Bulls & Bears: Ford vs. Ferrari has staked its claim among top sports films
Credit to Author: Paul Chapman| Date: Fri, 14 Feb 2020 23:35:19 +0000
It was a bullish week for Ford vs. Ferrari as the auto racing film won two Oscars (best film editing and best sound editing) on four nominations at the 92nd Academy Awards. It went into the week with 21 film awards and 65 nominations, not including its domination of The Sport Market Movie Awards with wins in eight of 22 categories, including best sport movie.
It then went to digital on Tuesday, backed by the additional attention it received at the Dolby Theater in Hollywood and before a television audience of just over 28 million on ABC/CTV Sunday.
Meanwhile, the CFL implemented the kind of free agency negotiating window that the NBA has popularized in recent years and it paid off with more three-down football talk in mid-February than we’ve seen or heard in years. Still, there are plenty of players to be signed.
It’s All-Star Weekend in the NBA — arguably the best of the major leagues in terms of fan engagement — and the Toronto Raptors have three representatives in Chicago in head coach Nick Nurse, sixth-time all-star Kyle Lowry and first-time starter Pascal Siakam. Despite seeing their Canadian record 15-game consecutive game winning streak snapped in Brooklyn Wednesday night, the Raptors had another bullish week as they go into the break on a franchise best pace of 40-15 and a Forbes enterprise valuation of US$2.1 billion. That makes them the richest franchise in Canada and 10th highest in the NBA.
Yet bull of the week laurels goes to Canucks Sports & Entertainment, which staged a near flawless jersey retirement ceremony for Daniel and Henrik Sedin Wednesday night. As far as these events go, it was all class and completely befitting the 19-year careers of the remarkable Swedish twins.
In the wake of the sign-stealing scandal that has rocked Major League Baseball, the Houston Astros just can’t seem to stop shooting themselves in the feet as pitchers and catchers report to spring training. The general lack of genuine contrition, including from owner Jim Crane, continues to point to this being a problem of organizational culture as much as anything. And those are the hardest to get past.
Meanwhile, despite enjoying a relatively effective opening weekend on ESPN and TSN — with average U.S. audiences of 3.3 million — the newly-relaunched XFL has plenty of work to do to in selling spring football to in-stadium audiences, especially in the winter in markets such as New York. Met Life Stadium, which seats 82,500 and typically draws north of 70,000 fans for the New York Giants and Jets of the NFL, recorded an attendance of just 17,634 for the opening game of the New York Guardians.
Yet there was no organization that looked as disconnected and rudderless as the New York Knicks did, especially on a week in which Forbes magazine valued the NBA franchise at a league-best US$4.6 billion. That the 17-38 Knicks are such a basket case on the court despite projected annual revenues of $472 million drives home the fact that they are arguably the worst-managed team among the 149 major league franchises in North America. And that starts at the top with the hugely unpopular owner and governor James Dolan, the chair of publicly-traded Madison Square Garden Company.
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