Bulls & Bears: Seahawks, Sounders juice up Seattle but Grapes squashed for poppy rant
Credit to Author: Gord Kurenoff| Date: Fri, 15 Nov 2019 22:48:34 +0000
This was a bullish week for the high-tech city of Seattle and its sports fans. It began with the Seattle Sounders FC winning its second Major League Soccer Cup in its third Final appearance against Toronto FC in four years.
At a Forbes Magazine valuation of US$405-million, the Sounders are the fourth richest franchise in MLS — with an enterprise value that is now 13½ times the original expansion fee of US$30M. They are clearly among soccer’s most elite franchises, making the MLS playoffs in each of their 11 seasons in the league.
They’re also a huge success story off the field, as exemplified by the close to 70,000 fans who attended last Sunday’s match at CenturyLink Field.
Twenty-four hours later, Sounders’ FC part-owner Russell Wilson and the Seattle Seahawks ended the eight-game winning streak of the San Francisco 49ers with a supercharged — albeit sloppy — 27-24 overtime victory on Monday Night Football on ESPN and TSN. The Seahawks, now 8-2 overall, are 3-0 in their NFC West division.
Fans celebrating the Sounders and Seahawks wins can also relish in the fact they have access to successful varsity sports programs and one of the most beautiful ballparks in Major League Baseball. They are two years away from the debut of the NHL in the Emerald City and have every reason to be confident the NBA will be back in town at the next available opportunity.
And yes, although it may not be a long-term gig, they can even look forward to the February launch of the XFL Seattle Dragons!
Coach’s Corner icon Don Cherry was fired on Remembrance Day by Sportsnet over a controversial poppy rant during his segment on Hockey Night in Canada.
There are no winners in the firing of Don Cherry, a controversial move that made this year’s Remembrance Day memorable for all of the wrong reasons.
Cherry loses a $1-million per annum gig and ends his 38 years as the star of Coach’s Corner on Hockey Night in Canada in regrettable fashion. Yet the Hockey Night brand — a Canadian institution — is nowhere near the same without the character/caricature played by Cherry.
Rogers and Sportsnet also both lose, at least in the short term, especially given the questionable timing of the firing.
After significant rounds of cost-cutting, it is another public relations hit for Rogers in the sixth year of an NHL national rights deal that is costing it $500M per year midway through a 12-year, $5.2-billion investment.
There is no question that Cherry was wrong to frame his rant around “you people” and “milk and honey” — and even he later admitted his wording was a mistake. Yet the Monday announcement was as polarizing as Cherry himself.
Reactions largely split along demographic lines; most notably age. Most current NHL players and younger fans seemed to agree that hockey should be used to “unite, not divide.” Yet many former stars — Bobby Orr and Jeremy Roenick among them — ridiculed Sportsnet for the dismissal of the Canadian hockey television icon.
It’s a subject that spans everything from ethnocentricity and xenophobia to new norms of moral and cultural standards.
Yet more than broadcast standards, politics and ethics, it is ultimately a business decision by Rogers, with Sportsnet desperately wanting to retain if not increase hockey revenues while — and here’s the kicker — reducing costs.
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