as Castlégar News December 31, 19 Decision to sell Expo land “flaw VANCOUVER (CP) — Uncertainty over Canadian aecess to develop ments on the former Expo site shows that the provincial government's decision to sell rather than lease the land was flawed, NDP Leader Mike Harcourt said. Harcourt was commenting on a statement by a Concord Pacific spokesman thatthe company’s pro- mise to give Canadians first crack at This means condominium projects built’ by companies not affiliated with Concord could be sold entirely to offshore buyers. Both Grace McCarthy minister responsible when the original deal between the provincial government and Concord was negotiated — and Cliff Michael, now responsible for the agreement, said they would like the Hong Kong-owned company require Told of McCarthy's request to Concord to put a covenant requiring a Canada-first marketing policy on any land sold, Harcourt said this is “an outstanding admission of fail ure. By reselling part of the land, he said, Concord can regain the money it has put into the deal so far and still be left sitting on “half a billion dollars His son, Victor, is senior vice. president of Concord. NOT IN DEAL Michael, minister for government services, said there is nothing in the agreement between Victoria and Concord Pacific that stops a Canada: first covenant being put on future land sales nor anything that calls for it to be done. dq” “I don't think that is asking too project and \he market is going to jowns in that time,” ere is going to be much,” he said. have its ups Jon Margoulis, Concord’s general Margoulis said} manager for North American prop- a downside (in erties, said that while the company projects cannot | intends to develop most of the site, and the Canada-first promise will apply, it cannot control the market- ing. plans of other developers. worth of one of the five most valuable any condominiums it builds on the anybody to whom it sells land to downtown waterfront site does not market their projects in Canada first. “The chickens are coming home to extend to developers to whom it may sell some of the land. roost,” Harcourt said. Michael said it is up to cabinet to sites in the world.” decide whether to ask Concord The 83-hectare site will be devel- Pacific to insist that all units on the oped by a consortium controlled by Expo site be marketed: first in Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing. Canada. Concord, he said, will encourage other developers to live up to the promise and will set an example, but it is hard to know what the market will’ be in future years, “We are looking at a 15-year Concord spokesman ( “I don't think we cai restriction on other What Adex does with John Doe does with his is business,” Aspinall said. Season's Greetings from Phil and Larry at Columbia Auto Service Phone 365-5422 Joy Let Christmas fill your heart with gladness. Thanks. Ernie’s Towing Phone 365-5690 Christmasiinie re From the staff and Management LOOMIS COURIER SERVICE LTD. Castlegar DRUNK DRIVING IS NOT HIS PROBLEM anymore. THIS AD IS SPONSORED BY LOCAL MERCHANTS Wz APPRECiATE youR CONTINUE business. WE'LL BE CLOSED DEC. 25 THROUGH JAN. 2 CASTLEGAR IMP@RT CENTER 2701 Columbia Ave., Castlegar * 365-5111 Season's Greetings We're coming your way with thoughts of thanks to all our friends and customers! Operating 24 Hours a Da Throughout the Holidaysi P casnccan 365-7222 1444 Columbia << Phhity Or? pincers: wishes that your holiday be be trimmed with happiness and joy Thanks, ail, for your much valued patronage oe CLOSED DEC. 24, > ¥ 25, 26,27 2 ee OPEN Dec. 28, 29 (Reg. Hours) 30th (‘til noon) ANDERSON INSURANCE AGENCIES LTD. CASTLEGAR Motor License Office LY 2 eK Open 24 Hours A Day Including Christmas and New Year’s Conveni Store, Movies, Film, Batteries, Gas & Car Wash From all the staff at Woodland Park Shell 1780 Columbia * 365-6218 December 31, 1988 Annuities... Planning Today for Living in the Future. D Kootenay Savings Insurance Servic CFL still EXHIBITION CONTEST . with former Rebel players in an exhibition hockey confest at the 11-8. Boxing looks more like one-ring circus in 1988 By The Canadian Press Mike Tyson, the undisputed heavyweight boxing champion, spent less than 20 minutes of 1988 in the ring and almost the entire year in the news. It was a year in which Sugar Ray Leonard came back again, and at the Olympics there was controversy in and out of the ring. For Canadian fighters, professional boxing was at a new low. But inspiring performances at the Olympics may give fight fans hope. Leonard became the first_to win at least a share of five world titles by beating Donny Lalonde, the Winnipeg resident who held the World Boxing Association's light heavyweight crown for about a year. After defeating Lalonde to take the light heavyweight and new super middleweight belts, Leonard said he was giving up both titles — but did not announce he was retiring for a fourth time. Tyson made a total of about $32 million US for three fights in 1988, all of them in the first half of the year. He began by knocking out former champion Larry Holmes at 2:54 of the fourth round in Atlantic City on Jan. 22. He then took out Tony Tubbs at 2:54 of the second round March 21 at Tokyo and ended his fight with Michael Spinks in 91 seconds June 27 at Atlantic City, N.J. He was supposed to fight Frank Bruno of Britain, but that match was postponed five times. On Dec. 15, it was announced it would be held Feb. 25 at Las Vegas. The champion's feud with his estranged wife, actress Robin Givens, continued at year's end. Tyson and Givens, who were married in February, were headed for divorce court. Tyson reached an out-of-court settlement that cut manager Bill Cayton’s percentage to one-fifth from one-third, then tried again to get out of the contract by suing Cayton in November. The champion also made headlines by suffering a hairline fracture of his right hand punching boxer Mitch Green in the head in an early-morning street fight in New York; appearing with Givens in a Barbara Walters television interview in which Givens called him a manic depressive; and crashing his car against a tree. While Tyson was feuding, Leonard fought for the first time since he upset Marvelous Marvin Hagler on a 12-round decision for the WBC middleweight title April 6, 1987. Best Wishes For a Healthy, Happy & Safe 1989! If You Drink Don’t Drive! a CASTLEGAR SAVINGS INSURANCE AGENCIESATD. SLOCAN PARK 601-100h wre $. - ‘S., 366-7232 “96-7212 | A busy sports year It’s been just over a year now since I first arrived in Castlegar with a rented truck full of personal belongings and a head full of lofty goals. I got the truck unloaded and Surge Rattan’s desk emptied out in time to start in the sports department on Dec. 14 Little did I know that Rattan had managed to edly turn this paper's sports desk into ae sporting community's focal point for hatred, anger and rage. Rattan himself warned me, as did CKQR sports announcer Scott Jellicoe, that my welcome would be less than warm at first. The warning did nothing for my confidence in approach ing my first stint as sports writer. But as the year wore on, the sporting events kept coming and my confidence grew to a point where I felt comfortable wearing the sports badge for the CasNews. While I did not come close to covering everything that happened in the sporting world of Castlegar, I did manage to keep tabs on a few events. So it is here that I give you the highlights of Castlegar's year in sports as I saw it in 1988. January The Stanley Humphries secondary school boy's curling foursome of Mike Gerrard, Brennan Turner, Wade Schatz and Devon Turner win the Kootenay Zone high school curling championships. Castlegar RCMP curler extraordinaire Dale Hockey also skipped his team to a Kootenay Zone championship. Local downhill speed merchant Felix Belezyk became the first Canadian male to win an SGS ski event on the World Cup alpine ski circuit in Leukerbad, Switzerland. Fel February was a blurr of Olympic sporting news, none of which was of any significance to the area except for the fact that CasNews editor Ron Norman was the only newspaper representative from the Kootenays to get full accreditation for the Calgary Winter Games. March March was a busy month, starting with Guy Lafleur's arrival at the Cominco Arena along with Steve Shutt as the pair led the NHL oldtimers to victory in a pickup) game against the Trail squad. The Selkirk College women’s volleyball team placed second in the province and men's side placed a respectable third. Local hockey player Dane Jackson accepted a hockey scholarship with the University of North Dakota. The Castlegar Rebels beat the Beaver Valley Nite Hawks in the opening round of the KIJHL West Division playoffs in the sixth game before bowing out to Trail in game five of the West Division championships. Lorne Kanigan was named rookie of the year and Dave Terhune received MVP honors. The Pee Wee Reps won the West Kootenay championships, again. In high school sports, the Jr. and Sr. Rockettes each won their fifth West Kootenay basketball titles. The Sr. Rockettes followed the West Kootenay championship with an eighth place finish out of 16 teams in the provincials contested in the SH gym. Hi Arrow Arms won the championship in the three-team Castlegar Recreational Hockey League and Bob Brisco freed up $500,000 in federal funds to have the Arrow Lakes charted for recreational boaters. Finally, March saw the world's finest women skiers go head to head on Granite Mountain in Rossland. Swiss ace Michela Figini won both the downhill and SGS events in the World Cup alpine event. April The Pee-Wee Reps were at it again in April. This time the squad placed second in the province. The Castlegar Golf Club got started on its ambitious $500,000 plan to irrigate the front nine. A huge water hazard was also put in place much to the delight of some and the displeasure of others who had to go fishing for balls that found the man-made lake. The Red Mountain Racers captured the Kootenay zone ski championships in another successful season of alpine skiing. April was also the month of makeshift NHL playoff viewing. The Calgary-Edmonton series was unavailable to local viewers until Shaw Cable was able to spirit the cable feed down to us on the Parliamentary channel. May Gord Walker found himself packing his bags for Los Angeles after the-New York Rangers dealt him to the Tinseltown franchise. May was also a good month for local body builders as Sheila Dorey took first place in a body-building competition in the Interior and Gerry Hoodicoff placed second in the Mr. Kelowna contest. continued on 82 . The current Castlegar Rebels sayadrtet up Community Complex on Friday. The ex-Rebels defeated the Rebels CosNewsPhoto by Nick Allan Drug abuse tops sports poll LONDON (AP) —Drug abuse in sports, underscored by Toronto sprinter Ben Johnson's disqualifica- tion at the Olympies for steroid use, was voted the top sports story of 1988 in a worldwide poll by The Associated Press. In balloting by 57 sports editors from subscribers in all areas of the globe except North America, the use of drugs by athletes was an easy first-place finisher, with 489 points. Points were awarded on a basis of 10 for a first-place vote down to one point for a 10th-place vote. The scene of Johnson't 9.79-second dash, the fastest ever, for the gold medal in the 100 metres and his dis- qualification for steroids three days later — the Seoul Olympics — was the runner-up story, according to the editors. The first meeting of East and West at the Games in 12 years, and the exploits of such multiple gold-medal winners as swimmers Kristin Otto of East Germany and Matt Biondi of the United States, received 394 points. Third was a story that, in a year without the biggest Olympics or the biggest drug bust, might have been a runaway winner. West Germany's Steffi Graf and her sweep of tennis’ four Grand Slam titles, the first time that happened since 1970, finished with 317 points, just ahead of the world record 10.49- second clocking of Florence Griffith Joyner of the United States in the women's 100. FloJo’s feat gained 296 points. The victory by The Netherlands in the European soccer championships was the No. 5 story, with 207 points. looking for fan support By BRUCE CHEADLE The Canadian Press The Canadian Football League put a new twist on an ageless philosophical conundrum in 1988. To wit: If a beleaguered sports league makes a miraculous recovery but nobody witnesses it, has the league really recovered? With a new league president and chairman, another wild finish to the Grey Cup game in Ottawa, increasing television ratings and revenues and renewed corporate interest, the CFL was missing only one key ingredient to call itself healthy in 1988 — fans in the stands. Overall, regular season attendance was down 5.67 per cent — to just over 1.765 million this year from over 1.87 million in '87 — with two of the most talented teams in the league showing the biggest drops. The B.C. Lions, who lost the Grey Cup game to the Winnipeg Blue Bombers in a thrilling one-point classic of Canadian foothattr averaged 4,369 fewer fans per game and the Toronto Argonauts were down by an average 4,198. It was a frustrating, debilitating blight on an otherwise fine year foot ball. ‘The CFL barely survived 1987 after the Montreal Alouettes foldé§. The league was adjusting to life without a fat brewery television contract and spent about $5 million starting up the Canadian Football Network — a private production company to package games for independent television stations across Canada MORE MONEY With the CFN, CBC and The Sports Network televising games in 1987, each team received about $320,000 in TV revenue. For 1988, that figure is expected to be way up and although the CBC and the CFN reported only minor gains the trend of steadily declining ratings since 1983 has been reversed. Roy McMurtry, a former high commissioner to London, was named the chairman‘and chief executive officer of the league while Bill Baker leaves his post as general manager of the Saskatchewan Roughriders to assume the newly created role of president and chief operating officer. McMurtry’s job will be to sell the league to corporate and government sponsors. It's hoped Baker can show the same expertise he used to rebuild support for the flagging Roughriders. The emergence of Saskatchewan as a Western power after 11 seasons without a playoff appearance made the divisional race the best in years. B.C., Edmonton and the ‘Riders were separated by just twe points at the end of the regular season. DEFEATED LIONS Winnipeg, transferred to the Eastern Division last season after the demise of the Alouettes, won the Grey Cup, defeating the Lions 22-21 The Bombers 9-9,in the regular season, became the first team with a .500 record to win the Grey Cup. They upset the powerful Agonauts 27-11 in the Eastern final before stopping Lions quarterback Matt Dunigan, top Schenley winner David Williams and company in the championship game. Toronto posted a 14-4 record to tie the single season record for wins. The Argos missed outstanding running back Gill Fenerty, who broke his leg in a game against Calgary un Sept. 30 but still finished second in the league rushing race. YANKED EQUIPMENT Meanwhile in Hamilton, Tiger-Cat owner Harold Ballard attempted to upstage the Grey Cup by yanking equipment out of Ivor Wynne Stadium the day of the game. Ballard is in a dispute with the city of Hamilton over the stadium lease and it appears likely the team will be sold to local interests in the new year. The Ticats were the other Eastern power in ‘88 until quarterback Mike Kerrigan suffered a badly separated shoulder during a game on Oct. 1. Without Kerrigan, the Hamilton offence never recovered. Ottawa, the poor cousin of the CFL, lurched through another year with only two wins against 16 losses. The lone bright spot was Canadian running back Orville Lee, who surpassed Fenerty’s rushing yardage and carries in the final week of the season to win the Schenley award as top rookie Ottawa head coach Fred Glick was replaced mid-season and his replacement, his brother-in-law Bob Weber, was fired after it ended Steve Goldman was named to replace both Weber and GM Paul Robson this month. Lemieux hot but Gretzky retains top spot in news mer By NEIL STEVENS The Canadian Press Mario Lemieux stole a decibel or two of Wayne Gretzky's thunder, but No. 99 continued to be the No. 1 source of the biggest stories in hockey in 1988. What a year. Sure, Lemieux broke Gretzky's seven-year grip on the scoring championship and his eight-year reign as the NHL's most valuable player last spring, but '88 will go down as one of the most memorable yours in Gretzky's illustrious career He captained the Edmonton Oilers to their fourth Stanley Cup championship in five years, winning MVP honors in the process. He married a Hollywood actress and moved to sunny California ina stunning trade‘to the Los Angeles Kings. He then negotiated a new contract that made him hockey’s first $2-million-a-year skater. As he welcomes his first child into the world, Gretzky is attempting something most critics said would be impossible — leading the Kings to a Stanley Cup triumph in his first year in Los Angeles. But, as '88 draws toa close, the Kings, who finished 17th overall last season, are one of the top teams in the overall standings and, all of a sudden, the impossible might be possible. To top Gretzky's year off, Canadians quizzed in an Angus Reid-The Sports Network sports poll selected Gretzky as their favorite male athlete — and sexiest, too. The Kings’ progress and Gretzky's pursuit Lemieux for the 1989 scoring championship will be two of the most interesting developments to watch in the NHL this winter. As well, this might be the first season in which Lemieux gets to participate in post-season play. It's somewhat remarkable that this superstar has never played a single NHL playoff game. He's striving to change that this season. In looking back at hockey in '88, there were enough bizarre incidents to fill a scrapbook, and enough needless violence to make purists shudder. There was the playoff game featuring substitute seferees, the Boston Blackout and the improbable but successful return of Hall-of-Fame forward Guy Lafleur. Internationally, Canada’s juniors went to Moscow and won the world championship; there was a disappointing fourth-place finish for Canada at the Olympic hockey tournament in Calgary, in which the Soviets regained world supremacy; and an agreement was signed whereby Soviet teams will arrive in North America next winter for games against all 21 NHL teams. In the NHL, there were complaints about the qualifying system for the playoffs when the New York Rangers, with the 11th-best record in the league, failed to make it in the Patrick Division while other teams with poorer records qualified in other divisions.