Commonwealth Games Get the Short End

Last month I commented on the scheduling conflict between the Commonwealth Games and the Winter Paralympics. It looks like the Commonwealth Games are not going to be broadcast on CBC, and this article in the Toronto Star notes that George Heller is pretty upset about it.

(There are a couple of factual errors in this story. The article claims that Heller is president of the Commonwealth Games Foundation of Canada, but I can't figure out what that is. The official national committee is Commonwealth Games Canada, which lists Claude Bennett as its president. Heller does not appear to be affiliated with the international Commonwealth Games Federation, either. And he claims that "we're bidding to hold the 2010 Games in Hamilton," when in fact those Games have already been awarded to Delhi.)

I hope that Heller is successful in his bid to have the Commonwealth Games televised in Canada, but either way Canada'a athletes are not going to get a lot of publicity out of it. That's what happens when you schedule a summer competition in February. The Melbourne organizers didn't do Canada any favours in that regard. Of course, the rest of the Commonwealth won't care in the least.

The last paragraph in the Star article includes a rumour that TSN and Chris Cuthbert are talking, proving beyond a doubt that some bigwigs in Canadian sports broadcasting read this blog (ha, ha).