The CP noted Cirque du Soleil Chair Mitch Garber and Montreal Mayor Denis Coderre yesterday "poured cold water" on a report that suggested a group of Montreal investors had met the conditions laid out by MLB to "get a team back in the city." Garber said, "There’s this great desire to have Major League Baseball in Montreal. But it’s not as advanced as this story would make it sound" (CP, 3/29). The CP in the initial report cited a source as saying that investors have a "solid financial set-up, support from two levels of government, various potential locations for a stadium as well as at least five different designs for the venue" (CP, 3/29).
THE SAGA CONTINUES: The IIHF this week agreed to pay NHLers' travel and insurance costs to try get them to PyeongChang, but YAHOO SPORTS' Greg Wyshynski wrote it has been "common knowledge for months." More than likely, the "game-changer" needed to get players to the Games "arrives from the IOC." Wyshynski: "What can the NHL get from the IOC as far as making money from sending its products to the Olympics, and what is the IOC willing to give up, given that it’ll have to do the same for every other professional sports league leading its athletes to the Games?" It is still going to "take more 'commercial demands' satisfied by the IOC" to get the players to South Korea (SPORTS.YAHOO.com, 3/29).
GONE SILENT? In N.Y., Juliet Macur writes USA Gymnastics should "go out of its way to apologize for its role in a scandal that has shaken Olympic sports" and caused the ouster of President & CEO Steve Penny. More than 80 athletes have accused former team doctor Larry Nassar "of abusing them." However, USAG "did not even have a representative" in a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on the case Tuesday. U.S. Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) had asked USAG to testify, and said that its Chair Paul Parilla, was "thinking about it but backed out" (N.Y. TIMES, 3/30).
