Sports in Canadian culture

[Acajack]

If the NCAA were Canadian we would have eliminated marching bands by now because they are allegedly tacky and old-fashioned.

I swear to God.

[Airboy]

Originally Posted by Acajack

If the NCAA were Canadian we would have eliminated marching bands by now because they are allegedly tacky and old-fashioned.

I swear to God.

Marching Bands maybe but Drum Core. My wife competed in the 70s and she took me to the DCI in Indianapolis a few years back. Much different.

https://www.dci.org/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4_j...&start_radio=1

[megadude]

I love me some marching bands. Love the pregame/halftime/post game shows when I'm at a college game. And I always try to sit near them in the stands. And I've seen them outside the stadium a couple times march to or from. I really wish we had such a thing here, but I don't see how it's even viable in the US let alone here. It's crazy down there. They even have scholarships for that.

I know there is the Burlington Teen marching band, and even though they're in my neck of the woods, I've never watched them. Mostly because I don't like the music they play based on what I've seen on their site and past YT videos. Though I will have to look into it again because this was a few years ago. I find local steel drum bands more entertaining than them even though they don't have the pomp of a marching band. Any piece of music played on a steel pan sounds beautiful. There was a float in the Raps parade with a steel pan band.


https://www.toronto.com/community-st...l-ambassadors/


https://www.insauga.com/burlington-t...emiere-on-cbc/


https://images.halinet.on.ca/details.asp?ID=65966


https://www.toronto.com/photogallery/5716690/

[esquire]

On some rare occasions in the past the Blue Bombers would feature the odd US college marching band from Minnesota or the Dakotas as halftime entertainment. It was always enjoyable.

[megadude]

I saw that at a jays game as well one time. Can’t remember if it was U of Buffalo’s band or from somewhere else.

[Denscity]

^^^ and the BC Lions brought in the marching band from the University of Washington.
Actually the Lions had their own marching band way back in 1959.

[Airboy]

Used to enjoy the bands that would come through during the Stampeded and Klondike days, and would play at the football games.

1974 FIFA WC, My wife played. somewhere on the drum line.

https://www.gettyimages.ca/detail/ne...hoto/989852484

[JHikka]

Premier Hockey Federation to more than double salary cap, add expansion franchises

The Premier Hockey Federation is more than doubling each team's salary cap to $750,000 and adding two expansion franchises next season in a bid to capitalize on the wave of attention women's hockey traditionally enjoys following the Winter Olympics.

The PHF's announcement Tuesday of its board of governors' commitment to invest more than $25 million over the next three years is also considered a major step in attempting to thaw its relationship with United States and Canadian national team players, who have balked at joining North America's lone professional women's hockey league.

...

The six-team PHF is moving forward with plans to establish a team in Montreal and, without disclosing where, adding another expansion franchise in the United States.

The boost in the cap from $300,000 this season will result in an average salary of $37,500 based on a 20-player minimum roster or $30,000 for a league-maximum 25-player roster. There will be no limits placed on a player's salary as long as the team's overall payroll remains under the cap.

The cash influx will also lead to the PHF providing full health-care benefits to its players, improving facilities and increasing the number of practices. Players will also gain a 10% equity in their respective team and have control over their likeness for marketing opportunities.

The league doubled its salary cap already from $150,000 a year ago, while also adding an expansion team in Toronto.

https://www.espn.com/nhl/story/_/id/...t-women-hockey

[savevp]

Actually, the PHF have scheduled their first All Star Game in Toronto for the end of this month. Unlikely to actually happen but they’ve unveiled logos and sweaters for the event.

[JHikka]

Promotion And Relegation Comes To League1 Ontario
BY JOHN JACQUES ON JANUARY 25, 2022

League1 Ontario has announced a significant restructuring to its competition model that will see promotion and relegation come to a new three-tier league system two years from now.

Entitled the ‘2024 Plan’, a new footballing pyramid will see the men’s and women’s leagues organized into three distinct tiers: The L10 Premier division, the L10 Championship, and League2.

Beginning in 2024, the champion from both League2 and the Championship will advance one rung up the ladder, whilst the lowest performer from the Premier Division and Championship will regress one rung down. With the addition of promotion and relegation to both the men’s and women’s side of the game, every result on the pitch will carry increased importance.

“It will drive better and more meaningful competition across each tier,” said League1 Ontario Executive Director Dino Rossi, “this is an exciting next step focused on the growth of the game and the depth of talent and potential talent in Ontario.”

The top two flights will feature twelve and ten teams respectively for the men’s side, and ten and eight for the women’s. The bottom rung of the ladder will be split into regional-based competition, which means that there’s no set maximum of clubs right now – though only one winner will earn promotion into the Championship.

Clubs will be assigned to their respective positions in the new football pyramid by taking an aggregate points tally from the next two seasons, with their points earned in 2022 being worth 75% whilst points earned in the 2023 season will be worth 100%. In two season’s time, all of the existing men’s and women’s teams will then be sorted into the top two tiers accordingly, with reserve teams dropping into League2. That’s where future expansion sides will need to start, too.

https://northerntribune.ca/league1-o...on-relegation/

[savevp]

Originally Posted by JHikka

Promotion And Relegation Comes To League1 Ontario
BY JOHN JACQUES ON JANUARY 25, 2022

League1 Ontario has announced a significant restructuring to its competition model that will see promotion and relegation come to a new three-tier league system two years from now.

Entitled the ‘2024 Plan’, a new footballing pyramid will see the men’s and women’s leagues organized into three distinct tiers: The L10 Premier division, the L10 Championship, and League2.

Beginning in 2024, the champion from both League2 and the Championship will advance one rung up the ladder, whilst the lowest performer from the Premier Division and Championship will regress one rung down. With the addition of promotion and relegation to both the men’s and women’s side of the game, every result on the pitch will carry increased importance.

“It will drive better and more meaningful competition across each tier,” said League1 Ontario Executive Director Dino Rossi, “this is an exciting next step focused on the growth of the game and the depth of talent and potential talent in Ontario.”

The top two flights will feature twelve and ten teams respectively for the men’s side, and ten and eight for the women’s. The bottom rung of the ladder will be split into regional-based competition, which means that there’s no set maximum of clubs right now – though only one winner will earn promotion into the Championship.

Clubs will be assigned to their respective positions in the new football pyramid by taking an aggregate points tally from the next two seasons, with their points earned in 2022 being worth 75% whilst points earned in the 2023 season will be worth 100%. In two season’s time, all of the existing men’s and women’s teams will then be sorted into the top two tiers accordingly, with reserve teams dropping into League2. That’s where future expansion sides will need to start, too.

https://northerntribune.ca/league1-o...on-relegation/

This is terrific! One day, I'd love to see L10, PLSQ, and other provincial pyramids ultimately line up with the CPL at the top. A way's away but this is the first step.

[JHikka]

Originally Posted by megadude

Like golf courses, there were more pool halls 15-20 years ago than now. Raxx in Brampton became a Good Life. Silver Tips' wing of the plaza was torn down and a Shoppers standalone put in its place. And so many other halls I played in are no longer around. However, I don't think the same thing has happened to bowling during this time, though I bet there were more before the time period I am referencing so I'd guess it went through that already.

Zoomers are doing a good job of bringing bowling back, or at least are trying to.

It's funny how these things ebb and flow. Cue sports have been on a decline, or at least stagnating, in the west but snooker has become overwhelmingly popular in an emerging market like China - so much so that one third of the world snooker tour events are in China and much of the event and prize money derives from Chinese sponsorship. An increasing proportion of the world's top players are coming from China. Pretty crazy to watch play out over the past few years.

[jonny24]

Originally Posted by megadude

Like golf courses, there were more pool halls 15-20 years ago than now. Raxx in Brampton became a Good Life. Silver Tips' wing of the plaza was torn down and a Shoppers standalone put in its place. And so many other halls I played in are no longer around. However, I don't think the same thing has happened to bowling during this time, though I bet there were more before the time period I am referencing so I'd guess it went through that already.

Originally Posted by JHikka

Zoomers are doing a good job of bringing bowling back, or at least are trying to.

Did bowling go away? I'm 28, went to high school from 2007-2011, and bowling was a VERY common activity for kids birthdays parties when I was growing up, and as a Friday/Saturday night hangout when I was in high school. In fact partway through high school the bowling alley was doing well enough that they left the strip plaza they were in and built their own standalone building, with indoor black light mini putt as well. And, my first date with my now wife when she was in university was also bowling, here at Splittsville in Hamilton, so I i don't think it was just a small town thing.

I have two uncle who had basement pool table, and really enjoy playing it, but most pool halls look really sketchy for lack of a better word. I've been to exactly one, and it was with my sketchiest friend and definitely not the type of place I would go on my own without a regular. First time I'd ever seen someone doing coke in a bathroom lol. All the other ones I've seen look about the same from the outside,

Originally Posted by Denscity

^^^ and the BC Lions brought in the marching band from the University of Washington.
Actually the Lions had their own marching band way back in 1959.

Hamilton had a small drumline at every game this year, and I think the Argos do too, although I've not sure if it's every game or if it was maybe just the Hamilton crew coming along to those games. I really enjoy how it adds to the atmosphere.

[esquire]

Originally Posted by jonny24

Did bowling go away? I'm 28, went to high school from 2007-2011, and bowling was a VERY common activity for kids birthdays parties when I was growing up, and as a Friday/Saturday night hangout when I was in high school. In fact partway through high school the bowling alley was doing well enough that they left the strip plaza they were in and built their own standalone building, with indoor black light mini putt as well. And, my first date with my now wife when she was in university was also bowling, here at Splittsville in Hamilton, so I i don't think it was just a small town thing.

I think the way people bowl has changed. It used to be that most bowlers were part of leagues. Tuesday night men's league, Saturday morning kids' league, that kind of thing.

These days it's casual, drop in kind of stuff. People typically go maybe a couple of times a year.

Here in Winnipeg a new bowling alley opened up for the first time in ages recently. Well, maybe not "new"... they moved when the old location was turned into condos. But the point is that the new location, while very nice, does not host any leagues or competitions whatsoever... I was surprised to learn this from one of my inlaws who is a competitive bowler and used to be active at the national level. I get the impression that bowling is seen more as entertainment (like mini-golf) now than as a sport.

[megadude]

I did find it odd that China didn't have much representation in billiards when I started watching. A billion people and surely tables in plenty of bars and lounges. But then I wondered if it had to do with cramped living spaces and so only the wealthy had room at home for a table. And the average citizen didn't have the luxury of spending several hours at a billiards hall every week. And probably the lack of access to media. The Philippines meanwhile has been pumping out top class pool talent for decades now, including arguably the GOAT, Efren "Bata" Reyes.

Fun fact (and stupid), back in the early days of Youtube, I took a 7 second video of me making an easy kick shot on our work pool table, uploaded it to YT and titled it "Kick Shot Master Like Efren Reyes". It got tonnes of views, presumably from the Philippines, and lots of negative comments too lol. Anyway, it was enough for me to get ad royalties, which wasn't much. Now that I think about it, I really should have milked that like people do now. Make more content, use the right tag words and get more creative. Who knows, could have been a side hustle for a while as one of the early niche content creators. My coworker's best friend got his kids to do those play videos with new toys and he'd add little effects to the videos and it totally blew up to the point where he makes millions now. Obviously retired and moved his family from Mississauga to Spain to live the good life, but also be closer to the motherland of Poland, where he and his wife come from.



And yeah, I've only met one competitive bowler, who is my wife's coworker and he's in his late 50s now if not early 60s. Definitely way more about entertainment now.

Now that I think about it, there is one bowling alley I recall closing, which also had pool tables. Lucky Strike at Vaughan Mills was quite the hangout spot when the mall opened. Plus, go kart tracks have also been closing like pool halls. Vaughan Mills had NASCAR Speed Park, which had outdoor and indoor tracks. No idea what either turned into as I didn't go that mall too often outside of Bass Pro.

There were several indoor go kart tracks in the 90s in the west end. There were seven I recall, between North York, Etobicoke, Brampton and Hamilton. Fun City, C-Kart, Pro-Kart, Super Kart, Mini Indy, Formula Kartways and Hamilton Indoor. Now only the Hamilton and Brampton ones remain, with a newer one at Downsview.

I guess the popularity started to go down, possibly in line with Jacques Villeneuve's downward trend. Plus, industrial spaces probably started to go up in value at that time, I would guess.

I talked about this once a few years ago here, but it was always really odd to me that all indoor tracks were located in the west and not one in the east. There's plenty of people and shitty industrial space in Scarboro/Markham too.

[Hawrylyshyn]

Originally Posted by JHikka

Promotion And Relegation Comes To League1 Ontario
BY JOHN JACQUES ON JANUARY 25, 2022

League1 Ontario has announced a significant restructuring to its competition model that will see promotion and relegation come to a new three-tier league system two years from now.

Entitled the ‘2024 Plan’, a new footballing pyramid will see the men’s and women’s leagues organized into three distinct tiers: The L10 Premier division, the L10 Championship, and League2.

Beginning in 2024, the champion from both League2 and the Championship will advance one rung up the ladder, whilst the lowest performer from the Premier Division and Championship will regress one rung down. With the addition of promotion and relegation to both the men’s and women’s side of the game, every result on the pitch will carry increased importance.

“It will drive better and more meaningful competition across each tier,” said League1 Ontario Executive Director Dino Rossi, “this is an exciting next step focused on the growth of the game and the depth of talent and potential talent in Ontario.”

The top two flights will feature twelve and ten teams respectively for the men’s side, and ten and eight for the women’s. The bottom rung of the ladder will be split into regional-based competition, which means that there’s no set maximum of clubs right now – though only one winner will earn promotion into the Championship.

Clubs will be assigned to their respective positions in the new football pyramid by taking an aggregate points tally from the next two seasons, with their points earned in 2022 being worth 75% whilst points earned in the 2023 season will be worth 100%. In two season’s time, all of the existing men’s and women’s teams will then be sorted into the top two tiers accordingly, with reserve teams dropping into League2. That’s where future expansion sides will need to start, too.

https://northerntribune.ca/league1-o...on-relegation/

Wow this is huge! This kind of structure is much better for grassroots soccer and spreading the game, as it allows much smaller communities to compete and be part of the overall system. Exciting time!

As mentioned above, hopefully CPL will be included one day as well

[MonctonRad]

I see that three former Moncton Wildcats D-men with NHL experience have been selected to Canada's men's Olympic hockey team.

I remember Mark Barberio and Brandon Gormley quite well. You could tell immediately by their on ice play they they were destined for great things. Gormley ended up with a Memorial Cup ring and was on the Canadian World Juniors team in 2012. Despite his success, for some reason his NHL career never really took off, and he ended up toiling mostly in the AHL. He is now in the KHL. Barberio had more success in the NHL, and had a career lasting about eight years. He is also currently playing in the KHL.

Jason Demers, I do not remember very well. I only started following the Wildcats about 2005, which was his last year with the team. He had the most successful NHL career of the three, lasting 12 seasons in the show, amassing 214 points as a defenceman. He is also currently playing in the KHL.

Speaking of former Wildcats D-men, I see that Keith Yandle just broke the NHL iron man record, playing in his 965th consecutive NHL game. Congratulations to him! He is arguably one of the top defencemen in the league, and will likely be a hall of famer.

[JHikka]

Originally Posted by esquire

I think the way people bowl has changed. It used to be that most bowlers were part of leagues. Tuesday night men's league, Saturday morning kids' league, that kind of thing.

These days it's casual, drop in kind of stuff. People typically go maybe a couple of times a year.

Definitely.

Originally Posted by megadude

I did find it odd that China didn't have much representation in billiards when I started watching. A billion people and surely tables in plenty of bars and lounges. But then I wondered if it had to do with cramped living spaces and so only the wealthy had room at home for a table. And the average citizen didn't have the luxury of spending several hours at a billiards hall every week. And probably the lack of access to media. The Philippines meanwhile has been pumping out top class pool talent for decades now, including arguably the GOAT, Efren "Bata" Reyes.

Sport in general holds a bit of an awkward space in Chinese culture. I won't get into it, and probably am not really the one to try and explain it anyway, but sporting isn't exactly sexy as a profession compared to something like public service or technical labour. Only recently have more people been able to afford the ability and luxury to play sports more professionally now that hundreds of millions have been lifted out of extreme poverty over the last 50 years.

The interesting thing about snooker is that unlike sports like table tennis or soccer which are driven by government support, its growth is being driven by free enterprise. Chinese view snooker as a luxurious parlour sport of the West, so have gone about building billards halls, clubs, etc. Prior to this a lot of billiards was played outdoors.

Originally Posted by hawrylyshyn

Wow this is huge! This kind of structure is much better for grassroots soccer and spreading the game, as it allows much smaller communities to compete and be part of the overall system. Exciting time!

As mentioned above, hopefully CPL will be included one day as well

I feel as if League1 Ontario using Pro/Rel is a test balloon for the CPL using the system in the future. CPL owns L1O, and so there's definitely connection there between the two. I think a future where potential CPL promotion/relegation is driven through the regional leagues is ideal, IMO, and moves the onous of looking for expansion teams off of the CPL itself and encourages teams who have been playing and have built a following to slowly make their way up the system instead. A much better system, IMO. Very interested to see how it plays out in Ontario in the coming years because there are a few clubs who are getting very serious with their aspirations.

[blueandgoldguy]

Hey the Winter Olympics are on if everyone cares. Definitely feels like it will be subdued with COVID and China hosting. Still, I 'm a sucker for the Olympics and will try to watch as much as I can despite the awkward time zone differences.

Canada is already 3-1 in mixed doubles curling.

I also took a look around at various medal standing predictions and everyone I saw predicted 22-23 medals for Canada for a fifth place finish.

[Acajack]

I am an Olympics groupie and have never had so little interest.

Of course the mayhem down the road in Ottawa is capturing most of my attention right now.