The Corporate Jim Kearney THE SPECTATOR JUST TO jog some middie- aged memiories in these here parts, when the Canucks came into the National Hockey League 24 years ago, ticket prices at the Pacific Coliseum were $6.60 for the reds, $5 for the middle biues and $3.50 for the upper blues. This coming season.Canuck tick- ets will be nearly 10 times those amounts, which begs a mind-bog- gling question: has everything gone up i0 times since Orland Kurtenbach was the first team cap- tain? In the real world — except for real estate and automobiles ~~ prob- ably not. -, Lmean, if you were earning $300 a week in 1970, are you now making $3,000 a week? Were you paying 20 cents for today’s two-dollar loaf of bread; 50 cents for today’s five-dollar ham- burger? Only if you owned the store or the restaurant. ~ -But who would claim that profes- sional sport belongs these days to the real world? ; Norman (Bud) Poile, the Canucks’ first general manager and a North Shore resident for the past 25 years, remembers more than the original NHL ticket prices. For instance, the average salary on that 1970-71 team was $25,000. - The biggest was the $40,000 paid to their first-ever draft choice, Dale Tallon, currently a Chicago Blackhawks’ broadcaster. Now, if the average hockey salary of that time had increased at " * the same speed as the ticket prices, the Canucks" payroll} for the coming Tribe lose ON THE Canada Day long- weekend the North Shore Tribe went 1-2 at their mid- season tournament in Abottsford, losing to eventual winners the Surrey Giants. THE HOT BOX By Kevin Gitlies Pitcher Greg Hallifax pitched three-hit ball only to lose the game 2-0 on a past ball and an error. Jason Odegard got the team out of a jam when he came on in relief to shut the door on a bases-loaded Giants’ sixth, but the Tribe couldn't generate any offence in the late going. On the Saturday, the Tribe ran into the Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows Cardinals and ended up on the short end of a 10-1 tilt. Starter Sam Fleming !eft the mound after three innings with the score 3-1 before reliever Pat McCrea gave up two homers and I season would average about $250,000 a player, with the highest paid performer, Pave! Bure, topping out at less than half a million. In Canadian funds. As the world knows, the Canucks are going to pay him about $5 mil- lion a year - in U.S. currency. Translating this into Canadian bucks, a numbers nut has figured out that every time Pavel wakes up in the morning, 365 times in the year, he has just made another $18,000. At $63 tops (including GST), will you be helping Arthur Griffiths pay the Russian Rocket's sajary in the coming years? Good question. Another good one: what- ever happened to the blue collar, lunch-bucket fan — for so many years the attendance backbone? A good guess these days is that he’s staying home and watching on TV More and more, hockey and, indeed, all major league pro sports, are becoming the corporate games; where tax-deductible tickets and the sale of luxury sky-boxes pay most of the freight. Anyone care to bet that $100 a ticket won’t be the going price for the best seats before the century is out? On the other hand, 1 have been reminded, it cost me $85 a ticket to see Phantom of the Opera at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre not so long ago. It sure did, but I wasn’t expected to return for another 44 perfor- mances, Now 70, well retired and most days working on his 18 handicap at Capilano Golf Club, Poile says he can hardly believe the escalation in operating costs, just in the last 10 years. After the Canucks dropped him in the early '70s, he became presi- ’ dent of the Central League, then of its successor, the International Hockey League (IHL). He spent his winters in Indianspolis and his sum- mers at his North Shore apartment. And, of course, on the Capilano fair- ways. Ten years ago a minor league franchise operated on a $500,000 budget. Today it’s anywhere from $2 million to $3 million, which used - to be an NHL budget a couple of decades ago. He says as recently as 1989, Phoenix bought an IHL fran- chise for $300,000. Today the going price is 10 times that. The Canucks paid $6 million to - join the NHL. The new boys at to Giants five runs to put the game out of reach, The North Shore team rebounded in their second game to beat the host tearn 4-3 on the pitching strength of Odegard and Craig Behnsen. Lucky Pawa drove in two nuns with his Sth-inning single up the middle. GIRLS’ SQUIRT FAST- PITCH The Extra Foods Tigers placed fourth overall at the Squirt ‘C’ provincial championships on the July 1 long weekend in Esquimalt. The team, comprised of | 1- and 12-year-old North Shore girls, lost the first game of the round-robin tournament before rebounding to trounce Maple Ridge 20-4, Newton 14-5 and Chemanus 15-2. Their 3-! record left them third overall in the round-robin and quali- fied them for the double-knockout portion of the tournament. The Tigers dispatched View Royal (Victoria) 15-2 before losing 6-0 to eventual tournament winners North Delta. Games Anaheim and Miami paid $50 mil- lion each fast year. Whea Los Angeles opened the vault and told Wayne Gretzky to help himself, the NHL joined baseball, football and basketball in the payers’ multi-mil- lionaire sweepstakes. Why did it happen so quickly? “For a start,” says Poile, “the owners are so often their own worst enemies. They get carried away. And the player agents. They've get hearts as big as grape seeds. Then, there's all the expansion. The law of supply and demand. 26 teams, But how many Bures do you see?” So it’s the customers from the real world, many of whom have seen their wages frozen and even cut as we struggle through the nutty ‘90s, who must pay. And pay and pay. It was always thus. When he was running the Detroit Red Wings’ farm club in Edmonton 40 years ago, Poile says he raised the top-price tickets from $1.75 to $2 to help pay those mon- ster $6,000 salaries being given to such future superstars and Hall-of- Famers as Glenn Hall, Johnny Bucyk and Norm Ulinan. _ “Iwas almost run out of town,” he remembers. That was the year the B.C, Lions were born and Vancouver football fans almost died from shock when they learned they'd have to pay $4 to watch a game. Now it’s $42.50. But attendances are down. Considerably. Will the same thing happen to’the Canucks? Don’t bet against it. GT TALERA - CHROMOLY MAIN FRAME Wednesday, July 13, 1994 - North Shore News - 15 *PNEO4 | AUG 24-SEPTS For the first time ever, the > Grand Prize of the... Pacific National Exhibition Ticket Lottery is more than a home, it's a Luxury | Island Paradise! You could win a Power Smart Lindal Cedar Home by Legacy Western Homes Lid., sporting a huge deck with a Cal Spas hot tub. Pius a Double Eagle Model 176, 17 1/2 ft. deluxe boat, outboard motor and trailer, an All-Terrain Vehicle, moorage and parking at Horseshoe Bay for one year. What makes this the ultimate in prizes is that the whole package is situated jon a wooded, fully-serviced lot on beautiful Keats Island overlooking : Georgia Strait, just minutes fram Horseshoe Bay. As a lottery ticket holder, you will also automatically be entered to win one of 17 new cars from Freeway Chrysler. Daily drawings beginning Sunday, August 2ist with two drawings on Monday, Sept 5th. And there’s even more, an earlybird draw on August 3rd, for a luxury, Cal Spas Billiard Table, delivered and installed. To enter: * Call Toll Free 1-800-565-1769 (in the Lower Mainland 251-7741) and use your Visa or Mastercard, * Or, send a cheque or money order along with your name, address and telephone number to the “Pacific National Exhibition”, Box 69900, Vancouver, B.C, V5K 5C2 © Ticket prices a are 7 for $10.00 and 17 for $20.00 ADDRESS CITY PHONE No. VISA #/ MASTERCARD # ___ EXPIRY DATE SIGNATURE POSTAL CODE AMOUNT $ e Borcinc NationalExhibtion 8.C. Lottery Licence No. 788345 SPORTSMENS BIKE SUPPLIES SUMMER SALE - SHIMANO ALIVIO COMPONENTS - ALLOY QUICK RELEASE WHEELS Designed for casual trai riding, the Talera is a great bike for ail levels of riding. GT TIMBERLINE Reg § 499.99 - FULL CHROMOLY FRAME & FORK - SHIMANO ALIVIO UPGRADE COMPONENTS - ALLOY QUICK RELEASE WHEELS WITH TIOGA PSYCHO II TIRES The Timber!lne was created for those of us who just can’t get enough of the great outdoors! GT KARAKORAM Reg $ 599.99 - TANGE MTB DOUBLE - BUTTED FRAME - SHIMANO DEORE LX COMPONENTS - MAVIC RIMS WITH PANARACER SMOKE /DART TIRES Take to the hills on this thoroughbred and cross into unexplored territory.