In Winnipeg, Paul Wiecek notes with the '11 CFL season beginning tonight, there is “a case to be made that the Canadian league has never been stronger.” TV ratings are “huge, with a lucrative new deal on the horizon.” A new stadium “is going up in Winnipeg, there's a commitment to a complete overhaul of Ivor Wynne Stadium in Hamilton and a massive renovation is taking place at BC Place in Vancouver," where tickets for the '11 Grey Cup are "already 90 per cent sold.” Wiecek wrote, “Saskatchewan is making record profits, Montreal's Percival Molson Stadium is a licence to print money, Calgary loves a winner, people in Edmonton continue to turn out despite a truly awful team and the situation in Toronto appears to at least be stable. And so for once, all the most compelling league storylines heading into the new CFL season look to be on the field, instead of off it” (WINNIPEG FREE PRESS, 6/29).
TIME TRAVEL: In Ft. Worth, Anthony Andro reported MLB Rangers President Nolan Ryan “would love to see the Rangers play in a division in which one of their opponents is in the same time zone.” Playing in the same division as the Astros makes “sense not only because of that, but also because of the possibility of an in-state rival.” Ryan: "We're at a disadvantage as far as our TV audience and our travel, having to go west. I would be in favor of adding somebody. I think it would be good if you had the Astros and the Rangers in a pennant race. That would stimulate a lot of interest in the state and that would be good" (FT. WORTH STAR-TELEGRAM, 6/30).
WIN-WIN: GOLF WORLD’s Ron Sirak writes Yani Tseng’s recent success, which includes winning the Wegmans LPGA Championship, “could not have come at a better time” for LPGA Commissioner Mike Whan. The “dream is to get back to 30 tournaments by 2013, and this could be a big step in that direction.” Whan said, “What excites me about marketing the LPGA Tour right now is not only the current dominance of Yani, but the depth of worldwide talent giving her chase.” He added, “We are in a win-win situation. History shows that fans respond to both scenarios -- when a tour has a dominant player and when there are a number of players battling for No. 1” (GOLF WORLD, 7/4 issue).
FIGHT FOR ATTENTION: SI.com’s Tim Marchman wrote under the header, “UFC’s Pitch Has Grown Stale.” The “great obvious problem” that UFC has now is the “difficulty of making new stars.” The company's “biggest attractions … all have been around forever and none is under 30.” UFC is “very good at marketing,” but there are "limits to the appeal of watching aging fighters play Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots to the stale hits of yesteryear, and limits to how long a promotional strategy that seemed fresh in 2005 will remain so. UFC actually offers up something better. They ought to make sure the public knows it" (SI.com, 6/29).
