JuranBoldenRules

I'm shocked they haven't closed a few locations, they were forced to sell 4 IIRC by the competition bureau. For instance, at Crossroads they have a Safeway and a Sobey's right across Reenders from each other. Most retail businesses are in love with revenue/retail sq footage as a rating of efficiency, seems that having two full service grocery stores that close to each other would be hugely inefficient, much like the Future Shop/Best Buys right next door to each other which ultimately failed. Co-op jumped in and bought those 4 former Safeway sites, mostly the older, smaller ones. Safeway is a memory now, you paid for service etc. but they were the pricier boys on the block, no doubt. Best buy/Future shop is a different situation as they were owned by the same company. They tried to 'create' competition…fail. Here, in Kelowna, the Safeway does not do a booming business, but it is steady. Its competition is Save-on-Foods, owned by…Overwaitea Foods. Comparable to the close proximity of a few Sobey's and Safeway locations in Winnipeg now, owned by the same company.

I'm shocked they haven't closed a few locations, they were forced to sell 4 IIRC by the competition bureau. For instance, at Crossroads they have a Safeway and a Sobey's right across Reenders from each other. Most retail businesses are in love with revenue/retail sq footage as a rating of efficiency, seems that having two full service grocery stores that close to each other would be hugely inefficient, much like the Future Shop/Best Buys right next door to each other which ultimately failed.

The closest grocery store to my home is a Safeway, was also the closest grocery store to the home I grew up in. I'd be shocked if their sales aren't down 75% (adjusted for inflation) from when I was growing up in the early 90s, at that time it was the only real grocery store in a wide radius, now there's Superstore and Sobey's (most people I know intimately do their grocery shopping at one of the two), plus Wal-Mart selling groceries. I usually go to Safeway 3-4 times a week to pick a couple things up, and it's a ghost town, which is why it's my go to place for a quick pick up of a couple things.

Yes you can. It's in the Video section - highlights and features are there. Under the home section - Scoreboard - Headlines - Videos - Blogs - etc. I just went to Video->CFL and I couldn't play any of the videos. I can't play the latest Videos either. (I'm on Telus) Make sure you're not using Chrome or Firefox. I tried on Chrome and it wouldn't play, but on IE it works fine. Weird. The last 3 days it wouldn't let me access videos on Chrome, today it's back.

It's not the server, you need a cable log in from Bell or Rogers. It's locked up tight.

Me too. I have no idea what that entails though, and I wouldn't necessarily blame Shaw for not paying if that's what it does entail. I mean they carry TSN and TSN 2, I have both channels, why can't I see their content online?

Has anyone noticed lately that all video on TSN.ca is locked unless you have a cable provider who is a "TSN GO partner?" You can't even watch highlights or features without a log in. So far that's Bell and Rogers, so large swaths of Canada have no access to any content TSN produces outside of watching it on TV. Hope that changes before the CFL season starts.

I think it's funny that people who clearly have no clue how, when and why buildings are inspected are pounding some conspiracy drum about the stadium being structurally unsafe. I'll be the first to tell you that our stadium build cut a million corners and isn't anywhere near as state of the art as many would suggest (some people really love steel arches), but there's nothing structurally dangerous about it, and if there was it wouldn't even get a conditional occupancy permit for any event as the city engineers do not fool around.

"I don't recall the exact play" That's what 99% of the answers will be. They've done this with baseball umpires, but the pace of that sport is such that an umpire will actually remember exact calls. Can't see it being much use in football or hockey, unless they are going to give them access to replays.

Nope. Pretty much any 5th rounder who becomes a stud in the CFL is a good draft pick. All draft picks aren't equal and Rid's stats treat them as equal. Good starters are worth more than average starters, who are worth more than just starting because they are an NI or because teams need a 7th starter, who are worth more than a good backup, who are worth more than fringe players. First rounders are expected to become starters. If they don't then they are bad picks, even if they stay on the team for a while. There are draft picks who hang on for a few years just because the NI's on a specific team aren't very good. I wouldn't call them good draft picks they just got lucky t be drafted by the right team. There are high draft picks who teams keep around mostly because they were drafted high. They take up a roster spot for a couple of years, but aren't good draft picks. Being a starter means a lot. It means your one of the top 7 NI's on the team. These are the guys we really need to draft. There are also draft picks that can't get past the depth with their draft team but become starters on other teams. There are schemes that some players can't make the adjustment for in one city but show up in another scheme and become all stars. In the CFL very rarely are high draft picks kept around simply for being high draft picks. What with contracts not being guaranteed and especially before they reach veteran status and their contracts lock in during September they are more than expendable. (Ameet Pall was drafted 5th overall and didn't last training camp) I think some of the answers that you're looking for in these numbers can't be solved without being in the coaches office when they make some early season decisions or off season decisions about the formation of the team. A player could be the best FB in the CFL but it might not translate as being a great draft pick because that player won't count towards the 7 NI starters when the team starts 5 receivers. Define the value of a $70,000 non import linebacker that can play 15 to 20 snaps a game and keep your $120,000 starting linebacker fresh in the 4Q by resting him during the special teams plays. That special teams/situational downs linebacker is likely easily replaced in the minds of the 30,000 watching from the stands but in the eyes of the coaching staff he's gold. He's a guy that knows his role, can step up in a pinch but probably won't tally more than 20 total tackles for the entire season. In a real life situation I'll point to Jabar Westerman who isn't a starter, doesn't rack up gaudy stats (25 tackles in 2 seasons) and all because of how he is used. Still beyond that he would be welcomed by all 8 other CFL teams should he come available. Also he'd instantly improve the value of Jake Thomas if he was acquired by the Bombers. Teams just can't play Moneyball in the CFL. They can't replace 50 tackles with different combinations that will produce more 50 tackles. There's a lot more involved in it. The Westerman not starting stuff is just semantics though. He's part of a D-line rotation. He takes one of the seven Canadian spots when he's on the field playing defense, if they choose to they can go all import in the secondary when he's on the field or have an extra IMP LB on the field, which is what they usually did with Westerman. For all intents and purposes, Westerman, Reid and Larose are filling one of the seven NI spots in a platoon.

So a fifth rounder who doesn't become a starter but is a special teams stud, is a bad draft pick? All draft picks aren't equal First rounders are expected to become starters. And that sums up our current situation pretty well. We haven't drafted a starter/strong contributor on O or D since Muamba, even with a 1st overall supplemental/7th overall 2012 (Poblah), 4th overall 2011 (Etienne), 3rd overall 2012 (Pencer) and 2nd overall 2013 (Mulumba) pick since the Muamba pick. Even our mid-late picks haven't really turned into anything for us in the last 3 drafts. 2010 draft was great with Watson and Greaves. Hopefully Pencer can be a player for us this year. I don't think Mack's drafting was great, but I think you could make a strong argument that there was no chance to develop players with the crappy coaching staffs we've had too.

Having a lower percentage doesn't necessarily mean your team lacks in overall draft success. As one of your findings show, some of these players who pan out ended up playing for other teams/leagues (or other reasons of not playing with your team that had nothing to do with talent) which can be a separate issue other than pure draft ability/success. My educated guess would tell me BC would be a good example of this, no? Or is my line of thinking flawed which has happened before and will happen again I agree. There are too many variables to just look at the percentage and say good or bad. IMO, we'd be closer to the bottom overall than that might indicate. We used a 2011 1st on Etienne, 2012 1st on Poblah, who did very little for us and won't do anything for us in the future. Having Swiston, Stephan, Volny, Thomas, Greaves and Pencer still on our roster doesn't really indicate a good draft history.

Especially since Aaron Kelly is still on our roster. Bellefeuille bromance? I'd rather bring in a reasonable prospect for a look in training camp, hell if we really need Kelly back I'm sure he'll be available.

Regular bus fare covers about 50% of the cost of Transit, with the province and city subsidizing the rest. So you're looking at about $11 round trip each to cover the cost of the charters. Chancellor Matheson and University Crescent. The lighting is incredibly poor, sidewalks non existant, or end abruptly on University Crescent (actually saw an older man injure his leg quite severely on the west sidewalk of University Crescent last summer after a Bomber game right where the sidewalk ends and there's a big rise), mix of drunk and sober pedestrians, people riding bikes through crowds of hundreds and thousands of people (and who knows what their sobriety situation is), confused bus drivers and people trying to find their bus to get out of there in the pitch black dark, then add in people being shooed out of parking lots trying to contend with the pedestrians and bikes. The conditions are definitely there for serious injury or death. But hey, at least they built the railings in the stadium well enough so we can't fall over or under them.

yeah not allowing people to enter or leave throught kings drive is a huge problem, i understand the reasoning also but... i think if they allowed people to do that, it would definitely help the "traffic problem". I understand the concerns, and I agree to the no parking stipulation, but I would hope a controlled outflow of traffic through the King's Dr. area could be arranged. That would help. Not 100% sure on entering, but you can exit post-game for sure on King's Drive, unless all the cars whizzing by us as we walked south on University were outlaws. I think pre-game it's only open to people accessing campus for non-football purposes so to speak. University Crescent is closed at the campus border both pre and post game.

3 OL, 2 receivers, Safety, 1 DL/LB/DB There's our "7" starters, with likely 9-10 players filling those spots regularly, more if you include Pontbriand/Fitzgerald. We need a NI receiver and LB/DL badly IMO. Hope we can get the LB/DL at the draft, receiver we might have to pick through other teams discards during or at the end of training camp, and pray that at least one of Feoli-Gudino or Brescacin can be useful on offence.

That would be insane. We need seven starting Canadians first. Depth is a problem too, but you're not going to solve that in this draft. Other than Lavertu, there is no interior OL prospect in this draft remotely near the quality of Watman. I'd give up #2 in a flash to get Watman, I might ask for a one of Saskatchewan's picks other than their 1st, but if the Bombers really want that type of player coming out of this draft, that would be an easy trade to make. I'm not sure the Riders would make that deal though. Picard is coming to the end of the line, and there's no real need for the Riders to acquire the 2nd overall pick. Watman is probably more valuable to them.

Working directly with operations people and Sam's friends is precisely what got them into trouble over the fire halls. It is much better for them to deal with someone who is in a position to make decisions, and be able to deal with the Managers of the various departments They actually didn't involve the operations people, which caused the problem, just Sheegl and the leadership of the fire department, who had no clue about land development and building and unsurprisingly they got scammed by a land developer.

After 3 seasons of attending half of the Jets home games, all by car, I've seen exactly one bottleneck in my travels to or from, and that was once when we were attempting to get to South Osborne, Osborne through the Village was the bottleneck. The downtown can handle that amount of traffic easily. I've been in a bottleneck either trying to get to Pembina or the Perimeter from the Richmond neighbourhood south of the stadium at every Bomber game I've attended at IGF, easily 45 minutes per game, even after staying until 0:00 and a 20 minute walk to the vehicle. That's not even starting from on campus. It's just not a good location to move 30,000 people to and from at once, and there's not a whole lot they can do to change that, it will be something they will always have to contend with when selling tickets.

The biggest problem is getting people on and off campus. with two good access/exit points and a third on residential roads to the south. They could demolish UC and Frank Kennedy and have 100,000 parking spots on campus and it wouldn't help.

Probably none of those since they severely restrict traffic on-campus, and it wouldn't really be all that safe to have Gator's whizzing around people walking.

That's not even football acumen, that's life acumen. The more information/chances to evaluate before you have to make a decision, the better. Would you rather look at a car, then have to decide to buy it or not, or get to drive it for a day with your friend who is a mechanic and then decide? That's basically the scenario here, Wylie being the mechanic. Friesen has zero redeeming qualities for me. Not sure he's really appreciated by his peers either, how come he's never on the radio, either CJOB or TSN 1290? Penton, Wiebe, Tait, even Wiecek get loads of radio time around the Jets and Bombers, can't say I've even heard Friesen's voice.

Meh, the transitway will only be useful for anyone coming through downtown or from the north (west of the river), probably far less than half of people taking transit to the game. Not necessarily. Anyone could park anywhere along its path and have quicker egress from that quagmire around the U. Remember - game day tickets allow fans a free ride. In no time people would figure it out and the need for parking and spaces would diminish. Also, most of those game day buses wouldn't be needed, leaving the roadway for cars only. Less cars, less buses less hassle. I know its true, I read it on a bus billboard when I was aboard and bored. Just crossing the river to park on the transitway for anyone from the east side of the city would double travel time. Honestly, if I have to cross the river to access reasonable transit to the stadium, I'm driving the whole way, but we park for free about 2 KM's south of the stadium and walk. And there's zero chance I'm wading into the mess that those buses are after the game. I've been to some interesting places and I don't think I've seen anything quite as dangerous as the number of drunk people staggering down University Crescent combined with people whizzing by on bikes and confused bus drivers/riders trying to figure out where to go, all of this in the pitch black dark. I'm surprised at the lack of private shuttles to the stadium. I thought places like BP, Tavern etc would be all over that.

Meh, the transitway will only be useful for anyone coming through downtown or from the north (west of the river), probably far less than half of people taking transit to the game.

See, this is why having a shareholder vote could work. City nominates someone new for their seat, shareholders vote to confirm or deny candidate, rather than a handful of board members filibustering for whatever reason they choose. Their reasoning doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me. They will have to work with operations people from a bunch of city departments for special events, don't really think having the CAO or CFO sitting on the Bomber board does a lot to streamline that process.