Forget NHL’s Dark Ages for these shining Knights
BULLS OF THE WEEK
Showing the upside of online technology, the meaningful community response to the Humboldt Broncos tragedy continued to impress as the related GoFundMe campaign became the largest in Canadian history and second biggest in the world with 142,027 donors contributing an average of $107 for a total of $15,185,200.
As mentioned last week, it won’t bring back the 16 lives lost, but the global support will hopefully help the grieving process for the families involved and lead to a lasting legacy for those who died in the Saskatchewan bus crash.
Meanwhile, the NFL has always announced its new schedule with a good kick — using it to pump up the draft in prime time the following week — but many of the member clubs took things to the next level this year with video game-style reveals.
Things also became more real around the prospects for a Halifaxbased CFL franchise with Maritime Football Partners launching the group’s website this week.
It was a good week for the hot sport collectibles industry as a mint-condition 1952 Mickey Mantle Topps rookie baseball card sold for US$2.88 million Thursday, second only to a 1909 Honus Wagner T206 that went for a record $3.12 million in 2016.
It was also a good week for the Toronto Raptors, going into the weekend with their first 2-0 playoff series lead in their 22-year NBA franchise history.
Yet there was nothing more bullish than the Vegas Golden Knights as they continued to turn heads in the NHL by sweeping the Los Angeles Kings in their inaugural playoff series.
Off the ice, the Knights have been equally golden: leading NHL social media, playing to standing-roomonly crowds, setting the pace in jersey merchandising and showing the way for other leagues to avoid creating expansion dogs that are so typically a drag on quality of play.
BEARS OF THE WEEK
It’s been a bearish week for big cities in the NHL — with two New York teams and the Chicago Blackhawks not making the Stanley Cup playoffs and two L.A.-based teams being swept — and NBA — with no Knicks, Lakers nor Bulls.
Yet the biggest losers are the Miami Marlins, especially given the optics of their slimy attempts to position themselves for legal purposes as a corporation based in the British Virgin Islands.
That’s only further inflamed the relationship between the Marlins and their taxpaying fan base, specifically the City of Miami and County of Miami-Dade, who are suing the team for a share of the profits from the US$1.2-billion sale by former owner Jeffrey Loria.