This Alma Matter Doesn’t Matter

One of the most influential times in a young person’s life, is attending university – or at least it was for me.

And NO, I’m not talking about the academic side of the coin – although that too is very important. I’m talking about all the other things that matter – like hanging out with classmates at the campus pub and debating some big mind over matter problem, joining a club or sporting event, or kissing the prof’s butt to get a good grade.

I never did the last item on that list. Honest.

But whatever you do aside from reading books, listening to professors with bated breath, or writing essays and exams, university life gives young people a chance to explore who they really are, so they can become somebody in our crazy world.

That’s what I took away from my university days. I’d never have been what I am now, had I not had that amazing opportunity.

So whenever I hear about something from my alma matter, my ears perk up. Even more so when there is something big and impressive happening on my former university campus.

Which just so happened this past weekend – I attended the Rogers Cup Tennis tournament held at the Rexall Tennis Center at York University.

Even back in the day when I was a student, they held part of the Canadian national tennis tournaments at my school.

Every summer they alternate between the men and the women’s tennis between Toronto and Montreal. This year it was the men’s tournament, so big name tennis celebs like Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Daniel Nestor were lobbing and volleying on the courts here in Toronto. In Montreal, big name women’s tennis players this year include Serena and Venus Williams, Justine Henin and Maria Sharapova.

Just my luck, it rained for most of the day, but that wasn’t my big gripe. I was extremely proud, and maybe even a little teary-eyed as I stepped foot on my old university campus’ grounds. Fond memories of a time long ago, which led to me being who and what I am surfaced, and even despite the rain, it felt good to be there.

And you’d figure, with the world’s sport media in attendance, people from all over the world flooding the university campus, and even some non-tennis celebs wandering around to take in the matches, my university would be beaming proud.

They certainly beam when it comes time to remind me about donating to the alumni fund several times a year. I do participate in alumni events – I love my school.

But this year, there wasn’t much well-deserved beaming from my school – it was as if they just didn’t care.

There were big corporate logos plastered everywhere from all the media, private company and government sponsors – but the host facility, MY UNIVERSITY wasn’t being promoted. Not in the literature being handed out, the logos everywhere you looked, nadda, nothing.

I was very disappointed – especially in York University’s marketing program. If they can’t take advantage of an opportunity right on their doorstep, what good are they?

But I was even more disheartened by the greed of the big corporations which did get their logos everywhere, but kept the host’s logo out.

It was like barging into someone’s private party, and leaving without even thanking the host.

Years ago, Tennis Canada, which organizes the event, threatened York University to get a bigger stadium. When I was a student, the event went on at the National Tennis Center at York University, which saw the likes of legendary tennis players Bjorn Bork, John McEnroe, Ivan Lendl and others over the years.

Tennis Canada threatened to pull the event out of York University, if the university didn’t provide the pompous national tennis association a new stadium.
 

Sadly, York University caved, and built the spectacular venue which now houses the event – there are several indoor courts, along with the main stadium court, which dwarfs similar venues.

In the process of providing the land, and part of the funding for building their precious new stadium, Tennis Canada dropped the “at York University” from the name.

Guess having it named after a chain of Canadian drug stores – it is now known as the Rexall Tennis Centre – is more worthwhile, because big drug companies provide far more to society than a university.

I don’t know who I’m more frustrated with – my university for selling out, the big greedy corporations for buying out the space, or Tennis Canada for their part in ignoring their more than accommodating host.

But then these days, nothing is spared the corporate greed of bribery for naming of a sports stadium. There’s the Staples Center, The Rogers Centre, The Air Canada Center and many more.

It’s just strikingly sad when nothing is safe from being branded.

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Vancouver 2010 – Washed Out, Fenced In, Another Big Owe?

When I was in grade eight, I went with my school class on a field trip to Quebec – it was a rite of passage as we graduated from elementary to high school. One of the many wonders we saw was Montreal’s Olympic Stadium, with its suspended roof.

I still have the pictures from that field trip, showing the partially-covered stadium, as the roof was being repaired – again. That stadium has since been nicknamed by us Canadians as “the big owe,” because it – and much of the Olympics held in Montreal, Quebec in 1976, cost that province, the city and even the country more money than it brought in.

Ever since the Montreal Expos baseball team left Montreal (they went to just as lackluster a baseball town – Washington, D.C.) in 2004, Montreal’s Olympic Stadium has spent much of its time doing what it does best – fall apart.

Will the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics currently center stage in the world’s media suffer the same fate?

Although it is amazing to be a citizen of the host country, are two-weeks of good press worth millions of lost tax dollars?

Final attendance figures won’t be in until the Olympics packs up and leaves Canada’s west coast, but already we are seeing a string of bad luck which could washout any chance of recouping municipal, provincial and federal money spent to bring the Winter Games to Canada.

From the very public torch malfunction during the opening ceremonies, to the latest hero at the 2010 Winter Olympics – a Zamboni – of all things.

The speed skating rink suffered a premature meltdown and the ice resurfacing machine onsite malfunctioned, which forced organizers to import a Zamboni all the way from Calgary, Alberta to repair the ice rink. The Zamboni brought in was the only one powerful enough to handle the Olympic-sized ice rink

Yesterday 20,000 ticket-holding fans weren’t let into the snowboarding venue – for their own safety – because people were falling and getting stuck between the bales of hay under the trucked-in snow used to create the observation areas. The snow had been melting under Vancouver’s warm weather, creating an unstable, and unsafe, observation area.

Early this morning, construction workers finally removed the chain-link fence preventing Olympic-goers from taking pictures of the giant Olympic cauldron. A Canadian TV reporter even called the barricade a “ratty-looking prison-camp fence.”

And nothing could ever overshadow the death of a Georgian Luger on the very first day of the Olympics, just hours prior to the opening ceremonies, during a training run. The luge track has earned a reputation since its opening in 2007 as the fastest, most challenging, most feared – and now the most deadly track in the world.

So, will the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics go down bigger than the “Big Owe” in Montreal, and end up costing Canadian taxpayers more money?

Already the games have lost $1.5 million in revenues, from 28,000 canceled tickets at Cypress Mountain due to poor weather for the halfpipe and snowboardcross. Fans who spent the $50 to $65 to see the events will get their money back – but just add that to the cost to Canadian taxpayers to bring the games here.

Not to mention the cost to taxpayers to truck-in all the snow and snow-making equipment – Vancouver rarely gets much snow – who’s brainchild of an idea was it to hold the WINTER games there?

Rain and mild temperatures have prevented many events from going at their regularly scheduled times. Yesterday the men’s super-combined was postponed because of an overnight snowstorm, while the women’s downhill training was cancelled – the downhill training had previously been repeatedly postponed because of rain and warm temperatures.

Locals attending the games have begun to call it the Vancouver Summer Olympics, because of the mild wet conditions – but that joke is costing the games – and the Canadian taxpayer – plenty, with all the cancellations, and constant rescheduling of events.

The British press has already begun calling this the worst Olympic Games ever – even worse than the 1996 Atlanta Summer Olympics, which were marred by many technical problems, and overshadowed by a terrorist bombing. The “Brits” play host to the next Olympics in London.

Maybe all of this will be good for Montreal – no longer will that Canadian city stand alone in an Olympic-sized debt?

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Holiday Could Teach Woods Many Life Lessons

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Ex-Toronto Blue Jay Roy Holiday could teach professionally embarrassed golfer Tiger Woods a thing or two about life.

Recently traded to another team – and one of the best pitchers in major league baseball – Roy Holiday took out a full-page newspaper ad in Toronto, thanking his fans for all the years he spent as a Toronto player.

In the ad, he says he was blessed for having the opportunity to play for Toronto’s ball club since 1995, and that the city will always have a special place in his heart.

Tiger Woods on the other hand, has led the media on quite the merry-go-round, with mistresses popping up like discarded plates at a banquet. However the banquet Tiger Woods had can talk.

Not to say that all Toronto Blue Jays were the best mannered. Back in the 1980’s Roberto Alomar spit on an umpire – he later apologized – and then there were the constant temper tantrums of legendary outfielder George Bell. Bell once threw a water cooler at then manager Jimmy Williams, barely missing the man by mere inches.

But if Tiger Woods was less interested in taking out his “woods” with women other than his wife, he wouldn’t be in all the trouble he currently is in – with his fans, his sponsors and most importantly of all – his family.

Although cheating on a significant other is never a good idea, to cheat on that person 15-times with women – some very high-profile ones too – all over the world shows a lack of respect, and personal integrity.

And that’s exactly what Roy Holiday can teach the Tiger – respect and personal integrity. Players get traded from Toronto teams all the time, yet Holiday is the first one to take out a full-page ad in a major daily newspaper thanking his fans for their loyal support. No one asked him to do it, he’s a good, honest and respectful person, chock full of something Tiger Woods lacks.

And what is it that Tiger Woods lacks? What could anyone worth over a billion dollars possibly not have?

The one thing which makes even the richest men in the world the poorest – personal integrity.

The Elitism of Pro Sport

It’s said the higher up the corporate ladder one travels, the easier life becomes. So a president and CEO of a large corporation has an easier working life than say, the receptionist answering calls at the front desk.

It appears this holds truest for professional athletes - only difference, they get paid big bucks to play kids games.

I was at the Rogers Cup this past weekend, and saw first-hand just how spoiled professional athletes are. The Rogers Cup is one of the biggest professional tennis tournaments in the Canada, and the world. It isn’t Wimbledon, or the French Open, but it still draws the big name tennis players from all over the world.

The Rogers Cup runs all week, but began on the weekend. Tennis is a very demanding sport, causing you to have to run, jump and swing. But if y

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ou’re a pro athlete, you can sit in the shade, no matter where you are - they have people that open up big umbrellas during sets, just you. Need a towel to wipe off the sweat - no problem, they have people that will toss you a towel whenever you want - they’ll probably even sponge you off if you asked them too. Hit a ball past the line? Don’t worry, they have people that will pick those up for you, so you don’t have too. Just about the only thing they don’t have for you is someone to actually play the game - you still have to do that for yourself, even at the pro level.

This elitism holds true in many professional sports. In the major leagues of baseball, when the umpire calls for more balls, he doesn’t have to go to his gym bag to get them, a ball boy will come running out with a handful of freshly minted ones.

When a ball player breaks his bat, that same ball boy - now called the batboy - will bring out a brand new bat.

Must be nice to have those perks at the professional level. I’ve played the odd tennis match a while back, and although it was a long time ago, no one ever brought out an umbrella to cover my head from the sun, and there certainly wasn’t anyone offering me a towel.

I remember many years ago, when professional baseball players walked out and went on strike, complaining about pay, job security, the usual suspects in a labour dispute. As the strike went on, and forced the cancellation of

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the All Star Game, many fans lost interest - and rightly so.

Baseball is just as much a sport as any - it involves quick reflexes, strength and endurance. But it is also a fun and enjoyable game - one that even kids play. So when some older kids stop playing, because the millions they make to play this kids game just weren’t enough - understandably many fans will disappear in disgust.

When that strike first happened, that was my thought process - that they were overpaid spoiled brats. Now I see the world differently - thanks to the elitism of sport.

Oh they are still way overpaid to play that kids game, but it is the professional sport industry which breeds that attitude and fuels the fire wanting more.

By constantly doting on professional athletes like Gods, we’ve created monsters that expect to be treated like royalty, or else they throw a temper tantrum like a spoiled kid. And that is what they really are - just overpaid spoiled children.

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