44 — Wednesday. November 25, 1998 — North Shore News THE only question left, and it won't be answered until next Tuesday, is this: Will Alberta make it a hat trick? Here's what happened in the week just gone by. Calgary Stampeders won the Grey Cup for the second time this decade. Edmonton was award- ed the 2001 World Track and Field Championships, And the locked-up ballots will tell us six days from now if Calgary has won the Canadian right to bid for the 2010 Winter ‘Oly mpics. Alberta is on quite a roll these days. Whoever would have beiieved, a decade ago, that the CPR and various other big corporate wheels would make Cowtown-by-the- Bow their national headquar- ters? And if one is to believe everything one hears and reads, the Trans-Canada Highway through B.C. will have to be expanded to six lanes to accommodate all the businesses moving to Alberta. Ralph Klein may not be the Pied Piper of Hamlin, but he may be the most effective guy in that fine of work since the chap in the colourful cloak emptied Hamlin town of its entre pre-pubescent popula- tion. Hopefully, by the end of today’s prose piece, we'll have spun a column out of the tore- going. What is it about the annual Grey Cup tinal thar almost afways makes ita thriller to the final gun, while that much bigger equivalent to the south, the Super Bowl, is almost always the Super Bore? If any- one in the CFL has the answer, he should bortle it and sell it to the NEE for an exor- birant sum. The proceeds could be used to erase the red ink run up this past season by four of the CFL's cight franchises — Vancouver, Winnipeg, Toronto and Montreal. The message here is that the Grey Cup game is truly a stand alone event. No matter how small the Canadian interest during the reguiar season, the TY ratings for the national final denronstrate that the Grey Cup game remains a national tcon. As a single, one- afternoon event, it’s still Canada’s biggest show, sport or anything else. Gray-haired grannies who don't know a football trom a volleyball watch the Grey Cup on TV. So do a couple of mil- lion people who do know nerth shore news © SPORTS Alberta on track for hat trick something about football, but don't attend during the regi: far season, because they say the CEL is bush and cities like Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal should be in the NEL. Then thev'd buy tickets. That's equal parts codswal- jop and snobbery. They've bought the NEL hype. Given all the cost factors and the limping loonie, the NFL will expand to these cities the day Conrad Black becomes a cheerleader for the NDP. The major problem with the CFL. is that it plays an autumn game, but because of the Canadian climate, must cram nwo- thirds of its schedule into the heat of the brief Canadian summer. People in these here parts have too many other things to de on soft summer evenings, when twilight lasts forever. In any event, nest year will be the 90th anniversary of the first ever Grey Cup game and it will be plaved under the Vancouver dome. There are 60,000 seats to be filled. it will certainly help ifthe Lions can win the West, for the non- CEL fans will be watching in record numbers — as usual — on TV. Nest to the Summer Olympics and the World Cup of soccer, and not necessarily in that order, the World Track and Field Championships is the biggest item in interna- tional spors. Quite a coup for Polortec®200, Powerstretch, Windbloe, Thermal stretch Glenoit Berber, Commonder, Ultrex Waterproof nylons, Reflector tope Outdoor/octivewsor pattems Just Sew It Kits, Bulk Buttons and Buckles Tipper-by-the-inch 1443 KINGSWAY, VANCOUVER BC V5N 2R6 Tol:(604)708-4949 Fax: (604)708-4939 E-Mail: cruz_fob@dowco.com Vancouver's Newest leading edge high tech outdoor fuissic store invites you to visit them and select from a wide range of Polartec® Fleeces, Windbloc, Powerstreich, Glenoit besbers, Ulirex, 1443 KGMGSWAL, VANCOUVER AC ¥5i 286 Toh 604) 768-4949 Fx: (664)708-4929 E-Noal: crux_foby@dewee.coes Woterproof material. ae eweencecneumend Edmonton, inasmuch as the Alberta capital will be the first ever North Amencan ctv to host them, The city’s sticcess sceret, aside from whatimust have been a tine sales pitch, is thai it has the only stadium in Canada with plentiful seading (about 60,000), real grass and an eight-lane running track. No other city can compete. Certainly not Vancouver, where the grass in Empire Stadium was replaced by plas- tie 35 years avo; and where the stadium itself ts now long gone. Indeed, the 1954 Commonwealth Games were the last major international sports event held here, mostly because there has been no proper facility. That was 44 vears ago and Sev Calgary page 48 NAME: Shannon Mary McGregor SPORT: Voilevball POSITION: Centre blocker PROGRAM: First vear Arts THE SCOOP; Shannon, a West Vancouver Secondary graduate, is the top offensive plaver tor the Blues with 48 kills this season. The Bowen Island native was a first team all star in last vear’s provin- cial high school champi- onships. NAME: Jamie Adair SPORT: Voilevball POSITION: Centre blocker PROGRAM: First-vear applicd business student THE SCOOP; Jamie, a graduate of John F. Ross Secondary in Guelph, Ontario is the captain of the Blues and currently leads the B.C. College league in service aces and kills. + SPOFSOY A : Eterratly rly! Christmas is hectic. 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