Ravens' Oz Jeanty is shooting. - All games for the SMART CIS women's hockey championship will be available at Streaming Sports Network (www.ssncanada.ca), including a simulcast of The Score's telecast of Monday's championship game (7 p.m., University of Ottawa Sports Complex).
The Score also agreed to a web simulcast of its CIS telecasts when the Gee-Gees hosted the Yates Cup and Mitchell Bowl last fall, and did so for the Vanier Cup.
That's all for now. Send your thoughts to neatesager@yahoo.ca.
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1 comment:
Sheesh, sweet talk your employer in sending you on their dime - we have 2 teams in the tournament, for heaven' sake !
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