Friday, September 04, 2009

Friday-isms

Bring on the long weekend....


- It's the Broncos and Warriors tonight in the first home exhibition action of the pre-season.

I'm not expecting much tonight with a young line-up on the ice... presumably for both teams. But with that said we are only two weeks away from the regular season and the Broncos have a long way to go to get to where they want to be.

Face-off at 7:30pm.


------------

We have received some calls and emails regarding our first broadcast on the Eagle 94.1 FM. There is a slight chance we will broadcast next Friday's exhibition game. If that isn't the case then we will be on the air for the season opener against the Warriors two weeks from tonight.


----------

This is my last chance for a break before the grind of the season begins. One last chance to do something other than hockey before seven straight months of wall-to-w
all stick and puck and the work that goes into it.

It's funny
, most people don't know what they will be doing from weekend to weekend. Love it or hate it, I know I'll be in a rink somewhere and in a broadcast booth the next 28 weeks plus playoffs with a small reprieve at the Christmas break.

This doesn't just go for me, it's the same for the players, management and coaching staff for every WHL team.

Sure you miss out on some things but when I think about it, what else would I rather be doing?

-------------

My weekend begins tomorrow with a Charity golf tournament with friends in Regina at the Joa
nne Goulet Golf Club and then rolls into Labour Day football festivities from there.
I've heard Molson has donated 200 beer for the weekend. No joke.

Stop by the Sandercock household - 1746 Boyd Street on Regina's east side. It's all in the name of charity for the Regina Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.


------------

As for the Riders game on Sunday? I have a bad feeling about this one. Namely because the Riders inability to stop the run and the Bombers' Fred Reid who churned out 260 yards on the ground in his last outing.

The Riders have had the Bombers number lately in the Labour Day Classic, hopefully it continues.

------------

Lots of fo
otball fans at the Comp Field for the Comp Colts season opener yesterday. The Colts held their own against Moose Jaw Peacock - last year's provincial champs. Peacock went on to a 15-1 win. The Colts should be just fine this season. I got a text from the coaching staff last night saying they were encouraged with their effort.

Just a side
note here. One of the Colts players was attempting to fire up the west side stands for most of the game. While I appreciate his efforts, when you get stuffed in your own end zone and give up a safety, it's not the time to look over to the stands and ask them to get on their feet.

------------



"How are the rats?"

It's a
question I get daily from out-of -towners through email, text or facebook.

Truth is, I've seen only one...and it was about a month ago.

The City has gotten a bad rap for this...people outside the city think we are crawling with them. From my perspective alone it's not something I see or think about on a daily basis.

It does grind my gears a little to see reporters and media outlets from CBC TV/Radio, CTV, Global, CHAT, etc. invading our city for wall-to-wall rat coverage. But, we have some individuals in our city who keep feeding the media frenzy so they keep coming back. These people were even hanging outside the City's news conference waiting for reporters to exit so they can get get that craved attention. It's become like a drug. They need that fix... that picture in the paper, name in the headlines, voice on the radio. "Look I'm on the TV!"

I'm not kidding, such a thing does exist.

What the outside media doesn't see is a long-standing grudge by some against the city and it's elected officials.

I love this city and it's people and I don't appreciate being thrown under the bus.

Ryan Switzer reminded me of a quote the other day.

"The fire that burns some keeps others warm."

Is there a rat issue? Yes. Does it deserve national media attention? The hell it does.

Please don't feed the addiction.


Have a great long weekend!

Jon



-----------

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Jon,

I agree with you that bringing this kind of attention to the city on the rats is not what we want. However if the city would have done their job in the first place and admited there was a problem and started to do something right away to address it we would not be talking about it right now. Those concerned citizen that you mention that crave media attention tried to get council's attention on numourous occation and nothing was done. They had little choice but to go public with this to get some action from the city. If it wasn't for them the city more than likley still would not have done anything to address the problem. I am very proud of the people that stood up and did something to address this issue they should be commended not ridiculed by people like yourself. If you knew the whole story you would be totally embarrassed by they way the city handled this situation.

Jon Keen said...

I just don't want to field rat questions for the rest of my time in this city.

Despite some early reluctancy, the city has handled our concerns from a radio station perspective.

Like you, I just want this to go away. I just think if could have been handled differently.

Thanks for your input.

Joel Siemens said...

I agree on both points but more with what Jon says. The City should have done more at the start but as a business owner taking it to the National Media was just plain dumb. When I have friends from BC, Ont and places in between asking me about it something is wrong. This has totally impacted our tourism industry. When people from Shaunavon and even Maple Creek going to Medicins Hat instead to do their shopping it hurts all of us, and that is what I have a huge problem with. They should have Known better.

Enough now with Rats. It time for Hockey Season. How sweet it is. See you at the rink Jon.

Anonymous said...

I don't like the fact that we are getting all of the media attention either. But, a lot of good things have been done in the past 2 weeks regarding the rat situation. It sure makes you wonder whether the City would have stepped up and done these things if they hadn't been called out in the media. It's too bad it came to this but I think our City definitely misjudged the situation and got burnt for it.

Jon Keen said...

I agree Joel. Also, thanks for taking the time to sign your name like you always do.

jon

Anonymous said...

My prediction is the Broncos will be a good team this year, not great and will finish ahead of PA/MJ and likely Regina but well behind Saskatoon and Brandon.

I won't sign my name because I could put anything and I would still be a fictionous character.

Saskatoon, Brandon
SC, Regina
Moose Jaw
PA

Those are the 4 tiers to a 6 team division this year!

Jon Keen said...

That seems to be the feeling for a lot of people. On paper it seems to line up that way.

Anonymous said...

Jon, don't become like the Regina media and judge people solely on how the acocomodate the media. The city may have been accomodating to the radio station, but they let down 16,000 other citizens.