Sports
The Prince George Citizen -Friday, June 25, 1993 - 13
Don Schaffer Sports Editor
562-2441 Local 517
SIDELINES
SCORES
Baseball
AL
Toronto 7 New York 2 Baltimore 6 Detroit 2 Milwaukee 5 Cleveland 3 Kansas City 7 California 1 Oakland 3 Seattle 2 NL
San Francisco 17 Colorado 2 Houston 1 Los Angeles 0 Cincinnati 6 San Diego 4
UPFRONT
Runners, swimmers head for Kamloops
Kamloops is the place to be this weekend, especially if you’re a swimmer or track athlete.
Six Prince George Track and Field Club members and three Prince George Barracudas are in the northern Okanagan city for important meets this weekend.
The runners are at the bigger meet — they’re attending the combined B.C. junior championships and Canada Games provincial-team trials.
Meanwhile, the swimmers are at a pre-provincial championship meet at the new Canada Games pool.
Of all the athletes making the trip south, Tammy Brumwell might be the most focused. She’s shooting for a spot in the women’s 800-metre Field at the Games, August 8 to 21.
Shane Bilodeau, who accompanies the team as coach, said Thursday Brumwell and Ryan Press, who’s running the 400 and 800 races in the junior category, both have solid shots at making the Games team.
But he said Colin Crist in the 1,500 metres and Jackie Richards in the 400 and 800 both have shots at the team as well.
Three other juniors are shooting at provincial age group titles as well. Dina de Nys in the 400 and 400 hurdles, Rod Anderson in the triple jump and long jump and Sarah Morgan in the 100, 200 and 400 all leave today for the meet, which runs Saturday and Sunday at the Games facility.
Meanwhile, in the pool, Crystal Colby, Kaili Sargeant and Nicole Schnapp are at an invitational meet that’s the week before the B.C. senior Finals.
ON THE TUBE
TODAY
■ TENNIS: Wimbledon coverage begins at 9:30 on TSN (cable 16).
■ BASEBALL: The Montreal Expos visit the Florida Marlins at 4:30 on TSN (cable 16). The Houston Astros visit the Atlanta Braves at 4:30 on TBS (cable 24). The Toronto Blue Jays visit the Milwaukee Brewers at 5 on CKPG (channel 2, cable 3). The Chicago Cubs visit the Los Angeles Dodgers at 7:30 on WGN (cable 25).
SATURDAY
■ HOCKEY: The NHL draft begins at 9 a.m. on TSN (cable 16).
■ TENNIS: Wimbledon coverage begins at noon on KING (cable 6).
■ GOLF: PGA coverage begins at 1 p.m. on KIRO (cable 7). The PGA Seniors Players Championship begins at 1 p.m. on KOMO (cable 8).
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Bigfoot — big business
Monster trucks draw big crowds, bucks
by ED MILLS Citizen Staff
High brows might pooh-pooh the monster trucks.
Bankers deFinitely don’t.
In the world of sports entertainment, the monster trucks stand somewhere between the World Wrestling Federation and American Gladiators.
In the business of entertainment, the trucks sit somewhere betwen Fort Knox and a gold mine.
Bigfoot and its brothers are big business.
“It’s very, very serious (business),” said Gary Edwards of International Promotions of Phoenix, Arizona, which is putting on the monster truck show at the Prince George Auto Racing Association today and Saturday.
“This year alone we’ll produce some 110-120 events all over the U.S. and Canada. It does have the potential to make big dollars.”
And just like they did with Lassie, this show requires more than one version of its star.
Currently, there are 14 Bigfoots in existence. At any given time they are bruising cars at race tracks across Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand.
Along with the show in Prince George, the monster trucks will also appear in similar shows in Spokane, Wash., Twin Falls, Idaho, and Minott, South Dakota this weekend alone.
Some simple arithmetic paints a bullish picture.
In Prince George — one stop on a seven-city tour through B.C. and Alaska — tickets are going for SI5 for adults and S9.50 for children.
Multiply that by an expected crowd of 8,000 — saying half are children and half adults — and the gross is $98,000 in Prince George alone.
No wonder they call it a monster show.
If yon take Prince George as a conservative example, this seven-city, six-week tour alone could gross $1 million. Multiply that by revenue generated in the other six shows going on across North America and it’s boom time.
Which is why International Promotions has kept a tight hold on the monster truck shows, dirt bogs and the like for the last 15 years.
“We’re the world’s largest monster truck promoters, we know what we’re
Bigfoot pilot Mike Parkes shows Amanda (left) and Dana Walls around his 14,000-pound monster truck.
doing,” said Edwards from his hotel room in Prince George. “We’ve got long-term relationships with probably 100 of the top monster trucks in the world.
“We’re in the entertainment business and people, especially up in Prince George, don’t get to see this often so we have to put on a class show.”
The machines themselves are independently owned and operated and the drivers pay to keep them maintained and in working order.
Big Foot is worth about $100,000, including a motor estimated to cost about $20,000 and tires — the massive six foot ballons that are the truck’s signature — range around $2,000 apiece.
As for Bigfoot’s drivers, they might dress in racing suits, but they could easily be wearing Gucci watches and gold rings.
With sponsorship from Ford, Firestone and Matell, Bigfoot is a best case scenario for drivers Mike Parkes and Brian Conn, who can pocket their paycheques without having to use the money to maintain the vehicle.
At the other end of the spectrum, John Breen, who drives Viper and Mad Dog, doesn’t have a sponsor, so all the money comes out of his pocket to maintain the truck.
The drivers are paid a flat fee per show. None would say what that is.
“Let’s put it this way, I’m eating well,” said Parkes, 44, a New Zealander who built that country’s first monster truck.
“I wouldn’t be here if I wasn’t making money,” said Conn, a 25-year-old American. “I know the promoters are making decent money.”
Like any outdoor event, the monster truck shows have their risks.
Poor weather can kill a profit margin faster than Big Foot can crush a Volkswagon.
“It can be big business but it can also be a dangerous business if you don’t do everything right and if crowds don’t show up,” Edwards said.
Which is why Edwards’ biggest expense goes to his advertising budget. If you haven’t heard one of the show’s ads on radio or TV, you haven’t been listening.
Insurance, track rental and accommodation are the other major fees.
But the rewards remain worth the risk.
“Obviously there’s risk, but if you can’t afford to take those risks, you don’t belong in the business,” Edwards said.
Shows start at 8 p.m. both nights.
Say goodbye to safe travel fund
Speaking of Sports
Don
SCHAFFER
Today is the last day of school.
It’s also the last day of the Safe Travel program.
Three months ago, buried under news of teacher layoffs and contract wrangles was a little portion of a story — just two paragraphs, actually — that explained without elaboration that School District 57 decided it could no longer afford to pay to send its students on buses when they travelled out of town to tournaments or other events.
Here’s hoping the focus of that story wasn’t completely wrong, that the concentration on contracts and other Financial details really was the correct one.
Of course, we won’t know that until this winter, when travel gets dangerous again.
The Safe Travel program was initiated after the death of Ron Pettigrew, the principal of Bethel Christian Christian School in Dawson Creek, and five of his students. The group was travelling in early March of 1988 from Dawson Creek to Lilooet for the B.C. small school basketball championship.
The team was split into two vans. One
Sports Editor
of them made it to Prince George. The other was involved in a head-on collision with a large truck just south of Salmon Valley on one of the most dangerous stretches of Highway 97 North.
All six of the passengers in the van — five young basketball players, students at the school, young boys and young men and the coach they loved — were killed.
Apparently, their vehicle crossed the centre line inexplicably. There was speculation at the time that perhaps the driver was blinded by sun shining off the snow, or off a reflection off the road. There never was an official explanation why the vehicle left its own lane.
Really, it doesn’t matter.
What matters is that six young people — Pettigrew was just 38 — died.
No one shrugged off the accident. As the police reports came in over the scanner and the gravity of what happened began to sink in, the newsroom at The Citizen was silent as it never was before and hasn’t been since.
But it was worse in schools. Everyone
involved in high school athletics lived with a fear, buried far back in their minds, that the next time they drove a team on a trip, they could be the next ones to die — suddenly, victims of fatigue, icy roads, vehicle failure, a careless or foolish driver heading in the other direction.
There isn’t a veteran coach in the North that doesn’t have a horror story about a blizzard, a whiteout, a shower of ice rain, an oncoming car in his or her lane.
Once upon a time, a young reporter working in a small town near the coast went with a basketball team on a midwinter trip to a tournament in the Cariboo. On the return trip Sunday, the school district’s van began to malfunction.
A number of stops for minor repairs later, the coach of the team set out from Smithers for the Final stretch home. About an hour out of Smithers, just west of Hazelton on a mountainous, lonely stretch of road, snow began to fall.
The van’s electrical system began to malfunction again not long after. Rather than stop and take a chance the van would die in a snowstorm at the side of the narrow highway, the coach and the reporter decided to push on.
Maybe that was wrong. Maybe it would have been better to take a chance the van would start again after a stop, or that a Greyhound would happen upon them.
But rather than take that chance, with
the weather worsening and the temperature dropping, the coach drove on. Hours later, with no heat in the bus, one functioning windshield wiper, a barely-working windshield fan and no nerves remaining, the team arrived safely.
It was a nightmare, a nightmare that was part of travel in the north — if you wanted to play, you had to travel, and if you wanted to travel, you had to take a chance.
It is a nightmare Prince George teams haven’t had to live through since the Safe Travel program was instituted. It’s a chance no one has had to take.
But times have changed, and not for the better. The school district won’t pay for travel. Coaches don’t want to drive, and aren’t allowed to if the trip is longer than 300 kilometres.
That means fundraising. As a parent, are you ready to do that?
Yes, times are tough, and money is tight. Yes, the school board has to make budget cuts somewhere, and no cut is going to go uncriticized, because every program has its defender.
No one wants to pay more taxes. But no one wants their children to be at risk.
Yes, the school board has to save money.
But it’s your money.
And they’re your kids.
Think about it.
Panthers, Ducks stock rosters
QUEBEC (CP) — The Florida Panthers and the Anaheim Mighty Ducks now are more than flashy owners and even flashier logos. They’ve got flcsh-and-blood hockey players, too.
The NHL’s newest teams each selected 24 players at an expansion draft Thursday and both clubs ended up with better goaltending than some of the established clubs they raided.
“Every expansion is different,” said Florida president Bill Torrey, who was the New York Islanders’ general manager when they joined the league in 1972.
“You just try to put together a plan and stick to it.”
The Panthers’ plan was to go for the best young players early and
More NHL, page 24
then add veterans. With few scorers available, Florida general manager Bob Clarke built a defence-oriented team.
The Ducks got veteran defence-men and big, quick forwards.
Both teams got Fine goaltending, however, as for the First time established teams were allowed to protect only one goalie each.
Florida got John Vanbiesbrouck from the Vancouver Canucks, Mark Fitzpatrick from the Quebec Nordiques and Daren Puppa from the Toronto Maple Leafs — three veteran goaltenders who had changed teams this year.
The Ducks replied with Guy Hebert, the backup to St. Louis star Curtis Joseph, as well as Glenn Healy of the Islanders and Ron Tugnutt of the Edmonton Oilers.
Alter the goaltending, the expansion squads look like most past expansion teams: strong on plumbers and diggers and short on talent.
John Ferguson, player personnel director for the Ottawa Senators, said that aside from goaltending the new clubs didn’t fare much better than his team did in last year’s expansion draft despite a reduction in the number of players established teams could protect.
“They’ve got more to work with than we had, but I wouldn’t rush out to buy playoff tickets,” Ferguson said.
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