As tough as it's been for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers to sell tickets in recent weeks, there's a game on the horizon that shouldn't need any marketing.
Imagine, if you will, a season-ending match between the Winnipeg Blue Bombers and the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, home-field advantage in the playoffs, maybe even a playoff berth, up for grabs.
And Kevin Glenn as Hamilton's starting quarterback.
Get your tickets early, because there's a good chance it'll happen the second Sunday in November.
Ticats coach Marcel Bellefeuille has yanked the starting reins from Quinton Porter and handed them to Glenn, the former Bomber, for at least this week.
From what we've seen, receiver Arland Bruce is right: Glenn, right now, is better than Porter, and figures to stay at the helm.
That could make for an electrically charged atmosphere at the ball park just over three weeks from now.
Assuming, of course, the Bombers and Ticats stay neck-on-neck until then.
BIG-CITY B.S.: So the owners of the Tiger-Cats and Toronto Argonauts want a bigger piece of the CFL's revenue pie?
That's the word from out east, and I can only imagine the reaction that suggestion got around the boardroom table.
The argument is the highly populated southern Ontario market contributes more to the pot in the form of corporate sponsorships and TV ratings, so the Ticats and Argos should take more from it.
To which we say, "hogwash" to Hogtown. Steel City, that's a pipe dream.
Steve Milton of the Hamilton Spectator actually suggested TV audiences and "the spark of national media interest all originate in the Big Smoke."
I'd hazard a guess there are more TV viewers watching the average three-down game in the West than there are in Toronto.
But what do we know, out here in the colonies.
BACK-ROOM DEALINGS: Still with the not-so-good-ship Argonaut, it seems owners David Cynamon and Howard Sokoloski might be ready to unload their sad sack of a team, with old friend David Braley, who already owns the B.C. Lions, rumoured to be in line to buy.
CFL commissioner Mark Cohon quickly tried to stamp out this little firestorm, issuing a statement assuring one and all he's on top of it all, that the owners "keep me informed of important developments."
Sure. Just like he was on top of the back-room arrangement that saw Braley lending wads of cash to Cynamon and Sokoloski when they originally bought the Argos six years ago.
The optics of one man owning two teams in an eight-team league -- incredibly, there's no rule against it -- aren't good, and the league should do everything to avoid it.
COYOTES CURSED?: I see an Arizona columnist is suggesting the Phoenix Coyotes drop all things Winnipeg, including the White Out, in an effort to erase the curse of the Jets, so to speak.
Dan Bickley of the Arizona Republic says the promotion has been nothing but disastrous over the years. Whether it's a big playoff game or this season's home opener, the Coyotes always lose.
Bickley even suggests sending a ceremonial box of white T-shirts back to Winnipeg.
Actually, they may want to send them all here. We may need them sooner than we thought.
MASHED MEDALS: Two things came to mind when I saw pictures of the medals for the Vancouver Games.
Either a budget shortfall forced the manufacturer to halt the production process when they were just half-finished.
Or some kid put them on a railway track as a train approached, just for fun.
HOLD YOUR HORSES: Sure, they've won three in a row. But to see one CFL writer rank the Bombers ahead of the defending champion Calgary Stampeders? With a 6-8 mark?
When's the last time this year's Bombers beat a team with a winning record?
They haven't, yet.
Contact Paul at paul.friesen@sunmedia.ca or 632-2788.
