Making a racket
MacKinnon a local favourite heading into Cape Breton Open
Cromarty Tennis Club hosting its annual tournament.
One of Cape Breton’s longstanding tennis tournaments gets underway today at Cromarty Tennis Club.
The Cape Breton Open will feature top players from across the province vying for supremacy on the Sydney courts. A local player and one of the top seeds in the men’s open division is 22-year-old Ryan MacKinnon of Sydney.
“It’s been going on for a while and it’s good to have the players from away come down and get the local community to come and see the top players in the province play,” said MacKinnon.
MacKinnon has been a member at Cromarty since the age of 15. Last year, he made waves by reaching the semifinal of the Nova Scotia Open in the class ‘A’ division. He also won his division at the Peter Durdle Memorial Open at the New Waterford Tennis Club.
He’s currently ranked in the top 35 in Canada among class ‘A’ players.
“It’s been a steady progression,” said MacKinnon, who adds that his backhand is his strength on the court. “When I first started out, I was taking lessons here as a junior and I was in the beginner lessons and started loving it more and more, and thought I could be really good at this, and applied myself more. It made me the player I am today.”
MacKinnon, ranked No. 3 this weekend, has only reached the quarter-finals in the men’s open division at the Cape Breton Open. He’s hoping to reach the semifinals and beyond, but he’ll face some stiff competition. Chris Matthew of Halifax is the No. 1 seed and the defending champion. Cromarty head pro Kevin Hall is the No. 2 seed, while former Cromarty coach and Sydney native David Astephen of Halifax is in the mix at No. 4. Astephen won the class ‘A’ division last year.
In the women’s open division, the tournament will feature one of the top juniors in Atlantic Canada, Darah Ross of Halifax, who will be the top seed. She’ll see competition from Cromarty members Rhea Sivakumar, Alice Zhao and Helen Xia.
*For today’s schedule,
Following years of discussions, Chris Koch will never forget the moment the Buffalo Bills sold him on the idea of transforming Ralph Wilson Stadium into what became New Era Field on Thursday.
It happened near dusk on June 15, when the New Era Cap Co. president and CEO was whisked by police escort to the Bills’ headquarters and ushered to midfield where he was greeted by team owners Terry and Kim Pegula. That’s when the west-end scoreboard began displaying a three-minute video highlighting the legacies of Koch’s late father, David, and Bills late Hall-of-Fame owner Ralph Wilson, and emphasizing what both meant to Buffalo.
“I’ve got to tell you, I had tears rolling down my face,” Koch said during an interview with The Associated Press. “And Terry came up to me and said, ‘Look, we won’t do this with anyone else. We want you.”’
Walking off the field, Koch recalled how New Era executive Paul McAdam leaned over and, in his thick Scottish accent, said: “You must do this deal.”
Seven weeks later, a naming rights agreement with the Buffalo-based sports headwear and apparel company was reached in a deal worth more than $35 million and spanning the remaining seven years of the stadium’s lease. New Era also has the rights of first refusal to extend the deal under a new lease or if the Bills build a new stadium.
“For me, this partnership is personal on so many levels,” said Koch during a news conference to unveil the new name. “To have New Era associated with the Buffalo Bills, who are incredibly well-respected brand, with a rich history with the NFL and our community, is a significant honour and a privilege that I don’t take lightly.”
For the Bills, the deal generates revenue to a small-market franchise that has at times struggled to remain competitive, and forced to regionalize east into Rochester and north into Toronto to broaden its base.
For New Era, the agreement marks a coming-out party for a company established in 1920 by Koch’s great grandfather, Ehrhardt, and has become a world leader in sports-related headwear in large part because of the inroads David Koch made during his 30-year tenure as president.
The company has gone from producing 50,000 caps in 1920 to 50 million last year, which were sold in more than 80 countries. New Era also has more than 500 licensing deals, including Major League Baseball, the NFL, NBA, NHL, Manchester United and the Australian Football League.
Ralph Wilson’s name went up on the stadium during the 1998 season, after a 25-year agreement expired with Buffalo-based Rich Products.
In 2012, Wilson gave approval for the team to pursue a naming rights agreement. That plan was put on hold when he died in March 2014. The Pegulas, who bought the Bills seven months later, elected to wait at least a year to secure a deal out of respect to the former owner.
“Today we look to the future, and today we turn a page in Bills history,” Terry Pegula said. “I’ve been told by people who knew Ralph - I never met Ralph - that Ralph would be proud to turn this page with us.”
Wilson’s widow, Mary Wilson, supports the name change.