First thing. The people who run the money-grubbing in curling are no longer calling themselves Curl Canada.
After changing from the Dominion Curling Association to the Canadian Curling Association to Curl Canada, the group, affiliating with the women’s national organization, went back to calling itself the Canadian Curling Association a while ago.
Same knobs, different corporate logo. But, not Curl Canada - sorry about that.
How do I know it is the same knobs. Well, the same people who screwed up back in the 90s - remember when you needed a premium channel to view some of the national championships even on CBC - funded programming - and oversaw diminished revenue in a booming sports economy, kept on running things even after the makeover.
•In some way, justice was served, at least on the men’s side, in the Olympic Trials curling. Our national champion Brad Jacobs rink will represent the country in Sochi, as is fitting if we are determined to send somebody to the Sochi Games.
I suppose we should, given that the enterprise will set Russians back more than $60-billion dollars. That is $3.6-billion a day over 17 days, with, as usual, little ongoing return on investment for the citizens whose pockets are picked.
Has any Canadian that did not profit directly from the staging of Vancouver’s spectacle seen any return at all from the almost $10 billion expended there?
But, our national women’s champion will not be attending on our behalf, because the money-fixated Olympic folks wanted to make it difficult for that to happen even though it should have been automatic.
Instead it will be a corporate lawyer, with the most corporate sponsorship money, Jennifer Jones, wearing the Team Canada Too outfits in Russia.
Jones was in a great spot in that final, again because the CCA is run by incompetents. Had she lost, the CCA was going to award her with the Team Canada Too outfit to wear in Homan’s place at the Scotties national championship bonspiel. Given that the Olympics are scheduled many years in advance it seems the CCA, Olympic fanatics that they are, might have known the dates in time to schedule the Scotties so they did not conflict with the Sochi party and Homan could have been assured of the spot where she won fairly and squarely last year.
I suppose, however, dues-paying curlers and the many volunteers among them are in full support of the CCA priorities - which seem mainly to secure travel, tickets and multiple other perks that go along with associating with the IOC.
• One last Olympic bash, then we are off to Christmas and good cheer. The COC announced today it will pump $37 million into “Own the Podium” over the next four years.
Tried to get to see a doctor, especially a specialist, lately? Well the COC funding, most of it our money, will go towards making sure enough specially trained sports doctors are available so that our “elite” athletes will never have that problem.
•Just a week to go before the days start getting longer.