1. sports
2. hockey

TUESDAY, JANUARY 27, 2015
S P ORTS
HH the Amir International Grand Prix
continues with more shooters, events
By Abdellatif Sharaa
KUWAIT: The second day of HH the
Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad 4th
Annual International Grand Prix continues, as five gold medals will be distributed in the shotgun and rifle
events.
Today, there will be the preliminaries of 10m women air rifle, 50m prone
for men, and 50 shots in the men’s
trap. The finals will be held in the afternoon, as the prize awarding ceremony
will be at 6 pm. There will also be the
official pre event training for 10m
men’s pistol, 50m rifle three positions
for women and men’s and women’s
skeet.
Meanwhile, assistant secretary general of Qatar Shooting Federation
Mohammad Al-Kawari said Qatar’s delegation is among the largest of those
participating in HH the Amir Grand
Prix. He said the Qatar Federation was
keen to participate with the largest
possible number of shooters in various
events and groups, in order to gain the
most benefit from this event which is
like ay world championship.
He said the GP timing is very good
for all participating teams, particularly
the Europeans who very different
weather conditions at the present
time. He said this is a very good preparation for the upcoming championships that will qualify shooters to
the Rio de Janeiro 2016 Olympics.
Al-Kawari lauded the efforts of the
higher organizing committee to maintain the success of the GP. He said
Qatar’s skeet shooter Nasser Al-Atiyya
will compete in this championship,
after winning the Dakar rally recently.
Tunis head of delegation Durrah
Darweesh lauded the organization
and the GP atmosphere, adding that
this is her first time in Kuwait, though
the team is used to be here. She said
the Tunis team is made of 13 shooters
in various events, especially that this
GP gives the opportunity for them to
compete with world and Olympic
champions and gain more experience.
Marketing Manager of the Italian
Company Perazzi Bianca Ravillo said
competition is very strong in HH the
Amir Grand Prix, besides the large
number of shooters both world and
Olympic champions.She said the
shooting range is the best in the world
and its facilities push everyone to perform at their best.
She said that her company remains
at close contacts and cooperation with
Kuwait Shooting Federation through
providing all necessary facilities to
Kuwait shooters.
Slovanian coach said his country is
keen on participating in the championship since its start four years ago,
adding shooters do their best to get
the best results as competition is
between the top players of the world.
He said Slovania is participating
with two world and Olympic champions, who are trying to maintain their
success and winning ways.
Super Bowl host city still
reeling over sports deals
GLENDALE: The entire world will be watching Glendale on
Sunday as it hosts the Super Bowl and the legions of fans
who are shelling out big bucks to see the big game.
What may be not visible amid all the hoopla is a sobering reality about the Super Bowl host city: Glendale is suffering deep financial issues over its troubled effort to
become a sports destination.
Glendale bet big on professional sports in the last 15
years, spending millions of dollars on a hockey arena for
the Arizona Coyotes and investing heavily in a spring training ballpark for the Chicago White Sox and Los Angeles
Dodgers. Then the economy tanked, and the hockey team
went through bankruptcy, with several different owners in
recent years. It got so bad for Glendale that leaders were
talking about bankruptcy at one point as its credit rating
faltered. The city has found stronger financial footing since
then and its bond rating has improved markedly, but not
without having to raise taxes, trim 25 percent of the municipal workforce, cut back on paving projects, and reduce
hours at municipal swimming pools and libraries. The 9.2
percent sales tax that shoppers and diners pay in Glendale
is among the highest in the state.
To fiscal conservatives, Glendale serves as a cautionary
tale for suburban cities across the United States that want
to throw public money at professional sports projects.
“Overall, it’s a bad move for cities,” said Kurt Altman, general counsel for the Arizona-based Goldwater Institute, which
fought Glendale over its enticements to the hockey team.
“As much as they say it’s going to make the city a destination, it just doesn’t.”
Glendale is a city of about 250,000 people in the northwest part of the Phoenix metro area. The location where
the Arizona Cardinals’ stadium and the Arizona Coyotes’
arena were built had been a dusty farm area. The agricultural influence is visible to people driving to games when
they pass tractors and farm equipment in nearby fields.
As the Coyotes and Cardinals sought new facilities in
the early 2000s and efforts failed to build them in other
parts of the Phoenix area, Glendale stepped in. The city
helped pay for the Coyotes’ arena with $167 million in
bonds in 2003, and as the hockey team’s finances began to
fade during the recession, Glendale went all-in to keep the
team in Arizona. The city dished out $50 million earlier this
decade to keep the team and continues to make annual
payments toward the arena, but the money it is getting in
return has not met expectations.
The football stadium was built in 2006, but Glendale
was not on the hook for the costs of the $450 million
retractable-roof facility. It was funded primarily with new
taxes on car rentals and hotels in the Phoenix area, but that
financing hit a snag last year when a judge ruled that the
car rental tax was unconstitutional, leaving a major funding source for the Super Bowl venue in jeopardy. The issue
is still being argued in the courts.
Glendale is far from alone. Cities and states nationwide
have long struggled with how much public money to
spend on stadium projects. The effort to build a new stadium for the Minnesota Vikings became embroiled in controversy over a financial commitment by the state that opponents said was excessive. The St. Louis Rams are at the center of a debate over whether to spend public money on a
new stadium. Topeka, Kansas, is immersed in a fight over a
motorsports track that has drawn comparisons to hockey
in Glendale.
As he navigates the financial situation, Glendale Mayor
Jerry Weiers returns to a maxim he has repeated many
times in his life: “I’m not living in the past. I’m just paying
for it.” In the case of the Super Bowl, he believes the city is
paying dearly. He said Glendale will actually lose a “couple
million dollars” by hosting the event. It’s spending huge
amounts of money on overtime and police and public safety costs associated with hosting the Super Bowl but getting very little in return.
Super Bowl visitors are mostly staying in Phoenix and
Scottsdale and only showing up in Glendale on game day,
meaning the city won’t see much of a boost in tax revenue.
And the city was hoping the state would reimburse
Glendale for its police overtime costs, but lawmakers have
scoffed at the idea.
Weiers said it pains him that the city had to cut services
and lay off workers, but the moves were necessary to
ensure financial solvency. He said the outlook has
improved in the last year, a far cry from a couple years ago
when Glendale was in jeopardy of joining the likes of
Detroit in the category of municipal bankruptcies.
“I have to believe that if ‘1’ is perfect as things could be
and ‘10’ was bankruptcy, I’d say we were a strong ‘8,’” Weiers
said. “We never had to go there, and I strongly believe we
won’t have to go there.”
Despite his claim that the city will lose money on the
game, the mayor said he’s aware of the name recognition
that goes along with hosting the Super Bowl. He believes
having the city’s name broadcast to an audience of more
than 100 million people will bring visitors, even if the city’s
planned hotel district didn’t take off as originally expected.
He offers a hypothetical example of someone in a freezing Midwestern city who’s watching the game on TV and
seeing palm trees and sunny skies, knowing his truck won’t
start because it’s so cold outside. “He’s sitting there thinking, ‘Man, I can be down there,’” Weiers said. — AP
COLUMBUS: Alex Ovechkin #8 of the Washington Capitals and Team Foligno skates against Team Toews in the first
period during the 2015 Honda NHL All-Star Game at Nationwide Arena on Sunday in Columbus, Ohio. — AFP
Tavares powers Team
Toews to all-star win
COLUMBUS: John Tavares scored four goals and Jakub
Voracek finished with three goals and three assists as Team
Toews defeated Team Foligno 17-12 in the 2015 National
Hockey League All-Star Game.
Sunday’s contest featured almost no defence and there
was very little sympathy for the goaltenders, which translated into a record 29 total goals in front of a crowd of
18,900 at the Nationwide Arena, home of the Columbus
Blue Jackets. “There were some really nice goals and entertaining hockey,” said Chicago Blackhawks for ward
Jonathan Toews. “We got off to a hot start. We got the last
laugh tonight.
“It was a fun weekend. A lot of different experiences.”
The 2001 showcase contest in Denver held the previous
mark of 26 combined goals as Team North America beat
Team World 14-12. Toews scored the record setting marker
to make it 16-11 with 5:39 left. Toews and Patrice Bergeron
both finished with a goal and four assists, while Filip
Forsberg, Rick Nash and Tyler Seguin tallied two goals
apiece. Corey Crawford-the last of three goaltenders to
give up four goals-stopped 14-of-18 shots in the third period to earn the victory.
Crowd favourite Ryan Johansen from Team Foligno
picked up the MVP award, pacing his side with four points,
including two goals. Johansen plays for the hometown
Columbus team. Patrick Kane and Steven Stamkos added
two goals and one assist apiece, while Claude Giroux
totalled three points on a goal and two assists. Team
Foligno goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury took the loss, giving
up seven goals on 16 shots in the second period. — AFP