Want to watch the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics opening ceremony? I had to look this up last night so here you have it:
What Day? Friday February 12th What Time? 9pm Eastern Time (6pm Pacific Time) until Midnight (Eastern Time) What Channel? In Canada, it will be broadcast live on CTV, TSN, Rogers Sportsnet, OLN, RDS, OMNI and more. In the US, NBC will be broadcasting it.
The opening ceremony will be taking place at BC Place in Vanouver, BC.
We just made a major upgrade to how player search results appear on sportaholik.com. Basically, those who provide more information on their player profile will rank higher. We think this makes sense because those players are likely more serious and interested in playing. Read the rest of this entry »
Stuck in your office but want to watch the Team Canada Olympic roster announcement live? No problem. While it seems every Canadian TV network is broadcasting the announcement live, there is at least one place where you can watch it live, online: CTV has will stream it live today at noon ET from CTVolympics.ca. I will see you there!
Update: If the video broadcast doesn’t work for you listen to it live online with streaming radio @ TeamRadio.ca
It’s that time of year again. Along with the Christmas holidays brings the IIHF World Junior Hockey Championship. That means Canadians across the country get together and watch the hockey tournament that Canada is expected to win gold, year after year. For those of us without TSN or stuck in our offices during the tournament, the question is how to watch it online. This year, once again, TSN will be streaming the games live on their Web site at tsn.ca. The full schedule of games being streamed online includes every game for Team Canada as well as every playoff game. The schedule this year is quite good, with games shown on weekends, holidays or during prime time in the Eastern time zone. That means a more productive office place, or so one would think. The first game shown online is Canada’s first: Boxing Day at 3:30pm Eastern. The opponent is Latvia. That one could get messy. See you online!
Oh, wait, before I go, here’s one of the more memorable moments in World Junior Hockey. I remember watching this as a kid: The short story is that the Soviets had nothing to lose (but Canada did) so when a skirmish occurred on the ice Soviet players left the bench to join in. The Canadians followed, as to not be outnumbered, and mayhem began. They even turned out the lights for lack of any better way to restore order. Crazy stuff. Oh, and Don Cherry had more than a few things to say as well. See that in the second clip, below. (Aside: I love those old CBC jackets!)
Great news for us Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) fans as tonight, there’s a couple of great events on also happen to be available free (with a cable subscription) and in HD. Those of us who subscribe to either Rogers or Bell cable will be able to take advantage and watch these events live.
Strikeforce Evolution can be seen on Super Channel 2 - SCHD2 (Ch 559 for Rogers, Ch 844 for Bell). Lucky for us, a free preview for Super Channel is available until Mid-Janaury.
Apparently you’re looking for the lyrics to ‘Free To Be (The Leaf’s Song)’ by Alan Frew. Look no further. The song lyrics from the video version are reproduced here courtesy of sportaholik.com (where you can find other Toronto recreational players to play with!):
Free To Be - The Leaf’s Song (Alan Frew, formerly of Glass Tiger)
From the Isle of Vancouver
To the Labrador Sea
One nation, glorious and free
Where I’m free to be me.
From the song of the Prairies
To the call of the ponds
Heroes of times come and gone
Where the memories go on and on and on
Oh! Oh! Oh! This is Canada’s song (Go Leafs Go)
Oh! Oh! Oh! Where my heart belongs (Go Leafs Go)
For those interested in watching the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) and other Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) events streamed live online to your computer, there are a number of options from justin.tv and other websites. The problem is you have to deal with signals dropping suddenly, poor choppy feeds and sometimes lots of popups.
Here at sportaholik.com, we’ve found from first hand experience a better solution that is more stable and reliable. Just follow these simple steps and get ready for the next event!
The Post had a front page article today about the new unofficial Toronto Maple Leafs anthem ‘Free To Be’ (the Leaf’s Song) by former Glass Tiger front man Alan Frew. It seems to be ruffling feathers across Canada as it declares the Maple Leafs to be ‘Canada’s Team’. Catchy tune, sure, but I think fans of the rest of Canada’s NHL teams may have something to say about the lyrics. Judge for yourself, below.
The 2009 Grey Cup is today (Saskatchewan Roughriders and Montreal Alouettes), and since TSN has the broadcast rights those without cable cannot watch the game unless they head to their nearest bar. What are your options to watch the Grey Cup online? So far us at sportaholik.com have found one Web site that appears will be streaming the game starting a half hour before kick off (6pm Eastern): NewWorldChannel.net. Know of other online TSN Grey Cup streams? Please comment below.
As much as I’d like the game to be broadcast on an over-the-air channel, I can’t argue with TSN producing CFL games. They, far and away, put on the best CFL coverage. Far better than the CBC ever did. Enjoy the Grey Cup, Canada!
The Toronto Argonauts were soliciting feedback from Argonaut fans after this dismal 2009 season. I decided to fill out the survey as I’m a big fan (despite their awful record). What does an Argonauts fan sitting in the same end zone seats for four years think? Here are some ideas. These are more than I could write in the survey as they limited their ‘additional comments’ field to 350 measly characters - yowch, do you want feedback, or not?
Bring Back the End Zone Seats
This past season the Argos got the big idea to replace the end zone seats (regular ‘Skydome’ seats) with benches-sorta. Bottom line is there’s no seat backing and they’re really not comfortable at all. The ‘official’ word was it was to build camaraderie among the end zone patrons. Great goal, but wrong approach. These ’seats/benches/whatever’ are horribly uncomfortable.
Lets Fans Keep the Footballs
A regular occurrence at Argonaut games is when a football misses the mesh on a field goal some lucky fan gets a free ball. Not so fast. They’ll be surrounded by Rogers Centre staff in no time - and asked to give up the ball. The usher I spoke with says it’s a ’safety issue’ — ummm, ok. It seems they may give you a ’souvenir’ football in replacement - which, of course, if not an official ball. I’m not sure if this is the Argos policy, Rogers Centre policy, or that of the CFL. Whatever it is, it stinks. The CFL (and especially the Argos) need every fan they can get. You destroy the fan experience when you start confiscating footballs. How about this scenario: The ball is caught by a young fan attending his first Argonauts game. He’s elated, and brings it to school, telling all his friends what happened. Right away, the Argos are shown in positive light from the best source possible — word-of-mouth. This young fan’s friends take interest in the game and then bug their parents to take them to the next Argos game. If they’re hooked, you may have an Argonauts fan for life. The alternative is that this impressionable young fan is bugged by multiple Rogers Centre ushers/security folks to cough up his newly won ball. What’s his story at school now? I can tell you it won’t be positive. So much for getting new Argos fans on that playground. I’m still not sure of the real reason why the Argos take the balls or if the ’safety’ reason described to me is legitimate. I can see how they may want to deter people from running/pushing/whatever for the ball when it enters the crowd, but how does taking the ball away after-the-fact help that cause? Or, if it’s because the football becomes a ‘projectile’ after-the-fact then they should be sweeping everyone for everything they bring in. I can tell you the cowbells of the front row of Section 122 (and 123) can do a lot more damage than that football. Oh, and don’t even think about taking them.
Bring Back the Argonauts Fight Song
We (myself and my fellow Section 122ers) were elated when the Argonauts brought back the Fight Song a year or two ago. What a great way to connect with the past (so much history with this club, why not reach back for some of that!). Also, it’s simply a great tune that had the fans of the end zone and beyond standing and chanting/singing/whatever upon an Argonauts touch down. The Argonotes (including Taylor!) got in the act as well (sidenote: more Argonotes - they’re great!). So, what happened in the 2009 season? Sure the team scored less, but even when they did the Fight Song was not to be played (from what I recall) - or, if it did, it got cut off by some awful promo-bit. Really? Kill the fight song so we can plug Barrie Nissan - or whoever? (side note: ‘dependability, trustworthiness,…’ I forget the rest. Help me out Kent Austin!). So, umm, yeah, bring back the song! Put the lyrics back on the big screen so all can join in. Have the Argonotes play their hearts out. Good times. Hopefully there will be more touch downs, too.
Crowd ‘Promo’ Noise During Defensive - Not Offensive
This one is not my idea, but it’s genius. Hat tip to the Section 122 crowd noise leader, and ‘Renew-Your-Tickets’-poster-boy, Jube. For whatever reason (oh, free stuff!), Argos crowds make noise (and lots of it) for the lame promo giveaways. You know, T-Shirts that say ‘Show us your Parts’ (ok! - enjoy kiddies), and the like. So, coordinate these giveaways for when the defense is on the field and wants fan noise - not when the offense is on the field and want quiet. So simple.
Toronto Argonauts organization, if you’re listening, leave us a little comment below with your thoughts. Thanks-much! I’ll see you next season, hopefully in seats that don’t hurt my…
