On The Rebound?

At one time Montreal could be considered a great sports city, can the same still be said? Some say yes some say no. The loss of both the F1 race as well as the demise of the Expos greatly hurt the overall standing.

Maybe a small comeback is perhaps now in progress. No there is no talk about a baseball rebirth, although it would probably be better supported now if there was some decent ownership in Montreal then in Washington (or Florida and Tampa for that matter). It couldn’t be too much worse. Too bad that the same issues are there that led to the team leaving in the first place.

It is reported that there is a tentative deal in place to get the F1 Grand Prix back to the MTL for the 2010 schedule. Montreal was dropped from the 2009 F1 calendar after negotiations with race organizers collapsed.
Bringing a true NASCAR Nationwide event is a huge deal and is well supported. The success of the Rogers Cup Tennis Championship that is currently being played is also a major event for the city. Rumor has it that the X-Games are also in talks to come and hold there premier event in the city sometimes in the near future as well.

The city still has its Canadiens, one of the most historic teams in all of pro sports. Sure it is like pulling teeth to have junior hockey supported in the city but it too is coming along with the Montreal Juniors in the QMJHL.

The MLS may also be on the horizon, not that that should matter - It has the Montreal Impact in some other "footy league" and neither should count as a plus for being a sports city. The Montreal Alouettes are as successful as one can be as a CFL football club.

On the whole Montreal is probably teetering as being a fairly big player in the sports world. It is good venue based just on the number of events, although some are at perhaps a 2nd or lower tier level.

The Return Of A Champion

Not sure how many people saw the crash last week involving Felipe Massa, the F1 driver for Ferrari but it was not pretty. A piece of debris hit him in the head while driving on the track. Thankfully there have been great strides made to safety involving the cars and innovations in regards to the helmets. After being hit he lost control and the car ran into a tire barrier that was 5 or 6 tires deep, crumpling the car. It appears that Massa will be ok but does have an eye injury that may prevent him from driving again.

In the short term it looks like former world champion and Ferrari driver Michael Schumacher will temporarily end his retirement and fill in in that seat.
"The Formula One chapter has been completely closed for me for a long time," Schumacher said in a statement Wednesday. "But for reasons of loyalty to the team, I cannot ignore this unfortunate situation. As the competitor, I am very much looking forward to facing this."
The only reason that I ever watched F1 was to see Schumacher dominate the F1 ranks and cruise to championships (Schumacher is a seven-time F1 champion, winning five consecutive titles for Ferrari from 2000 through 2004 - 91 victories and 154 podium finishes) . As I have mentioned before I admire greatness in sports and when someone is that good and that dominant it is great to see. A lot of people don’t like that and would prefer parody but I choose greatness over mediocrity. Now I will be the first to admit that maybe the reported $80 million a year in the last five seasons at Ferrari was pretty excessive and made him probably the highest paid athlete in the world but no one can argue with results. There is a lot of money in F1 and I suppose by comparison his salary makes some sense. Sure there are people out there that say that it is more the car then Shumi but they have not dominated the sport since he gave up his seat. Just like Jimmie Johnson, people say that it is the car that is the athlete not the driver, in some cases that may be true but putting Casey Mears into the 48 Lowes probably doesn’t win 3 consecutive Championships.
It will be interesting to see how Schumacher responds after such a long layoff. Is this going to be like Michael Jordan coming back to the Bulls the first time to still be the greatest or will he be Michael Jordan coming back as a Washington Bullet errr, Wizard. We will see during a Grand Prix coming to a major European City near you.