Hockey Canada continues to reel from the toxic fallout of a seemingly sloppy investigation into allegations of sexual assault by members of the Canadian U20 junior national team in 2018.
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bulls of the week
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It’s been a bull market this week for Saint-John, NB, which is in the Canadian soccer spotlight hosting Touchdown Atlantic this weekend, a Toronto Argonaut “home game” against the Saskatchewan Roughriders.
The Columbus Blue Jackets arguably had one of the best days in franchise history on Wednesday (see below) and the Los Angeles Dodgers stepped into the spotlight by hosting the Major League Baseball All-Star Game. 2022 on Tuesday at Chavez Ravine.
They do so with the highest average attendance in MLB once again this season, averaging 47,883 fans per game at Dodger Stadium.
bears of the week
It’s been a tough week for Tiger Woods at the $14 million Open Championship at the Grand Old Lady in St. Andrew’s, Scotland. At three over par on Friday and nine over for the tournament, the fourth and final major in this tumultuous year on the PGA Tour, he is in the bottom 10 golfers in the 156 field and missed the cut.
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The NHL’s Calgary Flames lost to the Blue Jackets in the Gaudreau draw, losing their main offensive weapon (41 goals last season) in the process. That was despite an offer of US$9.5 million per year for eight years from the Flames.
Gaudreau took less ($9.75 million per year for seven years), so it certainly wasn’t about the money, even when considering the highest tax rate in Alberta (10-15 percent provincially and 25- 48 percent when combined with Canadian federal tax) compared to 2.765-3.99 percent for Ohio, US federal tax brackets of 10-37 percent, and a general income tax rate up to 40.99 percent. If it were comparable tax rates, Gaudreau would have signed with the Tampa Bay Lightning or Florida Panthers in Florida, the Vegas Golden Knights in Nevada, the Nashville Predators in Tennessee, the Dallas Stars in Texas or the Seattle Kracken in Washington state. Players on those teams do not pay state income taxes.
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However, there was no bigger loser this week, for the second time in three weeks, than Hockey Canada, which continues to reel from the toxic fallout of a seemingly sloppy investigation into allegations of sexual assault by members of Canada’s junior national team. U20 in 2018. and the resulting financial deal apparently consummated to contain the reputational damage to the players involved, the IIHF World Junior hockey program and Hockey Canada.
Under extreme pressure from the federal government and prominent sponsors such as Scotiabank, Esso, Canadian Tire, TELUS and Tim Hortons, among others, Hockey Canada is reopening the investigation. He announced the latest moves in an open letter to Canadians in which Hockey Canada apologized to the woman involved and to all hockey fans and supporters.
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The biggest losers will be the eight John Does named in the settlement. It seems inevitable that they will be named, simply through the elimination process now that five players, including newly minted Stanley Cup champion and Conn Smythe Trophy winner Cale Makar of the Colorado Avalanche and new Toronto Maple Leaf defenseman Victor Mete, They have declared that they were not there. One would hope that it would only be a matter of time before others not complicit followed up with their own statements.
The scandal and the way it was handled by Hockey Canada is one of the low points of the governance of Canadian sport.
Sports business commentator and marketing communications executive Tom Mayenknecht is a director of Emblematica Brand Builders and host of The Sport Market on BNN Bloomberg Radio 1410 and TSN Radio nationally. Follow Mayenknecht on: twitter.com/TheSportMarket
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