A small group of committed CIS supporters have successfully lobbied to have the non-televised tournament games available to watch via webcast on this site. They are going to by pay-per-view, however the fee is a paltry $7. If you just want to follow the games online, up-to-the-minute stats are kept here.
HALIFAX — Arriving in the Halifax airport three days before the CIS national tournament starts, you might actually get away with believing not much was on tap for the Maritime city.
The airport is quiet, relatively without activity on a dull Tuesday afternoon. There are, however, volunteers — folks who have been doing this every year for many years — there to shuttle you off to the host hotel and get you ready for another March in Nova Scotia.
Upon finding me not on his list of expected arrivals in need of a shuttle back to said hotel, a volunteer obliged to assist and stuck me in with the UBC Thunderbirds who were on the same flight as I.
"Just keep in mind next year ..." and he edits himself.
As far as Halifax is concerned, there is no next year. The tournament that has rested in the city for nearly the past three decades will finally load up and move out, heading to Ottawa next year after Carleton successfully bid for a three-year term as the host of the CIS' marquis event.
Most teams have yet to arrive in Halifax. A couple will fly in Wednesday, Acadia will drive down Thursday. So the hotel is rather quiet and far from a hub of activity. Still the Thunderbirds, clad in "UBC BASKETBALL" from head to toe, were targets of questioning locals who showed their interest in the tournament that has become the city's baby.
Back to the airport, I completed the volunteer's sentence.
"Let's say, four years from now," I said with the assumption that the CIS would eventually change tunes and come back to the hotbed.
"Hey maybe next year when they screw it up," was his reply not-so-subtly insinuating that Ottawa's run as host wasn't going to be as illustrious as the predecessor's.
Odd that we're more than a year away from the nation's capital taking its first crack at nationals and yet there have been more than a few of those types of comments by more than one person. Ottawa's run as host could be a resounding success but there's no doubt that no matter where it's held, the fact that it's not in Halifax next year will mean the same shine won't be present in the eyes of many. There's just something about coming here. The east coast, the close proximity of most everything, the night life, the history of the city ... everything just combines to make Halifax a tremendous city to host. Oh, and they're pretty crazy about their local basketball too.
So maybe Ottawa is stepping in already down in the count.
Or maybe, all the obituaries that are so predictably to be written this week on the end of an era are much adieu about nothing. Seinfeld had to end eventually, Barry Sanders was going to retire one day and Barbaro was guaranteed of going to the glue factory. It tells us, too, that Halifax was bound to lose its yearly jewel one day even if a lot of people would prefer it differently.
If you're ruing the switch over to Ottawa for strictly logistical purposes, then you very likely have some beef and a fair debate.
If, however, the argument is solely nostalgic then the only recourse left is to just accept it at face value and not lament something that we all knew was bound to happen one day anyway.
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