kiwi_canadian

A few more kits revealed. I'll start with Toulouse from France and their new Nike away kit:

 

From the Gallagher Premiership we have 2 teams. First up is the Harlequins new home kit by Adidas:

 

And Bristol's new home and away kits by Umbro:

 

And finally from the URC, Glasgow's new home and away kits by Macron:

 

More URC kits. Italy's Zebre Rugby Club by Macron.

 

Personally I liked last year's kit better and got one for myself.

 

Osprey has released teasers and theirs will be supplied by Umbro.

A couple more from France's Top 14. First up is Stade Français Paris. They are always known for going over the top and these are no exception:

 

Next up is Brive:

 

A few more from today. France's Top 14 La Rochelle's new "Noir" and "Jaune" jerseys:

 

Also from the Top 14, Bordeaux's "Heritage" European jersey:

 

And from England, Gloucester's new away jersey:

More United Rugby Championship jersey releases. Connacht has released their away and European jerseys:

 

United Rugby Championship's Ulster's new home kit, first one since 2019.

 

A few more kits before the season...

 

Toulouse new home kit by Nike:

 

Leinster's new European jersey:

 

and finally Bristol's new kit by Umbro. Not sure if this is home or away though...

Toulon's Nike away kit: (it says its the 2021 kit so they could just be carrying it over for another season)

 

The BCHL is celebrating their 60th anniversary this season and they've announced that all 18 teams will wear a throwback jersey.

 

Times Colonist Story

 

Here is the logo for the anniversary:

This was just a matter of time for the jersey ads. For us jersey obsessed people, it sucks, but in the end of the day I don't think the average fan is going to care. Yes it is all about the money and after have no butts in seats for about a season and a half, they need as much money as possible. The NHL on the North American sports landscape is probably number 4 or 5 in popularity and was always going to have an issue with money, espcially in the non traditional markets. 

 

When it comes to the actual jerseys, many were upset with the helmet ads but after people saw them on ice, many stopped caring as it didn't really take away from the overall look. They won't appear on the Fanatic jerseys or the Adidas Premier jerseys for fans to buy and unless you are getting a game worn jersey (although I thought I read somewhere that that was not going to be possible under Adidas) then we won't have ads on the jerseys. On TV or in the stands, they won't really be noticable. I remember going to a few Salmon Kings games back in Victoria when they were around and even right up on the boards, the Save-On-Foods patch was not noticable.

 

Personally I don't like the idea of ads on the jersey for traditional reasons and that the NHL has lasted this long without them but I also know that this was bound to happen and it won't really take away from the overall look of the team on the ice... In the end, the die hard fans care more about the performance on the ice more than what they are wearing, at least thats how it is here in Oil Country.

Seeing as it is a new season, I thought I will start a new topic and move the stuff from the other one to here. So here is what we have so far:

 

France's Top 14 club Bordeaux Begles Kappa home kit:

 

Clermont Away and 3rd:

 

La Rochelle home:

 

Montpellier home, away and third:

 

Toulon home kit:

 

Racing 92:

 

 

Over to the Gallagher Premiership, we'll start with Gloucester's new home kit:

 

Leicester Tigers home and away:

 

Northampton Saints:

 

London Wasps home kit and new logo:

 new logo:

Old logo:

 

Finally the United Rugby Championship's (formally the Pro14) Connacht:

 

Munster home:

 

 

Here is the jersey:

 

 

Wexham AFC released their new kits by Macron and new shirt sponser TikTok

 

 

They are owned by Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney. Reynold had funny video about guessing who the new sponsor would be and included companies like PanAm Airlines, Delorian Motor Company and Enron.

 

 

8 hours ago, nash61 said:

The new OHA Graduate League announced their second team today.

 

1. Paris Mounties

2. Hamilton Henchmen

 

 

So why are these guys allowed to use the "Mounties" name and likeness on a logo but when Vancouver got the NBA and wanted to use the name, they were told no? I know the logo was terrible and the on court performance was dreadful but that aside, why is this ok and the NBA was not?

 

For the record, I much prefer the Grizzlies name over "Mounties".

The VIJHL (Junior B level) announced 2 new teams in the past couple of days. The Port Alberni Bombers and the Lake Cowichan Kraken.

 

The bomber is the old Martin Mars water bombers that were stationed in the Alberni Valley at Sprout Lake. They were sold a few years ago and are now somewhere else but they were a huge part of the Alberni Valley as well as Vancouver Island during forest fire season. If you have ever seen those things in action, you were very lucky. They were huge and as a kid when I saw them once up close, I was in awe.

 

 

The other team is the Lake Cowichan Kraken and yes they took a lot of similarities from the Seattle team. They based the name off of a local legend about Stin'Qua who is like Ogopogo and lives in Lake Cowichan. (Although as a kid who went to Lake Cowichan every summer, I never heard about this lake monster).

 

And I'm not sure if this was mentioned already but I'll put this here anyways. The Saanich Braves changed their name last season to the Saanich Predators. They changed the name because of the movement to drop Indigenous peoples as names and logos.

 

 

Victoria won't get a minor pro team again. RG Properties' main goal when they built the Save-On-Food Memorial Centre was to get a WHL team. When the league said they wouldn't expand and no franchises were available to relocate, RG Properties purchased the Baton Rouge Kingfish of the ECHL and had them play there until a WHL team became available... Fast forward to when the Atlanta Thrashers moved to Winnipeg, the Moose became available for relocation in the AHL and there was a lot of talk of them coming to Victoria as the Canucks affiliate. The WHL didn't want to lose Victoria as a market so they let RG Properties buy the Chilliwack Bruins and relocate them to Victoria. Victoria got their beloved WHL team back and the Moose moved to St. John's and became Winnipeg's AHL affiliate. The NHL returning to Winnipeg had a major effect on 4 leagues in Canada. I think Victoria is always going to be a major junior city. The minor pro circuit was a good filler but fans really wanted the WHL.

 

Also we can't forget about the Victoria Grizzles (formerly the Victoria Salsa) of the BCHL who play out in Colwood at The Q Centre (I think they should rename the team to the West Shore Grizzles or something that reflects their location more accurately). Another hockey league/team would really over saturate the market there. The Grizzles don't draw that well and I think the Royals are now back in the rebuilding phase and are not seeing a lot of on ice success. This will hurt their attendance when they eventually return to playing in front of fans.

 

 

3 hours ago, alexandre said:

Feels like a longshot, but does anyone have a good rugby league template?

 

Sports Templates - Rugby

 

I've been using this for a couple of years now. You do have to pay but I've enjoyed using it and I feel the quality is pretty good.

44 minutes ago, monkeypower said:

 

As someone who's from Calgary and lives in Edmonton for school, I (and a bunch of other Albertans) already kind of knew that some of this was going to be the case. Some of the promo videos showed the mountains and Edmonton isn't part of the mountains, if it was a Calgary bubble than the mountains could be a possibility, but not Edmonton. The Toronto bubble also always seemed to be the better of the two and the comments from players here now look to prove that. I have not gotten around to driving up to the arena and bubble to see it for myself but maybe I should make the time to after this article.

 

I know some Edmonton teams went to the Rec Room, which I would describe as a more upscale Dave & Busters (as someone who hasn't been to a Dave & Busters), but that's a 20-ish minute drive away and I only saw video evidence of two teams going there and it probably was just for an afternoon.

 

There was also a little noise that players were ready to complain about the amenities right when they got to the bubbles, but then they (or their agents) saw what was being said about the NBA players complaining about that bubble (as seen here in this thread) and nixed it.

 

 

So this kind of thing has come up many times about the NHL and NBA players in the bubbles.

 

Is there a personal wealth or privilege threshold that we as a society have decided that when broken by a person, they are not allowed to complain about anything anymore?

 

With the NHL bubbles, specifically the Edmonton one, it's clear that the NHL overpromised (and underdelivered) at best and straight up lied at worst about what the players would be able to do and be able to have. They've been locked in and isolated for two months now, I know that if I was a player, I would be having mental and emotional health issues with the bubble.

 

I could also say that I'm tired of people like you complaining about hockey players complaining, when you are so entitled because you have internet access and the ability to watch hockey when there are people in third world countries that will never get easy access to clean water in their life.

 

Everybody is privileged in some form or another and it becomes just a sad game of trying to reverse outdo each other and policing what can and cannot make other people sad or unhappy depending on their status.

 

Are there times when the sadness can be a bit much when you do consider the context? Yes.

 

Is it easier to just fallback on the money argument and post zombielandwoodyharrelsonwipingtearswithmoney.gif to upvotes or retweets? Also yes.

 

Do I think it's right? No.

 

Okay take the amount they earn out of the equation. For argument sake, they make $55 806.40, which is for an average Canadian working a 40 hour work week. They still had the option for opting out of the bubble for the remainder of the season with no financial repercussion. How many people during this entire thing had that option? I doubt really anyone had that. The point is, these guys had work (which lots lost their job, including people who worked in the arenas they played in) AND had the option to not work and get out of the bubble WITH PAY. So to me they don't get to complain, especially when they had an easy out. 

13 minutes ago, CS85 said:

ESPN has a great read on how the NHL conned players into going to Edmonton's bubble which was, by one account, a prison with a Tim Horton's truck in its exercise yard.

 

https://www.espn.com/nhl/story/_/id/29939605/nhl-bubble-confidential-go-toronto-edmonton-playoff-hubs

 

 

"Even playing golf was a hassle," one Western Conference player said. "You have to set up a golf time. It has to be an exact time, but it has to be everybody or nobody. Realistically, what team is going to set up a full-team golf outing between Games 3 and 4 in the second round?"

 

It wasn't just the lack of golf trips that irked players. "They promised us excursions: 'Oh, we're going to have fly fishing and golf, a golf course just for us -- you can go whenever you want -- and a field,'" a Western Conference player said. "We went to the field one time. It was a fight to even golf once. And please let me know if you talk to anyone who went fly fishing."

In fact, fly fishing became a punchline.

 

"In the little brochure they sent, there was a picture of a man fly fishing in the mountains, and one of the guys was like, 'Where did they get this picture of the mountains? The mountains are three hours away,'" a Western Conference player said.

 

Oh please! What a bunch of whiners. If they didn't like it, they could opt out at any time without having any repercussions. So you didn't get to go fly fishing or golfing when you wanted? Just shut up already! You are one of the few lucky people to not have to worry about possibly not having a place to live or food to eat during all this. There are millions of people who have lost their jobs and ways of life during this COVID thing and you are complaining you don't get to go fishing? Sounds like their are a pretty entitled bunch. I'm getting tired of athletes who make millions of dollars to play a game complaining about their way of life.

 

There, my rant is over.

Dean MacDonald, the owner of the Growlers, has purchased an ECHL expansion team for Iowa.

 

Coralville announces it is getting a professional hockey team

To add to the Mavricks news, they released their jerseys as well:

 

97th Grey Cup: The "Too Many Men on the Field" penalty... Remember scaring the hell out of the 2 Japanese exchange students who had fallen asleep during the game after they had just flown in the day before.

 

 

 

2002 Olympic Gold Medal game Canada vs. USA: The crowd singing Oh Canada with about a minute left and Bob Cole commentating the game.

 

2010 Gold Medal Game: The golden Goal.

 

2019 MLR Championship Game Seattle Seawolves vs. San Diego Legion. The Seawolves have one of the best mauls in the game and it was what won it for them in the final play.

 

 

1994 Game 7 Stanley Cup Final: The Canucks really did deserve to win the Cup that year.

 

2011 Game 7 Stanley Cup final: Though the Canucks were the best team in the NHL that year, they did not play like that in the finals. They were pushed around by the Bruins and really didn't deserve to win it that year... Still hurt though.

 

1998 Mens Olympic Quarter Finals, Czech Republic vs. Canada:  NHL players playing in the Olympics for the first time and was pretty devastated when Canada lost to the Czechs in the shoot-out... still remember how excited I was at 3am when Trevor Linden tied the game late in the 3rd though.

A slight change on the Victoria Royals sweaters. They have replaced their shoulder logo with the word mark logo.

 

7 hours ago, CGL77 said:

The Huskies and Olympiques have also worn their RBK Edge alts this season. 

As have the Victoria Royals