Bruce Dowbiggin
So You Say There’s A Chance? Watering Down The Product

Legendary Boston Bruins coach/ GM Harry Sinden put his finger on the dilemma of NHL competitive balance when we interviewed him for our book Money Players. The problem with teams in the league, said Sinden, Is that there were (then) 20 teams who all think they are going toĀ win the Stanley Cup and they all going to share it. But only one team is going to win it. The rest are chasing a rainbow.ā
And that trenchant observation was before the expansion Vegas Golden Knights won a Cup within five years while the third-year Seattle Kraken made a run in those same 2023 playoffs. There are currently 32 teams in the league, each chasing Sindenās rainbow of a Stanley Cup. That means 31 cranky fan bases every year. And 31 management teams trying to avoid getting fired.
Maybe weāve reached peak franchise level? Uh, no. If you believe the innuendo coming from commissioner Gary Bettman there is a steady appetite for getting a piece of the NHL operation. āThe best answer I can give you is that we have continuous expressions of interest from places like Houston, Atlanta, Quebec City, Salt Lake City, but expansion isnāt on the agenda.ā In the next breath Bettman was predicting that any new teams will cost āA lot, a lot.ā
So you say thereās a chance. The mention of twice-failed Atlanta (see; Flames, Thrashers) getting a third try drew guffaws from those whoād seen the failures of the past in Dixie. But deputy NHL commissioner Bill Daly says, “I think some of the challenges that we’ve seen in the past in Atlanta can be overcomeā Other scoffed at the idea of small-market Quebec City cutting into Montrealās provincial monopoly.
Daly echoed Bettmanās caution about a sudden expansion but added, āHaving said that, particularly with the success of the Vegas and Seattle expansions, there are more people who want to own professional hockey teams.ā Translation: If the NHL can get a billion for a new team, the clock might start ticking sooner. After all, small-market Ottawa just went for $950 M.
Houston is planning a renovation of the Toyota Center in the hopes of adding a second Texas franchise. If anyone can pat a billion itās Americaās energy capital. Why are people ponying up for the NHL and its mediocre media footprint? One very good reasonā one for which Bettman fought long and hardā is payroll control. The leagueās punitive salary cap forces players to guarantee a profit to owners before they get their full salary. As a result a mega star in the MLB, NBA and NFL can fetch over $40 M a year. In the NHL Connor McDavid tops salaries at just $13.25 M.
Itās not just the expansion-obsessed NHL talking more teams. MLB is looking to add franchises. This even as it decides about moving the neglected Oakland Aās to Las Vegas.Ā As a result Tom Bradyās recent appearance wearing an Expos jerseyāhe was drafted by Montreal in 1995 before choosing footballā at an MLB store drew cautious interest in Montreal So did his passing comment about perhaps taking an ownership position in any future Montreal franchise.
Now, abandoned Montreal is once more getting palpitations over rumours that the league wants to return to the city that lost its Expos in 2005. Recent reports indicate that while MLB might prefer Salt Lake City and Nashville it also feels it must right the wrong left when the Expos moved to Washington DC 19 years ago.
The city needs a new ballpark to replace disastrous Olympic Stadium. Theyāll also need more than Brady to fund the franchise fee and operating costs. And Quebec corporate supportā always transitory in the Expos yearsā will need to be strong. But two more MLB franchises within five years is a lock.
While the NBA is mum on going past 30 teams it has not shut the door on expansion after seeing the NHL cashing in. Neither has the cash-generating monster known as the NFL where teams currently sell for over six billion US. The NFL is eyeing Europe for its next moves.
The question that has to be asked in this reported rush to expand is the one Harry Sinden put to us years ago, WTF, quality of competition? The more teams in a league the lower the chances of even getting to a semifinal series let alone a championship. Fans in cities starved for a championshipā the NFLās Detroit Lions or Cleveland Browns are entering their seventh decade without a title or the Toronto Maple Leafs title-less since 1967ā know how corrosive it can be.
Getting to 34, 36, maybe 40 teams makes a short-term score for owners but it could leave leagues with an entire strata of loser teams that no oneāleast of all networks, carriers and advertistersāwants to see. Generations of fans will be like Canuck supporters, going their entire lives without a championship.
In addition, as weāve argued in our book Cap In Hand: How Salary Caps Are Killing Pro Sports and How The Free Market Can Save Them, watering down the product with a lot of teams no one wants to watch nationally or globally seems counter productive. The move away from quality toward quantity serves only the gambling industry.
But since when has Gary Bettman cared about quality of the product? So long as he gets to say, āWe have a trade to announceā at the Draft, heās a happy guy.
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Bruce Dowbiggin @dowbboy is the editor of Not The Public BroadcasterĀ A two-time winner of the Gemini Award as Canada’s top television sports broadcaster, heās a regular contributor to Sirius XM Canada Talks Ch. 167. Inexact Science: The Six Most Compelling Draft Years In NHL History, his new book with his son Evan, was voted the seventh-best professional hockey book of all time by bookauthority.org . His 2004 book Money Players was voted sixth best on the same list, and is available via http://brucedowbigginbooks.ca/book-personalaccount.aspx
Bruce Dowbiggin
Canadians Thinks America Owes Them. Trump Has Other Ideas

Breaking: Itās now being reported that in the 2024 U.S. election, zero Canadians voted for Donald Trump. In fact, zero Canadians voted for anyone on the ballot. Theyāre not allowed to. And yet rage monkeys in the Canadian media seem to have the idea that Canada isā and should beā an immediate priority of POTUS 47.
Hereās Globe & Mail/ CBC wind therapist Andrew Coyne about ten exits past normal on the idea of Donald Trump on Canadian soil. Okay, on Alberta soil. āWe’re going to roll out the red carpet for the wannabe dictator of America at the very moment he is moving to suppress dissent with armed force?ā (You mean like the Truckers Convoy?)
Cartoonist Michael DeAdder, who likely cries if you use improper pronouns, says āHold my kombuchaā. His latest etching has Trump asking a veteran what he did in the war. The witty retort is āFought against people like youā. Get it? Trump murders six millions Jews. But The Hill keeps this guy working, and the laughs just keep on coming. Free speech!

The presumption is jaw-dropping. Even as Trumpās approval rating hits 53 percent, Canadians online were echoing Democratsā fever dreams of forming a shadow government to take over from Trump via coup. This sense of impunity at a distance is why the Canadian governmentā along with other drive-by virtue signallers UK, Norway, New Zealand, and Australiaā have imposed sanctions on two sitting members of the Israeli cabinet. They know it will rile Trumpās America.
For ordinary Canadians, Trump became a post-it note to justify giving Team Liberal another swing at ruining the nation. āWe used to be such friends! Heās a tyrant.!ā This just in: Love him or hate him Trump is employed by Americans to do their bidding. Heās not a sentimental buddy of Canada whoāll cut us some slack for old timeās sake. He has no remittance from Canada to please the Laurentian elites. If your defence is non-existent and your military gender-obsessed: you had it coming.
Are his policies jostling Canada? Absolutely. Read Art of the Deal. The 51st state jibe when Justin soiled himself was rude. But it worked on pliant Canadian liberals. Now the The Little Banker is disavowing the dissolute decade of Trudeau while employing Conservativesā policies on defence spending, inter-provincial trade and border security. Hell, heās naming longtime Tories to his personal staff.

In the end Carney knows this aināt mock Parliament. That his dossier begins and ends with satisfying the beast to the south. None of this should be a surprise. Yet Canadians dozed when Trump made clear in his election campaign that the American economy is the greatest in the world. If you want to fish in that pond itās not going to be for free. That means tariffs for a range of U.S. industries that couldnāt compete in a Biden world.
We can argue how well tariffs work, but Trump wants them to reduce taxes on the people who elected him. Not the Canadians who fly first class but pay economy. And who have pushed his approval ratings into the 50s, higher than ever before. (Likely to spike higher after the No Kings Riot season peters out.)
No wonder Canadians preferred the guy before Trump, the senile sock puppet whose government was run by anonymous figures using the auto-pen. Sleepy Joe let Canada slide into mediocrity and financial peril without any judgement. It was comfortable. Then The Donald had the nerve to expose the ditch Canada was in.
Canada, Trump pointed out,Ā was delinquent on its defence, harbouring Chinese drug lords, printing money like Canadian Tire and its banks were involved in money laundering. That was the nice stuff. Try Organized fentanyl networks operating with impunity in the largest cities of the nation So dumping on Trump in salty cartoons allows Canadaās Mod Squad to ignore the real issues that should have been litigated in the April election.
We have written extensively about the ruse that was played on gormless Canadians inĀ āU.S. Voters Smelled A Rat But Canadian Voters Bought The Cheeseā We have catalogued Canadaās drug and money laundering disgrace in āChinese Gangs Dominate Canada: Why Will Voters Give Liberals Another Term?ā Weāve described the real-estate bubble economy created by Trudeau and sidekick Carney that threatens to crash the economy and ruin seniorsā pensions in
In the end, it is still la-la-la-la We Canāt Hear You. Trump-obsessed Boomers more concerned with the equity in their jumped-up bungalows gave the finger to the next generations and blamed it all on Orange Man Bad. In the monotone of Canadian political comment it all seemed so easy. Turn against Trump. Cash another dividend. Cheer on MSNBC and CNN bitch sessions.
The Family Compact donāt get it. Their Antifa heroes down south plan demos and ānonviolentā activity to crater the public resolve. In Canada that still works. But in the U.S. the Covid reverb is hitting the natural governing class of the nation. While they craft fine phrases about democracy the consumers remember them using a virus to stop society.
The appetite for Gavin Newsom blovaitors and Jen Psaki fart catchers is crashing in America. Riots may be coming in the U.S., but it wonāt be likeĀ George Floyd and Covid and the pussy hats. At some point Canadaās docile classes better wake up, too.Ā America owes them nothing. They need to earn the respect.
Bruce Dowbiggin @dowbboy is the editor of Not The Public BroadcasterĀ A two-time winner of the Gemini Award as Canada’s top television sports broadcaster, his new book Deal With It: The Trades That Stunned The NHL And Changed hockey is now available on Amazon. Inexact Science: The Six Most Compelling Draft Years In NHL History, his previous book with his son Evan, was voted the seventh-best professional hockey book of all time by bookauthority.org . His 2004 book Money Players was voted sixth best on the same list, and is available via brucedowbigginbooks.ca.
Bruce Dowbiggin
Simone Biles Fails To Stick The Landing Going After Riley Gaines

Some ideas are so stupid that only intellectuals believe them. George Orwell
Or, in the case of Olympic legend Simone Biles, only gymnasts believe in the incendiary issue of trans men competing in womenās sports. Biles, who has made a secondary career as an object of pity, took exception when former swimmer Riley Gaines, an opponent of trans men competing against women, sent a picture of Minnesota softball team that recently won a state title with a pitcher who is reported to be transgender.
āComments off lol,’ Gaines wrote in response to the post which wasn’t permitting any comments from the public. āTo be expected when your star player is a boy.ā
That brought Biles into the fray. ‘Youāre truly sick, all of this campaigning because you lost a race. Straight up sore loser. ‘You should be uplifting the trans community and perhaps finding a way to make sports inclusive OR creating a new avenue where trans feel safe in sports. Maybe a transgender category IN ALL sports!! ‘But instead⦠You bully them⦠One things for sure is no one in sports is safe with you around!!!!!ā
She then poked Gaines again, saying: ‘Bully someone your own size, which would ironically be a male.ā (Gaines husband is 6-foot-4)

The loser reference was to Gaines having lost to a trans swimmer in an NCAA race. Since then Gaines has launched a campaign to outlaw biological males from competing with cisgendered girls and women. She has testified in the U.S. Congress and has appeared in numerous interviews espousing a position supported by the vast majority of Americans.

One might think the proof of this positionā unquestioned as recently as a decade agoā would be obvious. But Biles andĀ gender radicals whoāve tried to make trans into the Emancipation Proclamation of the 21st century are not giving up the fight.
Hereās someone named Nancy Armour in USA Today. āThere is no scientific evidence that transgender women athletes have a physical advantage over cisgender women athletes, but that hasnāt stopped Gaines from claiming they do..ā When legislation banning trans men in girls/ women sports was presented in the U.S. Congress 106 Democrats voted against the motion. The chattering class on CBC, MSNBC and CNN likewise have a cohort of those opposing the ban.
But it was the outburst from Biles that most appalled fans whoād worshipped her as the GOAT of Olympic gymnastics and then sympathized with her victimization by Dr. Larry Nasser. Even when she bailed on her teammates at the 2024 Games they cut her slack. But suddenly a woman whoās preached against body shaming and intolerance was deriding a fellow athleteās body and mocking her complaints.
Critics were quick to post Bilesā hypocrisy about compassion, citing her own tear-stained testimony about how she was taken advantage by a doctor. Hereās how we described her psychological distress last August during the Olympics. āProminent among them was gymnast Simone Biles who described the abuse sheād suffered from a male trainer and on social media as the greatest female gymnast in history. Even as she added more golds to her mantle sheād seemed unable to find peace in her accomplishments.
āDue to mental blocks, sheād had to step away from the sport for a time to get her head straight. She had a lot of company from fellow competitors who described sexual harassment and intimidation on social media for their unhappiness. (Hence the constant mental health commercials on the TV broadcasts.)ā
Now the same role model is mocking Gaines? It seems unthinkable. As for the claims that men have no advantage against women, it was pointed out that there are zero women who try to reverse the equation, going into menās sports. They show the hard truths about competitive records of men versus women in a range of sports. They describe the physical risks for women playing against larger, stronger men. Here. Here. And here.
Itās still stunning to see Biles toeing the radical LGBTQ line while asking for traditional pity of a victimized woman herself. Or the amount of support that the cause has garnered from progressives throughout society. When did people became so obtuse about the growth this societal contagion?
We wrote earlier this year about how such notions take hold. MacDonald Laurier Institute fellow Mia Hughes charted a history of similar social contagions such as bulimia and multiple-personality disorder. āIn 1972, British psychologist Gerald Russell treated a woman with an unusual eating disorder involving binging and purging. Over the next seven years, he saw a further 30 woman presenting with the same condition. In 1979, he wrote a paper published in Psychological Medicine, in which he gave it the name bulimia nervosaā¦.
āThen something remarkable happened. The illness swept the globe like wildfire⦠affecting an estimated 30 million people by the mid-1990s, the majority of whom were teenage girls and young women. The explanation for this rapid spread is what philosopher Ian Hacking calls ‘semantic contagion’ – how the process of naming and describing a condition creates the means by which the condition spreads. The epidemic of multiple-personality disorder in the 90s was spread this same way⦠Multiple studies demonstrate the media’s culpability in the spread of social contagions.ā
The new contagion is trans athletes. USA Today is just one example of how influencers try to legitimize campaigns to boost their own self esteem. As the battle to reverse the trans incursion shows, there are only too many willing to play politics in the gender debate. Like the pro-Palestinian movement in North America the trans athlete hoax exists is a bubble where reality and fiction can co-exist, knowing theyāll never be put to the test.
Orwell called it doublethink āthe power of holding two contradictory beliefs in oneās mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them.ā Biles and the liberal elites have it mastered. Nursing their grievance while finding it a fault in others.
Bruce Dowbiggin @dowbboy is the editor of Not The Public BroadcasterĀ A two-time winner of the Gemini Award as Canada’s top television sports broadcaster, Bruce is regular media contributor. The new book from there team of Evan & Bruce Dowbiggin is Deal With It: The Trades That Stunned The NHL & Changed Hockey. From Espo to Boston in 1967 to Gretz in L.A. in 1988 to Patrick Roy leaving Montreal in 1995, the stories behind the story. In paperback and Kindle on #Amazon. Destined to be a hockey best seller. https://www.amazon.ca/Deal-Trades-Stunned-Changed-Hockey-ebook/dp/B0D236NB35/
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