Views from the West

As a North Carolina Tar Heels basketball fan, it just kills me to see Coach K with a championship trophy. It doesn't matter if Duke earned it. Still hate anything to do with Blue Devils success. Needless to say I was praying along with the State of Indiana and the other Butler bandwagoners the Hoosiers' knockoff would pull it off like the movie. This was one of the best Final Four finals I've ever seen.


•For those who missed it, the NHL, via a Phoenix publication, used Winnipeggers' love for their fallen Jets against them and Glendale city administrators to get someone else a deal to keep a team where no one wants it. Sounds like the NFL's use of Los Angeles, doesn't it. And yes, I, and many other Manitobans, are offended by this. If you want to move the team back, fine. I'll buy some tickets. If you don't, stop using a city that's suffered enough by this story as a pawn.

• News in Winnipeg that a new football stadium may actually happen came to light recently. A few quick thoughts on this. The U of M location is fine by me. I have to drive more than 200 km to get to it anyway, so an extra click or two isn't much bother. Rapid Transit (which I'm sure will move much faster than the city councils that tried to set it up) will link it with downtown, should it ever be built. But did the government really need to give David Asper such a sweetheart deal of a loan to get this done? If I were Mark Chipman or Sam Katz, who had to battle varying degrees of bureaucracy and negative public opinion from naysayers to get their very successful sports facilities built, I'd be pissed. If a provincial election featuring a Premier without legacy weren't around the corner, I wonder if it would be built. this way.

• Brandonites have gotten behind the Memorial Cup with their wallets, buying up any available tickets. So much so, that the initial allotment for fans has increased several times by the CHL to meet local demand. Now that the CHL has seen the light on going to smaller venues once in a while to create an atmosphere, maybe the Canadian Curling Association can do the same by looking at Brandon for an event such as the Brier. Sure it won't make as much money. But it will be the only thing people will talk about for a week, unlike some larger centres.

• Anyone else sick of hearing stock answers about Tiger Woods from Tiger Woods about issues he could have put to bed by being honest months ago?

• Baseball season has opened, and with it, one more season lamenting the loss of the Montreal Expos.

• How's this for irony: Ilya Kovalchuk gets traded to the New Jersey Devils, then eliminates his old team, the Atlanta Thrashers from the playoffs a few weeks later — a team that seemed to play better without him.

• It's high time the NHL adopted a four-point system for its standings. Reward teams for winning in regulation time as it shows a more accurate picture of dominance, and lessens the value of a shootout "win" that is hockey's excuse for a slot machine.

• Note to the CTRC: WE WANT ESPN (a homage to Rob Vanstone, Regina Leader-Post, but seriously, cough it up and give us what we want).

• If the dome stadium goes up in Regina like some hope it does, this could be the start of a serious shift in power from Manitoba to Saskatchewan. Power of positive thinking vs "We can't do that here". Winnipeg used to have positive thinking on their side when they brought up Bobby Hull to the WHA. Where did it go?

• Buck Pierce may have a lot of talent, and the CFL needs talented quarterbacks. But was Wally Buono trying to tell people something by grabbing Casey Printers and shipping him out the door? That maybe too many concussions means playing more football is more risky than it's worth?