Brace yourselves, kids, because today, there's a trio of things worth contemplating in the world of sports and rather than subject you to three, meandering blog posts about each topic, I thought I'd just boil them down into one big happy clump. So:
1. The Phoenix Coyotes are staying in Phoenix. For the life of me, I still have yet to wrap my head around the idea of Phoenix having a hockey team. (Apparently, they're going to rebrand as the Arizona Coyotes after next season to try and broaden the appeal to the whole state.) But there's a catch: IceArizona (whom I guess is taking over ownership) has an out after five years if they incur losses of more than $50 million dollars. If that happens (and I'm guessing it will) then possible destinations include Seattle, Portland, Las Vegas, Markham (which is, I guess, a 'burb of Toronto) and Quebec City. (At least that's according to the article I linked too, so go figure.) If I was going to guess, I'd say Quebec City or Seattle would be a likely destination for the Coyotes if it comes down to a move- I bet there are still some Nordiques fans up there that would love to get a team- any team back.
2. The MLS wants to add four new teams by 2020. I'm excited yet cautious about this... they damn near screwed the pooch about a decade ago and the league saw a round of contraction and financial troubles as a result. Since then, they've wisely taken a 'slow but steady' approach to expansion and (more pleasingly there's also been a move to more soccer specific venues which I think will be a ton of help going forward. Nothing drained the excitement out of the room more than seeing an MLS team play in a gigantic, half-empty NFL stadium.) My picks for the four new teams: well, New York City FC is already happening... after that, I'd say Orlando City, something in the Carolinas and after that, maybe Minneapolis, since part of their new stadium deal involves the option to bring in an MLS team. There's been a lot of chatter about David Beckham and a possible team in Miami but there's already plenty of competition down there, franchise wise. And the Carolinas seem to have a good tradition of the game on the collegiate level so I think a team could do well there as well.
3. A-Rod gets a 211 game suspension. I'm not passionate about baseball. I'll admit that right out of the gate- some people take this game seriously. Some people keep stats religiously and take all the talk about the national pastime to heart and I'm 100% fine with that. In general, I'm not down with the use of performance enhancing drugs in any sport and that includes baseball. Where I get queasy is with this: after the strike in 1994, everybody tacitly asked no questions about performance enhancing drugs while Sosa and McGuire did their thing and got people pumped up about baseball again. Then, when Barry Bonds came along and did his thing sudden it was a problem. To me, it smells a little funny when you look the other way for a good decade or so and then start get tough and cracking down and smacking players around with suspensions. It feels inconsistent to me. But how do you get beyond the Steroids Era when so many people are now questioning the integrity of the game? That's the tougher question. There should have been a cleaner break with the Steroids Era, to me- an acknowledgement and then a clear statement of what was going to be done going forward to move ahead. And I'm unclear why a bunch of other players get 50 game suspensions and A-Rod gets a 211 game suspension... enlighten me, baseball fans. Help me understand: how does Bud Selig still have a job?
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