© Sports the other press e flash Gordon e dcsportseditor@yahoo.ca October 15, 2003 Roman Abramovich From Russia With Money a i John McCa Jr. Bikram Nizzar OP Contributor No, its not another 90 minutes of cheesy British charm, corny lines, and crazy gadgets. It is not an intricate com- munist plan to overthrow democracy worldwide; not an event that will change the face of the earth and challenge freedom, as we know it, but one that can change the out- look on this team through the eyes of Canucks fans and hockey fans in general. The world’s richest man under the age of 40 is set to make his mark in the NHL, more specifically with the Vancouver Canucks. Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich, has a net worth estimated at $18.3 billion and is rumoured to be looking into purchasing the Canucks from current owner John E. McCaw Jr. Abramovich, famous for making a splash on the English Premier League by buying Chelsea Football Club and then spending near $248 million on players such as Juan Veron, Hernan Crespo and Damien Duff, has made his fortune in oil and other industries such as Russia’s largest aluminium company. He has recently sold his half-share in his aluminium industry for around $4 billion to focus in on buying a hockey franchise. Negotiations between the two parties, The Vancouver Canucks and Mr. Abramovich, are being conducted with “senior figures” of the team, even though Mr. McCaw has denied reports that he has been in contact with the billionaire. This city has endured many struggles during the McCaw regime: the dreadful signing of Mark Messier for which Mr. McCaw shelled out $6 million US so he could play three mediocre seasons with the Canucks; then the lack of funding through three off-seasons when this team could have used an upgrade in several positions (and still needs upgrades in several positions). The fact that the Canucks have not made a major free agent signing just shows the McCaw has become “gun-shy” to give this team money after the Messier fiasco blew up in his face. His lack of appearances at Canuck games is a sign of his waning support of the team. He has wanted to sell this team for quite some time and when he does, he’s going to want maximum profit for this team. A way to do that is to keep the team’s salary low. By making money unavail- able, McCaw has deprived this team of becoming a true Stanley Cup contender. Sure the argument can be made that teams like Minnesota didn’t need money to get to the Conference finals, but Minnesota hasn't played at the same consistency as the Canucks in the past two seasons. The fact is that this team’s “window of opportunity” start- ed back when they made their unbelievable run to make it to the playoffs. But that was two years ago and now that window has slowly started to close. With Markus Naslund almost threatening to retire after this season if this team doesn’t show any signs of commitment to winning a cup, and with Todd Bertuzzi’s contract coming to an end this year, that window could quickly shut and be locked for a long time. Bertuzzi has stressed that he does not want to conduct negotiations about his contract during the season and Bertuzzi’s agent has said that he has not had any contact from the Canucks regarding his contract. Brian Burke may not talk to Bertuzzi about his contract until the end of the season, when Bertuzzi may be tempted to try free agency. If Bertuzzi was to try free agency he could expect a contract around $8-10 million US, regardless of the looming Collective Bargaining Agreement. And if Mr. McCaw isn’t willing to give that kind of money out, maybe it is time to see a new owner, committed to win- ning. Mr. McCaw has stressed that if he were to sell the Canucks, he would want to sell it to a local buyer. Unfortunately, there has been little interest, if any, from local buyers. Enter Roman Abramovich. After failing to buy the Dallas Stars from owner Tom Hicks, Abramovich has turned his sights to the Vancouver Canucks. After he bought Chelsea EC. from Chairman Ken Bates, Abramovich went on a spending spree, spending $248 million. “He is a boy who wants to enjoy himself,” Moscow-based political analyst Sergei Markov told the London Evening Standard. “He's got all his money and now he has decided to buy a lot of toys.” Unfortunately the free agent period has pretty much passed us by and there are a few toys remaining, but none to the calibre of a Sergei Federov, Burnaby boy Paul Kariya, and Ray Whitney, a few players who could add a lot to this team. It is suggested that Abramovich’s main interest in buying an NHL franchise is to turn it into a roster stocked entire- ly with Russian players. “It wouldn't hurt to have our own, wholly Russian team in the National Hockey League,” says Hall of Fame defenseman Viacheslav Fetisov. “It would stir up more interest.” Fetisov, who played for New Jersey and Detroit, collected four Stanley Cups, three as a player and one as an Assistant Coach with the Devils, He now holds a government sport ministry position, and is a friend of Abramovich and would have an interest in becoming involved in management of any team Abramovich might buy. Certainly an alarming thought for some fans, for this team to be transformed into a purely Russian team and its front office personnel to be changed. Centre Artem Chubarov, who grew up in Novogorod, Russia, said he first heard about Abramovich when he bought Chelsea. “I guess he’s a big man,” shrugged Chubarov. Would Chubarov like to have a countryman signing his pay- cheques? “It doesn’t matter who the guy is,” Chubarov said. “Somebody buys teams and it doesn’t matter if they are Russian or not.” Brendan Morrison shares the same feelings, “As long as we're in Vancouver, that’s all that mat- ters.” But how much would Abramovich be willing to spend? He currently owns Avangard Omsk of the Russian Elite League and he signed Stanley Cup winning defense- man Oleg Tverdovsky of the New Jersey Devils to play for Omsk. What Abramovich brings to this team is a com- mitment to winning, whether it is with a Russian team or not. He would be the type of an owner to offer Todd Bertuzzi a contract near the $10 million mark. Whether this team’s logo goes from a whale to The Kremlin is a different matter. Sure this franchise has achieved great things. They got 104 points, setting a fran- chise record, but with those 104 points, failed to win the division because they, as our beloved captain articulately put it “choked.” At the end of the day, we all realize that this team is on the brink of achieving something even greater than the run in ‘94 that had this city excited beyond belief (and rioting beyond belief). But the team is still one or two players away from that potential, and with new ownership, we could soon be to that point again. http://www.otherpress.ca Shakes Bad Monkey From Their Back Flash Gordon Sports Editor Capilano suffered their first loss of the sea- son at the hands of Douglas College on the Saturday match-up. Since their first meet- ing on the inaugural weekend of the BCCAA League in September, the Royals Capilano College aren't deserving of an undefeated record. Up until this game, the Royals earned a record of a team not in con- tention for the league title. With a 3-3 record, they were a team playing below their potential. After an unexpected loss to the Langara Falcons, maybe it sunk in that the Royals had to start playing good soccer. Defenseman, Alan Hewitt said the team really found their stride in the game against the nefarious Blues of that North Vancouver College. As a team they played strong and dominated their opponents. Luck seemed to run a little crazy for the Royals. A Douglas defenseman sent a high cross that by the grace of the Leprechauns and a forgiving wind sailed over the goalie’s head into the goal. They racked up the score to 4-1 at one point and aggressive defense held Capilano’s so-called all-star “Tino” in check. Two penalty kicks allowed Cap to stay in the game but at the finish, our Royals came out on top. Coach Ormerod must be pleased that the team is back to business. The Sunday game pitted the Royals against the Mariners of Malasapina. The the league with the Okanagan University College Lakers. “We completely dominated them,” says Hewitt. The defenseman claims the win could have been much higher. Hewitt credits Goalie Andy Singh with a tremendous game. The lone Royals’ goal came from Midfielder Riggs Kumar. Two solid wins does a lot to improve the teams’ credibility. Does it mean Ormerod’s boys their overconfidence? Not necessarily. However, they are playing better soccer with every week gone by. So who can blame Na guys for a little swagger? Page 21 ty Men’s Soccer 7 have craved a rematch to prove the Blues of Nanaimo based college sits at the bottom of have settled down and shaken over a bit of a