Edmonton Journal from Edmonton, Alberta, Canada • 36

Sports i Hey kids! Break open those piggy banks Nashville's Predators promise not to prowl The Associated Press 1 'y Mark Ljii Spector I Comment "There is no chance" of that happening, Leipold said. "We've never had any conversation with anyone from Houston, anyone from Alexander's organization. We've never spoken with anyone from Edmonton." Team president Jack Oilier said the franchise win continue efforts to meet the NHL requirement of selling 12,000 season tickets by the end of March. The team must sell 4,200 to 4,400 more tickets or risk losing the franchise. Oilier is confident the goal will be met.

for the financially troubled Oilers. Prospective buyers in Edmonton have 30 days to come up with $70 million to counter that bid. Since there's no place in Houston for the Oilers to play, some speculated Alexander would shift the Oilers to Leipold in exchange for the expansion franchise. The Preditors are scheduled to begin play this fad. The Oilers then would become the Predators and play at Nashville Arena The Houston franchise would begin play in 2000.

giving Houston enough time to build its own hockey arena. Nashville, Term. The Nashville Predators are not planning to move. "Under no circumstances will the Predators franchise be moved to Houston, nor will the Edmonton Oilers franchise be relocated to Nashville," Predators owner Craig Leipold said Thursday. Talk of a possible move started this week after Houston Rockets owner Leslie Alexander bid $82.5 million US Edmonton Well, it's official.

Let the first child smash open their piggy bank on the steps of city hall. We are now Winnipeg. And we have no choice but to be Winnipeg, because as Rick LeLacheur admits, this city's big money types, "have not got it done" Hopefully after 28 more days we can go back to being Edmonton, where the bagels may not be as good but the hockey is much better. For this season, anyhow LeLacheur, who has maintained only the hockey portfolio after leaving the reins of Economic Development Edmonton to Jim Edwards, made the official announcement on Thursday "We're looking at a foundation," said LeLacheur. "Rather than looking at the initial impact of smaller share holders, we think we can get it done by the foundation route.

With, maybe a year from now, maybe two years, doing a public (stock) issue." Translation: Because of parameters set forth by the securities commission, it makes things a lot easier if there are less than 50 investors in the Oilers. Yet after six months of seeking major investors, LeLacheur realizes they can't do without any and all donations. They need help from local companies big and small, regular hockey fans, and yes, even kids. West Edmonton' Mall has already pledged $100,000 to the foundation. Any and all donations of any size would be accepted.

The good news is they did this in Winnipeg in the summer of 1996 and "All I know is we're going to give it our best shot, the local investors are going to give it their best shot, and we're going to need the help and support of corporate Edmonton, corporate Alberta, the province of Alberta and maybe even the government of Canada. Rick LeLacheur, Economic Development Edmonton City of Edmonton has to be a player, the province of Alberta has to be a player." They are also talking about a pro sports specific lottery again, but surely there isn't enough time to deal with that. So for now, they will tap the taps and turn the stones that either have been dry for the last six months, or gone undiscovered. "What's going to be the outcome? I don't know," LeLacheur said "All I know is we're going to give it our best shot, the local investors are going to give it their best shot, and we're going to need the help and support of corporate Edmonton, corporate Alberta, the province of Alberta and maybe even the government of Canada." And some help, if you please, from every Edmontonian, Albertan and Canadian who ever complained that we're losing our national pastime to the Americans. Buck up, Don Cherry Here is your chance to stem the tide.

Put your money right here, friend. You. On the tricycle. Want hockey? Where's your piggy bank? E-Mail Mark Spector at mspectorthejournaLsoutham.ca vent them from watching anything past the first period of televised weekday games, now must pay their "user fees" to have a team to cheer for? Actually pay their hero's salaries? Well, Edmontonians might not be there yet But as the old saying goes, we can see it from here. Clearly it is a road we have no choice but to traveL Led by LeLacheur, the patron saint of all Oilers fans for his efforts to save this franchise, at least we can be sure that if it comes down to bake sales and car washes it will be because there is no other choice.

Before it gets to that point, however, I believe we will see a request for public funds. LeLacheur is already alluding to the city's Ed Tel fund, worth around $500 million, that grows annually due to some shrewd investing. "Maybe there are some (investment) returns you could utilize, rather than touching the capital," he said. "The raised about $13 million in two weeks. The bad news is that during the Jets' final days a hockey loving city thrashing about in its NHL death throes held a rally at The Forks, a civic meeting place akin to Sir Winston Churchill Square in Edmonton.

At this rally were several large plastic drums into which school children literally lined up to empty the contents of their piggy banks. It was a pathetic sight, especially when you considered where that money goes, i.e. Jason Arnott's $2.5 million salary But is that where we're at now, two provinces to the west? Even the tiniest of hockey fans, whose bed times pre Life after Doran just fine for Red Deer rink 1 Jj Raptors, new arena bought by the Leafs The Canadian Press Toronto A testy relationship, followed by a whirlwind romance, was consum-; mated Thursday when the Toronto Maple Leafs and Toronto Raptors tied the knot. The Maple Leafs, one of the oldest franchises in the NHL, bought the Raptors, one of the youngest in the NBA, in a marriage of convenience that will see both teams play out of the Raptors' already-under-construction arena in 1999. The Leafs will abandon historic Maple Leaf Gardens and their recent plans to construct their own building, instead chosing to modify the Raptors' Air Canada Centre.

"Single ownership of two teams made one arena possible," said Steve Stavro, co-owner and chairman of the board of Maple Leaf Gardens Ltd. "The economics make much more sense." No financial details of the deal were released, although Raptors owner Allan Slaight said he won't lose any money on the deal. Slaight is surren-; dering his 90-per-cent stake in the Raptors which cost $125 million US when the franchise was awarded in 1993 and ownership of the $227-mil-lion Air Canada Centre. The Bank of Nova Scotia also sold its 10 per cent stake to the Leafs, owned mainly by Stavro, construction mag-v' nate Larry Tannenbaum and the! Ontario Teachers pension plan. The Leafs also intend to buy Union Station, the busiest train station in Canada, from Toronto Terminal Railways and use it as the main entrance to the Air Canada Centre.

The Leafs wanted Union Station seen as the dealmaker for its opulent" structure and for the opportunity to build an office-arena-entertainment centre complex. The deal still needs the approval of the NBA and Toronto city council, which has 60 days to consider the pnK posal. The city owns half the Union, Station land. The two teams haggled, often tumul-tuously, during arena negotiations in 1996 that saw the Raptors change own-, ership. Slaight bought out former partner John Bitove in a move some thought would pave the way for a Leafs-Raptors marriage at a single arena.

Council turned down a Leafs-Rap-; tors proposal on the Union Station site last year. But a new council and new mayor, widely seen as pro-develop-, ment, was elected in November. The Leafs had trashed the Air. Canada building as unfit for hockey in previous talks. Now they say they'll spend an additional $25 million to modify the arena, currently under construction.

Ken Dryden, president and general manager of the Leafs, said the hockey team will benefit by moving from a dilapidated building to a state of the art facility that will seat 19,000 for hockey and 20,000 for basketball. "We get into a new arena sooner that matters," said Dryden, in a wheelchair after a hip replacement Candace Elliott, The Journal Rob Armitage of Red Deer is enjoying the tranquility of competing in the Alberta men's curling championship without the stress of playing with the talented but high-strung Doran Johnson Stories by Ray Turchansky Journal Curling Writer Edmonton It's been a strange feeling for Rob Armitage and Randy Ponich at this year's Alberta provincial men's curling championships. No whispers of derision behind their backs. No snickering. It was guilt by association for Armitage in 1992 and 1993 and for Ponich in 1993 when they were members of Doran Johnson's team at the provincials.

Johnson has been steadily engulfed in controversy, ranging from flirting with residency rules to clanging his broom on the ice while opponent Lome Campbell was in mid-delivery during the 1993 playoffs. These days, Johnson is hundreds of miles away in Saskatchewan, and Armitage and Ponich are rediscovering how tranquil life can be at a provincial championship, like when they were with Don Longmore in 1986. "My knees are so bad this year I don't know if I'm excited to be anywhere," said Armitage, a 40-year-old Red Deer feed lot operator. "I was happy for my guys, two of them have never been here before. And it's my first time skipping, you get a chance to do a little more.

But I don't get excited curling anymore. Curling lost a lot of excitement curling with Doran." On one hand Johnson has been a proven money winner. On the other hand, he's openly tough on teammates who don't measure up. "Doran took me to another level," said Armitage. "He was one of the smartest players, he knew another side of the game the rocks, the ice, playing other players.

I can honestly say I learned an awful lot off him that has helped my skipping. I don't know if I would have been the skip I am if I hadn't spent those three years with him. "I learned the criteria for making shots what will the ice let you make, if the ice won't let you, don't throw it. Find something your curler can make. You don't always have to play the book shot or the right shot, a lot of times that's too tough to make." In three years with Johnson, Armitage managed to avoid his wrath.

"Doran and I never had an argument. If you were mentally in the game, Doran didn't ride you. "People who knew us said, 'Why the hell are you curling with a (guy) like But at the time it was the only chance Randy and I had to go anywhere. This guy had invitations and he had sponsorship, and no one in Red Deer was leaving town to curl. And we won with him early we won Yel-lowknife two out of three years with him and finished second the other time to (Ed) Lukowich.

Winning keeps a team together. "I think the three years I curled with Doran I went through three or four third men and about five leads. Some of it was for the better of the team, but there were times it was just an excuse." Johnson's battles in 1993 took their Edmonton's Johnson rock 'n' rolls into first toll. "For some reason he always thought that people were out to get him, and they weren't. He took it too far.

That was the culmination for him, the year he thought we really should win, and we could have won, and he didn't play as well as he wanted to, and the frustration boiled over. He always thought somebody was trying to take the game on by cheating." Fresh from winning the Canadian Cattlemen's curling championship last year, Armitage scrambled to get a team for this year's men's playdowns. His third Keith Glover could only play in the zone playdowns, then he was replaced by Longmore's third Al Collins. They had curled 11 games together as a team losing their first before winning 10 straight before entering the playdowns. But Armitage is no stranger to major competitions.

"I played 35-and-over senior men's baseball and we lost the final of the Western Canadians last year in Kindersley. I play centrefield. My true ability is my ability to run. I've always been the quickest guy in any league I played in." But there has been a price to pay. "I also played junior football with the Packers, and rugby, and that's where all this knee damage came from." Between that and his curling past, he could be considered a glutton for punishment.

shots to set up deuces and stuff, but we're just not making any quality shots. We're not playing terrible, just playing really average." Balderston wasn't distracted going up against Brust, his old mate. "Not really he's been gone a while. It was weird in the (Alberta) mixed last year, because in men's we were teammates. Today I didn't honestly really notice it Ralph made some big shots in the first three ends, setting up their deuces.

That was the difference, they got their deuces early" While Johnson is 4-0, he remembers starting out 5-1 in the 1995 Alberta championship and then losing three straight "Mark is super," said Brust, who moved from Grande Prairie to Edmonton this year and now has bought a house in Sylvan Lake. "I've never played with a guy who could put the broom in a better spot. That makes a world of difference." Reed beat Row 74 and Leon Moch of Medicine Hat 7-3, while Row rebounded with a 7-4 victory over James Knievel of Manning. Journal Staff Edmonton Mark Johnson versus Mike Vavrek. Battle of the two favourites.

With Vavrek's former teammate Ralph Brust now playing for Johnson. But in the end it was anticlimactic. Johnson turned aside Vavrek 8-4 on Thursday to claim sole possession of first place in the Alberta men's curling championship at the Granite Curling Club with a 4-0 record. Johnson won his morning game 7-5 over Rob Armitage of Red Deer. Emerging in a deadlock for second place at 3-1 were Tom Reed of the Granite and Kelly Row of Sylvan Lake, giving Northern Alberta teams the three playoff spots heading into the final day of the round robin.

The surprise thus far is that the reunion of Vavrek and third Kurt Balderston who lost the 1992 and 1993 Alberta finals hasn't been more successful. The team is 1-3. "It's the whole team, we're just not making any big shots," said Balderston. "Other teams are making big ft.