TIGER, CINDERELLAS A BALL TO WATCH
Woods’ resurgence, NCAA underdogs became appointment viewing last week
It’s been another bullish week for Tiger Woods, who turned in his second consecutive top-five finish — something he hasn’t done in more than five years — and made the PGA Tour mustwatch TV for the second straight Sunday. That is gold for CBS and the Masters, the first major of the year next month in Augusta, Ga.
Meanwhile, Jennifer Jones and her Winnipeg rink are a perfect 10-0 going into the weekend at the Ford World Women’s Curling Championships, good news for TSN and for the local North Bay, Ont., organizing committee.
Yet in this month of the underdog at the NCAA March Madness college basketball championships, no one has had a more bullish week than Sister Jean and Loyola of Chicago, unlikely flag-bearers in the tournament quarter-finals. Loyola’s stunning string of upsets, combined with Kansas State’s win over heavily favoured Kentucky, has produced the first-ever Elite Eight matchup between an 11th seed and a 9th seed.
The tournament has also produced the biggest upset in NCAA history; the first win by a 16th seed (University of Maryland at Baltimore County) over a No. 1 (top-ranked Virginia). Those upsets have made a mess out of millions of brackets, including the record 17.3 million at ESPN. com. But it sure gives casual sports fans on both sides of the border a compelling reason to tune in to see if the Davids can continue to slay the Goliaths of U.S. college hoops.
BEARS OF THE WEEK
It’s been another bearish week for the vast majority of Canada’s NHL hockey franchises; typical of a disappointing season that will see only two of seven qualify for the Stanley Cup playoffs. Sure, that’s down three from last year and up two from the 0-for-7 shutout of two seasons ago — the first time since 1970 and second time in league history that not a single Canadian team made the post-season tournament for Lord Stanley’s mug.
It’s a drag on national and local TV and radio rights holders, corporate sponsors and other stakeholders doing business with the NHL in Canada, including licensees, merchandisers, retailers and owners of restaurants, pubs and bars that thrive on long playoff runs for the rabid fan bases in Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, Winnipeg, Edmonton, Calgary and Vancouver.
Yet this April, only the Maple Leafs in the east and Jets in the west will get a sniff of the playoffs.
The underperformance by Canadian teams in hockey operations on the ice despite the over-performance in business operations off the ice is one of the mysteries in the business of sport in North America.
Even though attendance and viewership has declined in Ottawa and Vancouver in recent years, Canada’s seven teams are typically among the league’s top 16 in most key financial indicators, including TV audiences, ticket prices, jersey sales, sponsorships and overall revenues. Despite boasting two of the three richest teams in the NHL according to the Forbes magazine franchise valuations — along with three of the top eight, four of the top 12 and six of the top 20 — Canadian teams continue to struggle in translating their financial clout into Stanley Cup contention, let alone championships.
It’s now been a quarter-century since the last Canadian team won the Stanley Cup.
That was the Montreal Canadiens in 1993.