ZOMBIES

Capitalism Never Says “until Death Do Us Part”

ZOMBIES REALLY EXIST.

To find them you must travel to the western third of the island of Hispaniola. Here, you will find the country of Haiti. The first free black (Afro-Caribbean) republic in the world. A country that won its independence from France, then the most powerful country in Europe, by defeating Napoleon's Army in 1804. So while other West Indian nations were evolving under the careful eye of European land owners, Haiti pursued its own path. And having achieved independence at such an early date, Haiti has invented a culture that is unique in the world. A culture built through the syncretism of various African beliefs in conjunction with Native West Indian Taino and European influences. An all encompassing element of the culture is religion. Usually spelled "Voodoo" (though the actual pronunciation is closer to vodoun) these are actually the ceremonies in which practitioners are possessed by the loa, the spirits. As in all religions there exists a tension between good and evil. Most vodoun has little to do with sorcery and black magic. Zombies, however, are one of the exceptions.

ZOMBIES A GO-GO

by John Maxwell, September 26, 2004,

Haiti's history of haplessness began more than 200 years ago when a Jamaican runaway slave called Bouckman lit the spark that fired the Haitian revolution. Bouckman, despite being a giant of a man, a born leader and probably a Muslim (think terrorist) did not survive to see the fruits of the revolution. He was betrayed, captured and his head stuck on a pike to discourage the others -perhaps a primitive attempt at exorcising demonic ideas of freedom and liberty from the revolutionaries.

It didn't work. The Haitians went on to defeat the French colonial forces, then defeated a British expeditionary force and then defeated a French expeditionary army under Napoleon's brother-in-law, killing some 60,000 Frenchmen in the process.

Before that the Haitians had fought alongside the American revolutionaries to help them throw the British out of the American colonies. Haitian help was crucial in at least two battles in which British power was broken - at Savannah, Georgia and at Yorktown.

In addition to all that, the Haitian revolution made another massive contribution to the new American nation: in defeating France, the Haitians exhausted the French treasury to the point where Napoleon had to sell Louisiana to the US or risk losing it to the British. The Louisiana Purchase doubled the size of the US.

So, if the Haitians contributed so much to American independence and development, why is it that in their extremity of grief and suffering, the United States treats the Haitians so meanly? Originally, when the scale of the current disaster became known, the United States, the richest country in the world, offered about US $60,000 for Haitian relief. Venezuela offered $1 million, Trinidad and Tobago earmarked US $5 million while the European Union pledged US$ 1.8 million. Somewhat abashed, the US raised its pledge to US $2 million. In the US itself, where the damage has been far less severe, the federal government alone is contributing more than $6 billion in hurricane relief.

Charity, of course, begins at home or perhaps, it is simply another case of Haitian haplessness. But it must be said, however discreetly, that the United States has had a great deal to do with the current Haitian propensity to catastrophe, by destroying Haitian governments, Haitian infrastructure economic and social, and by policies which have reduced Haiti almost to a desert.

The United States and Britain refused to recognize Haiti after it declared independence The US made recognition conditional on the former colonial power, France, recognizing Haiti's autonomy. At that time, of course, the United States was busy titrating the humanity of blacks and came to the conclusion that a black was 60% human and therefore not entitled to all the rights of Man. And Liberty was as dangerous then as socialism was in the twentieth century.

Three-fifths Human

Oddly, the French, the Americans and the Haitians had all been inspired by the Enlightenment and Tom Paine's codification of the Rights of man. But only the Haitian revolution recognized all those rights. In the US blacks and women, for instance, had to wait more than a century to reach the status guaranteed to Haitians. France and the US maintained slavery more than 50 years after Haiti abolished it.

With the British and the US playing hard-ball on the recognition question, France felt able to demand that the Haitians should pay cash for their freedom. In Jamaica and other British colonies, the state paid the slave-owners compensation. In Haiti the former slaves paid twice, in blood and in treasure. When they had trouble paying back the French the kindly American bankers came to Haiti's rescue. We will lend you the money to pay off your debt, they said, and Haiti achieved another first becoming the first Third world debtor nation.

That debt was eventually paid off more than a century later- the last payment was in 1947. In the meantime it had caused Haiti the most extreme distress, wrecked her infrastructure and destroyed her independence. What the metropolitan countries could not achieve by conquest, they achieved by compound interest.

Early in the last century, the Americans became a little dissatisfied with Haitian repayment of their debt, and that led to an immediate increase in Haitian haplessness. The US invaded, changed their constitution, took away their land, chopped down their trees to plant sisal, logwood, coffee and pineapple and destroyed the agricultural base of the country. After they left officially in 1935, however, the Americans bequeathed Haiti an armed force which was corrupt, cruel, ungovernable and in thrall to the US. It guaranteed that any Haitian President either obeyed Washington or went into exile. In 1947 Dumarsais Estimé, said to be a socialist, was deposed after a couple of years. That began a period of dictatorship distinguished chiefly by American support for the ruthless Duvalier and his inane son, Baby Doc.

During the US occupation (1915 to 1935) the Haitians tried to throw the occupiers out, only to be bombed and strafed in a eerie foretaste of the fascist bombing of Guernica during the Spanish civil war. Nobody made much of the Haitian version, because, after all, what were they but a bunch of "Niggers speaking French" as they were described by William Jennings Bryan, one of Colin Powell's predecessors as US Secretary of State. The Haitian resistance leader, Charlemagne Peralte, was like Bouckman, betrayed, murdered and his head exhibited to discourage the others.
History repeats itself in Haiti, but never as farce.

VOODOO QUEEN

New Orleans had been owned by the French from 1718 to 1762, then by the Spanish until 1803 when it became French again. It was then brought under the American flag through the Louisiana Purchase.

Voodoo had been present in the city before Laveau came upon the scene, but attempts had been made by the authorities to suppress it. In 1782, for example, the Spanish governor Bernardo Galvez forbade the importation of slaves from Martinique because of its people's belief in Voodoo. Additionally, Baron de Carondelet, Spanish governor in New Orleans from 1792 to 1797, fearing the continued spread of Voodoo and also the possibility of slave revolt, disallowed the import of slaves from Santo Domingo. Eventually, a slave revolt would expel European control in Haiti. However, when the Americans came to control New Orleans in 1803, the restriction on slave importation was canceled. Additionally, an influx of free immigrants from Saint Domingue brought 5,000 people, free and slave, to New Orleans from the start of American rule until 1810. Soon, Voodoo began to flourish in American New Orleans.

The French and the Spanish placed severe restrictions on Voodoo practice as well as the limited freedoms allowed for slaves in Colonial New Orleans. The slaves, most of whom had just been directly transported from the West Coast of Africa or the Caribbean, suffered extremely harsh treatment. When not working under the lash, they were confined in buildings or in chains. Following the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, conditions for slaves improved to some extent. Slaves were given Sunday as a day off from labor, and they also had other limited free time at night and on some religious holidays.

On Sundays the slaves were allowed to assemble at an open field near Orleans Street and Rampart Street behind the Quarter, an area which over time had many names -- Circus Public Square, Place des Negres, and even Beauregard Square after the Civil War, in honor of P.G.T. Beauregard, a Confederate general from New Orleans. But the locale's most famous title was Congo Plains (meaning the entire grounds), or Congo Square (meaning a smaller, more frequented portion of the field).

At Congo Square the slaves performed many traditional African dances, including the Bamboula, to the beat of primitive drums. They may have even performed some Voodoo rituals as well, including the worship of Damballa, the Snake god. Although some sources claim no Voodoo worship per se was held in Congo Square, it is clear that this area was a place reserved for the free expression of African culture and customs, especially dancing to the music of the drums. And although the historical record is cloudy, it is possible that some aspects of Voodoo ceremonies were performed there.

Saint Domingue (Haiti), the western part of the once-Spanish island called Hispanola where Columbus had landed, was a colony of France. It produced coffee and sugar under the sweat and blood of imported African slaves. These slaves were brutally treated, and they kept themselves alive only with the aid of their religion. The Yoruba tribe in western Africa was largely responsible for carrying the belief in Vodu to the new world. (Voodoo was also known as Vodu or Vodun.)

In Saint Domingue, the Voodoo priests (or "houngans") and the paid-priests (or "bokors") had used Voodoo charms and potions as a form of biological warfare against the French who enslaved them, even poisoning their food supply on occassion. The Voodoo priests also drugged slaves who had betrayed the cause of slave revolution with Voodoo concoctions from natural herbs and from animal parts and held them as slaves. This is possibly the origin of the zombie.

The zombie was a resurrected body without a soul -- a social outcast who served the will of the Voodoo master. Supposedly, the zombie was raised from the dead, without free will or a soul. However, one modern theory is that the zombie never really died but was the victim of a drug. This Voodoo concoction is believed to have consisted of carefully selected herbs and animal parts, especially from the puffer fish, which contains a neurotoxin that causes a type of paralysis in the nervous system. The Voodoo priest also knew how to apply an antidote which could "resurrect" the zombie, but keep him dazed enough to be easily controlled. Most people, however, did not have the "magical" knowledge of the Voodoo priest. They believed the zombie was actually the living dead, a soulless body returned from the grave. Historically, Voodoo priests used to induce zombiism as a punishment for criminals; additionally, bokors could make someone into a zombie for a fee.

This belief of zombies weaved its way to New Orleans from Haiti as well, although zombies were not known in the Yoruba tribe in Africa. The belief in actual zombies was not as strong in New Orleans as in Haiti, but the term Zombi as certainly used in rituals, as evidenced by Marie Laveau's snake whose name (spoken in a Caribbean French patois) was Li Grand Zombi.

HAITI HISTORY

The Middle Class

The middle class was essentially nonexistent during the nineteenth century. But at about the time of the United States occupation (1915-34), it became more defined. The creation of a professional military and the expansion of government services fostered the development of Haiti's middle class. Educational reform in the 1920s, an upsurge in black consciousness, and the wave of economic prosperity after World War II also contributed to the strengthening of the class. In the late 1980s, the middle class probably made up less than 5 percent of the total population, but it was growing, and it was becoming more politically powerful.
The mulatto elite dominated governments in the 1930s and the early 1940s and thwarted the political aspirations of the black middle class. President Dumarsais Estimé (1946-50) came to power with the aim of strengthening the middle class. The Duvalier government also claimed the allegiance of the black middle class, at least through the 1970s. During the Duvalier period, many in the middle class owed their economic security to the government. A number of individuals from this class, however, benefited from institutionalized corruption.
Some members of the middle class had acquired political power by the 1980s, but most continued to be culturally ambivalent and insecure. Class solidarity, identity, and traditions were all weak. The criteria for membership in the middle class included a nonmanual occupation, a moderate income, literacy, and a mastery of French. Middle-class Haitians sought upward mobility for themselves and their children, and they perceived education and urban residence as two essential keys to achieving higher status. Although they attempted to emulate the lifestyle of the upper class, middle-class Haitians resented the social preeminence and the color prejudice of the elite. Conflicts between the Franco Haitian and the Afro-Haitian cultural traditions were most common among the middle class.

The Tonton Makout Network

The Duvalier dynasty held power longer than any other regime in Haitian history. The duration of the dynasty enabled the thorough entrenchment of Duvalierist institutions and the development of a patronage system. One of the more important of these institutions was the VSN. After the VSN's dissolution, former tonton makout leaders remained at large, and some were politically active throughout the post-Duvalier period. The old makout networks also continued to function within the army. As of 1989, they were the main obstacle to free, fair, and popular elections in Haiti, and thet were the most significant threat to domestic security.

Through the VSN, the Duvalier regime had politicized rural Haiti. The VSN had expanded the president's influence to remote areas, and it had incorporated rural Haiti into a political system once limited almost exclusively to Port-au-Prince. The VSN had assured political control of the hinterlands, but it had given peasants no new voice in the political process. It had created a rural awareness of Port-au-Prince and events there, however, a consciousness of the national political system, and new political aspirations. The VSN had engendered a generalized disrespect for political institutions, and it had heightened expectations of profit from the political system.

Labour

Haiti's 1989 labor force was estimated at 2.8 million people. The economically active population (those over age ten), however, represented more than half of the country's total 6.1 million population. Forty-two percent of the official work force was female, ranking the country's female participation as one of the highest among developing countries. In rural areas, however, the role of women in production and commerce was apparently much greater than these statistics indicated.

The distribution of the labor force by economic sector from 1950 to 1987 reflected a shift from agriculture to services, with some growth in industry. Despite these changes, agriculture continued to dominate economic activity in the 1980s, employing 66 percent of the labor force; it was followed by services, 24 percent, and industry, 10 percent. Based on these figures, Haiti continued to be the most agrarian, and the least industrial, society in the Western Hemisphere. The country's employment of only 50,000 salaried workers in 1988 was further evidence of the traditional character of the work force.

Statistics on employment and the methodologies used to gather such data varied widely; most unemployment figures were only estimates. In 1987 the United States Department of Labor estimated that Haiti's unemployment rate was 49 percent. Other estimates ranged from 30 to 70 percent. Official unemployment was severe in Port-au-Prince, but comparatively low in rural areas, reflecting urban migration trends, rapid population growth, and the low number of skilled and semi-skilled workers.

Haiti established a labor code in 1961, but revised it in March 1984 to bring legislation more in line with standards set by the International Labour Office (ILO). Conformity with ILO guidelines was a prerequisite for certification under the Caribbean Basin Initiative (CBI--see Appendix B) enacted by the United States Congress in 1983.

Haiti's most fundamental labor law, the minimum wage, was also the most controversial. Low wage rates attracted foreign assembly operations. In 1989 the average minimum wage stood at the equivalent of US$3 a day, with some small variations for different types of assembly work. The minimum wage in the late 1980s was below the 1970 level in real terms, but assembly manufacturers and government officials refused to increase wages because they needed to remain competitive with other Caribbean countries. Labor laws included an array of provisions protecting workers in the areas of overtime, holidays, night-shift work, and sick leave. The government, however, did not universally enforce many of these provisions. The greatest number of workers' complaints came from assembly plants where seasonal layoffs were common.

The Upper and the Middle Classes

The system of public and private monopolies, including parastatals and import-substitution industries, developed under the Duvaliers. These industries generated great wealth for a handful of powerful families in Port-au-Prince, which resulted in politicized economic decision making. This elite sector saw itself threatened by the fall of the Duvalier regime. Under interim rule, volatile competition arose among certain business interests and military factions. Key members of the business community backed Duvalierist presidential candidates who were likely to protect the lucrative business privileges established under the old regime.

Intermediary classes (those between the wealthy elite and the impoverished masses) grew significantly during the Duvalier era. François Duvalier's political strategy of appealing to the black middle class created a new constituency for political patronage, government employment, and the rapid accumulation of wealth through the political system. The growth of the black middle class was closely linked to the Duvalier era, and it contributed to the tremendous growth of Port-au-Prince after the 1950s.
The long-standing tendencies toward the centralization of wealth and of power in Port-au-Prince greatly increased during the Duvalier era. The income gap between upper and lower income groups widened, and rural areas suffered accordingly. Growing rural-to-urban migration, primarily to Port-au-Prince, and emigration, especially to the United States, also had an impact on the political environment and on aspirations for change. The Duvalier era saw an unprecedented level of emigration to North America along with smaller waves of emigration to other Caribbean countries, Latin America, Europe, and Africa. Emigration had an important impact on Haitian politics. Emigrés maintained numerous fragmented political parties in exile. Emigration also caused huge sums of foreign currency to enter into the economy through remittances. It raised Haitians' consciousness of the outside world, and it led to easier upward social mobility for members of the new intermediary classes by alleviating competition for scarce jobs

VODOU AND HAITIAN POLITICS

Vodou and Haitian politics have influenced each other throughout the history of Haiti. The Haitian Revolution against France was empowered by Vodou - and it was the only successful slave revolt in west of the Atlantic, resulting in the first independent black republic in the Western Hemisphere!

Some Haitian administrations have persecuted Vodou, and in 1915-1934 the occupation of HaitiU.S. military made the eradication of Vodou a priority. Other Haitian administrations have tolerated Vodou, and still others, such as the murderous Duvalier dictatorships, subsidized and subverted the Vodou priesthood.

The United States political scene has sometimes been influenced by Vodou. Following the Haitian revolution the American government refused to recognized Haiti and organized a trade embargo, so great was the fear of rebellion and African religion among the U.S. African slave population. Later American administrations sought to suppress Vodou, and even recently affiliation with Vodou has been used to stigmatize Haitians when determining immigration, foreign aid, and public health policies.

Jesse Helms blocks reproductive health care for Haitian Vodouisants! Published Monday, March 15, 1999, in the Miami Herald: U.S. subsidizing witchcraft, Helms complains. Journalists quickly satirized the rabid Senator Helm's intolerance, and on March 23, 1999, Mat Honan wrote a piece carried on the MoJo Wire, titled Jesse Helms' Political Voodoo.

Three Protestant pastors were arrested at the historical site of Bois Caiman, Bwa Kayiman in Haitian Creole, for violating a court order banning them from the site, in order to avoid confrontations between Protestants and Vodouisants. The pastors had planned to "exorcise" the spirit of Haitian national hero, Houngan Boukman Dutty, from Bois Caiman, considered the birthplace of the Haitian Revolution. Bois Caiman was then declared a public trust by the Haitian government under President Rene Preval.

As the incident reverberated through Haiti, lines were drawn. On one side were the populist, pro-democracy organizations which were so severely persecuted under the Cedras military regime of 1991-1994. They have regenerated since the return of then-President Aristide in October 1994, and took the side of respect for the Vodouisant tradition. Allied with them were progressive international human rights professionals, and Vodouisants of all political affiliations. They pointed the finger of accusation at Protestant pastors and their right wing supporters, including the meddlesome American organization, the International Republican Institute (IRI). Haiti Progres, a progressive, left-of-center Haitian newspaper, has an English language editorial.

The De-Macoutization of Vodou is the most poignant issue facing Haitian Vodou today. Because the Vodou priesthood was protected, subsidized and later subverted by the dictatorships of Francois Duvalier and later his son Jean-Claude Duvalier, the feared Ton-Ton Macoutes and the Vodou clergy sometimes merged.

Slingshot! - the story of one pro-democracy Houngan's resistance against the military regime of 1991 - 1994.

"Antigang", by Johnson Aristide - a poem by one of the pro-democracy movement's most heroic activists; it uses Vodou imagery as it makes a plea for the victims and the perpetrators of human rights abuses.

Testimony of a Haitian Pro-Democracy Activist - the author above, Johnson Aristide, survived torture on three occasions, one of which he outlines here. by the

CLINTON’S VOODOO POLITICS

It turns out that in 1975 Bill and Hillary traveled to Haiti where a friend introduced them to Max Beauvoir, an influential Houngan, or Voodoo Priest. In Beauvoir's company, the young couple witnessed a ceremony in which two dazed and seemingly mindless people were animated by an unknown force.

On page 237 Clinton recalls the experience:

"The man proceeded to rub a burning torch all over his body and walk on hot coals without being burned. The woman, in a frenzy, screamed repeatedly, then grabbed a live chicken and bit its head off."

Taking pains to be sensitive, Clinton describes the zombie's behavior as a kind of religious ecstasy, but this explanation smacks of liberal expansiveness; a reader can’t help but to wonder if something more sinister was afoot.

Clinton is no stranger to Voodoo Zombies, and in My Life he cites the findings of Wade Davis, a Harvard professor who developed a pharmacological theory of zombiefication, and published a popular book on the subject. In The Serpent and The Rainbow Davis concluded that zombies were a kind of walking vegetable, bound by powerful poisons to serve the whims of secret societies, and Clinton seems to subscribe to this theory. See How are Zombies Made?

"I WALKED WITH A ZOMBIE"

by Inez Wallace

The natives of Haiti maintain that today there are zombies working in the cane fields, around lonely houses on the island, and some say that these mysterious dead workers exist even in the most populated cities. One may know them because, except in rare instances, they never talk, and they stare always straight ahead of them. If one is not certain he will know if he offers the suspected one some salted food, for the zombie may not taste salt, or he will know at once that he is dead, and will make his living corpse return to the grave no matter where it is, and no one can stop it!

HAITI RELIGION

Folk belief includes zombies and witchcraft. Zombies are either spirits or people whose souls have been partially withdrawn from their bodies. Some Haitians resort to bokò, who are specialists in sorcery and magic. Haiti has several secret societies whose members practice sorcery

"Evidence suggests that zombification is a form of social sanction imposed by recognized corporate bodies--the poorly known and clandestine secret Bizango societies--as one means of maintaining order and control in local communities."

François Duvalier recruited voodoo specialists to serve as tonton makouts to help him control all aspects of Haitian life. Duvalier indicated that he retained power through sorcery, but because voodoo is essentially a family-based cult, Duvalier failed to politicize the religion to any great extent.

ZOMBIES

The voodoo religion involves belief in a supreme god (bon dieu) and a host of spirits called loa which are often identified with Catholic saints. These spirits are closely related to African gods and may represent natural phenomena — such as fire, water, or wind — or dead persons, including eminent ancestors

One belief unique to voodoo is the zombie. The creole word “zombi” is apparently derived from Nzambi, a West African deity but it only came into general use in 1929, after the publication of William B. Seabrook's The Magic Island

Haitian zombies were once normal people, but underwent zombification by a "bokor" or voodoo sorcerer, through spell or potion. The victim then dies and becomes a mindless automaton, incapable of remembering the past, unable to recognize loved ones and doomed to a life of miserable toil under the will of the zombie master.

HAITI SELLING OFF ZOMBIES

Psst . . . wanna buy a zombie? You can pick up some great deals on the undead from the Haitian government, which is trying to unload thousands of the walking corpses -- at less per head than you'd pay for a decent TV.

"Imagine having your very own slave who will mindlessly obey you, no matter what you order him or her to do," says a government spokesman.

"A zombie will work all day and all night if you want him to, everything from farm labor to house cleaning, and all you have to feed him is oat mush."

Haitian officials say they're turning to sales of the undead to relieve the critical over-supply of zombies, which is dragging down their failing economy even further. Haiti's upper- and middle- class population has shrunk to almost nothing, leaving hundreds of zombie servants unoccupied.

JAPANESE TV INTERVIEW ON ZOMBIES

A recent T.V. program here in Japan provided an interesting look at the

phenomenon of zombies in Haiti.  The president (I think that's what he

said) of the zombie-master's was the guest, and he had escorted a

Japanese film crew to meetings in Haiti with zombie-masters and several

zombies.  He had also enabled them to film and take samples of the

zombie powder, the rituals creating a zombie, feeding zombies, and other

"secrets" of the zombie society.

Videotapes of several "interviews" with zombies (they don't talk much,

but... actually, one did talk some, others didn't.) were reviewed by

Japanese psychiatrists.  They indicated that several people displayed

symptoms they recognized, although they said the symptoms could be the

result of drugs or of mental problems (physically based brain problems,

I think?).  They thought these people would be given medical treatment

in Japan.

The president said, in effect, that that is what the zombie-master

provides.  They feed the zombies, tell them what to do, and run their

lives.

An interesting part was the preparation of food for the zombies - rice,

bananas, and goat meat, steamed.  No salt is used, and the zombie master

making the food explained that salt is very dangerous to zombies.

The president said that the belief is that salt can turn a zombie to

stone.  He said he is sure that there is really some small amount of

salt in the food, but that zombie masters are careful to keep their

zombies away from salt as much as possible.

[my gloss - One of the psychiatrists had suggested some kind of mineral

deficiencies might be involved.  Wonder if salt "cures" some zombies?]

My impression was that while using flashy language ("killed" instead of

committed; "zombie" instead of "mentally ill"; "zombie master" instead

of "caseworker"; etc.), what the president (and the videos, etc.) were

pointing to was a kind of socially functional mental care system.

ZOMBIES

To make a zombie, a voodoo practitioner makes a potion that consists of mainly the poison of the pufferfish (one of the strongest nerve poisons known to man, the clinical drug norcuron has similar effects and is used during surgery) that is given to the intended victim. This causes severe neurological damage, primarily effecting the left side of the brain (the left side of the brain controls speech, memory and motor skills). The victim suddenly becomes lethargic, then slowly seems to die. In reality, the victim¹s respiration and pulse becomes so slow that it is nearly impossible to detect. The victim retains full awareness as he is taken to the hospital, then perhaps to the morgue and finally as they are buried alive. Then, at the voodoo practitioner¹s leisure does he come to retrieve the victim, now become a slave, as a commodity (at one time it was said that most of the slaves who worked in the sugar cane plantations of Haiti were zombies. One case in 1918 had a voodoo priest named Ti Joseph who ran a gang of laborers for the American Sugar Corporation, who took the money they received and fed the workers only unsalted porridge). A zombie will remain in a robot-like state indefinitely, until he tastes either salt or meat (so much for ‘The Night of the Living Dead’). Then the zombie becomes aware of their state, immediately returning to the grave. The reality behind the zombie has only been taken seriously by medical science within the last ten years, since the use of CAT scans of the brain, along with the confessions of voodoo priests, explaining their methods. Previous to that, zombies were considered mental defective by science or explained as stunts to try to confuse scientists.

ZOMBIS MAY NOT BE WHAT THEY’RE REPUTED TO BE

But in a paper in this week's The Lancet, two researchers, Professor Roland Littlewood of the department of anthropology and psychiatry at London's University College and Dr. Chavannes Douyon of the Polyclinique Medica in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, conclude many so-called zombies may in fact be individuals with psychiatric disorders or brain damage.

In their study, the researchers report on three individuals who were considered to be zombis by their families and neighbours. They found the first individual appeared to have a severe psychiatric condition called catatonic schizophrenia, which can make a person mute and immobile; the second to have brain damage and epilepsy, perhaps due to an episode of oxygen starvation of the brain; and the third individual, a severe learning disability, perhaps due to fetal-alcohol syndrome.

COULD TRACES OF PUFFER FISH TOXIN EXPLAIN THE SUPPOSED EXISTENCE OF HAITI'S ZOMBIES?

Luigi Garlaschelli unearths the evidence - for and against

Zombie fish eaters? Could traces of puffer fish toxin explain the supposed existence of Haiti's zombies? Luigi Garlaschelli unearths the evidence - for and against According to widespread Haitian beliefs, voodoo sorcerers (bokors) would administer a 'magic powder' to their victim. The victim would lapse into a state of such low metabolic activity that he (or she) might appear clinically dead. The poor soul would then be buried alive, only to be rescued hours later by the sorcerer who dug him up, fed him a hallucinogenic concoction, and sold him as a slave, often to sugar plantations. If by some lucky chance (the bokor's death, divine intervention etc) the zombie could free himself, he can still be spotted by his glassy eyes, limited speech capability, nasal voice and slow and 'goofy' movements. The existence of zombies is often taken for granted by Haitian people, and 'zombification' is still considered a crime in Haitian law: Article 264 forbids the administration of drugs that can induce apparent death. If the victim is buried thereafter, the crime is equated to homicide. But do zombies really exist, or is all this just superstition and legend? And if they do exist, are they misunderstood cases, or is there any pharmacological rationale for the activity of the bokor's magic drugs? What is the active molecule in the 'zombie powder'?

ZOMBIES AND P-ZOMBIES

There is another kind of zombie, however: the philosophical zombie. A philosophical zombie (p-zombie, for short) would be a human body without consciousness which would nevertheless behave like a human body with consciousness. To some philosophers (e.g., Daniel Dennett) this is a contradictory notion and thus an impossible conception. If it behaves like a person and is indistinguishable from a person, then it is a person. Other philosophers (e.g. Todd Moody and David Chalmers) argue that a p-zombie would be distinguishable from a person even though indistinguishable from a conscious person. It is distinguishable, say these philosophers, because it is stipulated that it is not conscious even though it is indistinguishable from a conscious being. In case you are wondering why philosophers would debate whether it is possible to conceive of a p-zombie, it is because some philosophers do not believe or do not want to believe that consciousness can be reduced to a set of materialistic functions. Important metaphysical and ethical issues seem to hinge on whether there can be p-zombies. Can machines be conscious? If we created a machine which was indistinguishable from a human person, would our artificial creation be a "person" with all the rights and duties of natural persons? To the p-zombie advocates, consciousness is more than brain processes and neurological functions. No adequate account of consciousness will ever be produced that is "reductionist," i.e., completely materialistic.

ZOMBIES ON THE WEB

Compiled by David Chalmers

Philosophical zombies

It is philosophical zombies that I'm most interested in here, since I'm a philosopher and they raise very interesting issues. The sort I'm most concerned with are zombies that are physically and behaviorally identical to a conscious human, but lack any conscious experience. As in this case-study of my own zombie twin, for example.

Most people doubt that zombies could exist in the actual world. (In philosophical terms, they are naturally impossible.) But many people think that they are at least logically possible - i.e. that the idea of zombie is internally consistent, and that there is at least a "possible world" where zombies exist. This logical possibility is sometimes used to draw strong conclusions about consciousness (e.g. in my book The Conscious Mind, and elsewhere).

NFL IN TORONTO

GIMME A BREAK, OUR BALLS ARE BIGGER!

Toronto, Canada the town we all love to hate. Called Hog Town back in the 18^th century, it lives up to its name, if it isn’t happening in Toronto who cares! It loves to hog the glory. And what’s more important to a Torontonian than, well Toronto. Heck they don’t even think being part of Ontario is important, so they have postcards that say Toronto, Canada. As if there weren’t ten provinces and dozens of other cities across the country. Now those of us in the rest of Canada (ROC) love to hate Toronto for their egocentric focus on themselves.

They like to call their town, Toronto the Good. And for a moment last fall it was, for all of us, even the most ardent hardcore Toronto hater. We set aside our disgust with the city that only thinks of itself, and cheered when they won the Grey Cup, the Canadian Football League (CFL) championship.

It was a great Grey Cup game between the Argo’s and the B.C. Lions. The Toronto Argonauts under coach Michael “Pinball” Clemons, the only black coach to ever win either a Grey Cup or the Super Bowl, were an awesome team, and even the most hard bitten fan or sports journalist gave Clemons and his team their due. Clemons has once again been nominated for ‘Coach of the Year’.

But now once again rumblings from the powers that be, the sports elite and well healed businessmen in Toronto are talking about getting an NFL franchise into the city, or at least hosting an NFL game to test the market. Now that’s the rub.

“Toronto Blue Jays president and chief executive officer Paul Godfrey, a long-time proponent of the NFL in Toronto, continues to believe in the city as a viable market. He said yesterday that the decision by team owners Rogers Media to purchase a new Field Turf surface for the Rogers Centre in time for the Blue Jays' opening day has removed one obstacle to staging an NFL game. In 1997, the only NFL exhibition game ever in Toronto was played, with the Dallas Cowboys meeting the Buffalo Bills at SkyDome.” Globe and Mail , Saturday, February 5, 2005

In the U.S., New York is the Big Apple something you want to take a bite out of. In Canada, Toronto is hog town, where pork barrel politics rules the professional sports market that looks south for its existence, instead of East or West. Oink. Oink.

Paul Godfrey, publisher and creator of the Sun Newspaper chain, owner of the Toronto Blue Jays, and dealmaker is talking about an NFL franchise for Toronto. It makes the average Torontonian slaver with excitement. They always wanted to be American; you know the city North of Buffalo that has an NHL franchise, a MLB Franchise and a NBA franchise, what better to have than an American Football franchise.

I remember visiting friends in Toronto, who may not be my friends after reading this, who insisted on watching the NFL and dishing crap on the CFL. In Canada it’s the great divide, the CFL IS FOOTBALL, to those of us outside of Toronto, and the NFL is that other game. But to the “want to be recognized as a major Metropolis by the Americans” fans in Toronto, anything Canadian is second rate compared to the USA.

Well wait a minute, without the Montreal Expos and Toronto Blue Jays the so-called MLB “World Series” would be nothing of the kind. Actually it really isn’t a World Series it was, until the expansion into Canada, an American Series despite all the MLB players from Santa Dominica, Cuba, etc. And even now it’s only a Continental Cup. But hey Americans like to think the world revolves around them, just like Torontonians.

And despite their Professional American baseball and basketball teams, it’s only the Argos who have brought them glory. Let’s not forget that “The 2004 Grey Cup Champion Toronto Argonauts are North America's oldest professional football club, having celebrated their 130th anniversary in 2003. The Toronto Argonauts have 21 Grey Cup championships to their credit.” (http://www.canoe.ca)

Canadians have been playing football longer than Americans. The Grey Cup is older than the Super Bowl, this was the 92^nd Grey Cup Game in Canada compared to SuperBowl 39, and it was the 50^th Grey Cup game since it became the prize of the CFL!

“In 1909, Earl Grey, the Governor-General of Canada, donated a trophy for the Rugby Football Championship of Canada. The trophy, which subsequently became known as The Grey Cup, was originally open to competition only for teams which were registered with the Canada Rugby Union. Since 1954 only the teams of the CFL have challenged for the Grey Cup”. ( Soudog, CFL/Edmonton Eskimos website)

The very first Grey Cup in 1909 was played in “New York City's Van Cortland Park at the invitation of the New York Herald newspaper. The Hamilton Tigers downed the Ottawa Rough Riders 11-6 before 15,000 fans.” (Dan Ralph - Canadian Press)

JANET JACKSON AIN’T GOT NOTHING ON US

While Super Bowl 38 was ended up in controversy over the half time show with Janet Jackson’s nipple exposure on national TV, in Canada for the Grey Cup this year our half time show had the granddame of Canadian Feminism, June Callwood , former editor of the homemaker magazine Chatelaine, teach us how to kick a field goal.

It was part of Rick Mercers Monday Report (Week November 15 ,Video: This week's Celebrity Tip with June Callwood ) a comedy program on CBC, which broadcast the game. At the end of the field goal the 81 year grandmother turned to the camera and told us all that the difference between our game and the Americans is that our balls are bigger.

OUR BALLS ARE BIGGER.

Because our balls originated with the British sport of Rugby anywhere in Canada, the regulation size balls are wider and longer than those used in the NFL whether you play high school, university or professional football.

Our football fields are longer and wider than American fields.

We have three downs, sudden death football, unlike American football with four downs.

We pass, what is called the ‘Hail Mary’ pass in the NFL is called a regular passing game in the CFL

We play in winter at up to -20 below Celsius. In snow and Ice, not just the final game but most games from the end of October till the Grey Cup at the end of November, unlike the Americans who wince and prance around in the cold when they have to play the Patriots or Greenbay in January.

A Canadian holds the NFL, Highest Field Goal Percentage, Career (100 field goals) 87.88 Mike Vanderjagt, Indianapolis, 1998-2003 we kick balls better.

DUMB AND DUMBER: CFL EXPANSION INTO THE U.S.A.

In 1987 a crisis engulfed the CFL. The longstanding Montreal Alouettes franchise was sold and within a season they ceased to exist, forcing Winnipeg to move out of the Western Conference to play in the East. The political economy of sports, the greed of owners doomed the Alouettes. Someone had pocketed millions in the transfer of the Alouettes from the Bronfman’s to former Edmonton Eskimo Coach Norm Kimball, and it wasn’t the league or the players. It looked as if the CFL was doomed.

“Several other interviewees were convinced through personal knowledge or from what they heard, that Norm Kimball

and Jim Hole collected anywhere from $500,000 to the full $2 million when the Alouettes were terminated. There are hints that as early as March 1986, when Norm Kimball was appointed team COO, he and Bronfman struck a deal. Kimball would take over the franchise to try and revive it. In exchange, he would be compensated later. If he could not save the team, he was free to shut it down. According to ex-Edmonton Journal columnist Cam Cole, who was familiar with Kimball from his days with the Eskimos, the one certainty was that Kimball would not spend a dime of his money to keep the Alouettes alive.” The Canadian Football League: The Phoenix of Professional Sports Leagues by Steve O'Brien

In 1995 the CFL worried about low support from fans, and the loss of money associated with small market teams, following the collapse of the Alouettes, the Ottawa Roughriders collapsed that year. The CFL looked at expansion into the US, with hopes of attracting a larger TV audience to bring more money in for the remaining teams. If that failed Larry Smith was intent on selling the League to the highest bidder in US dollars. It was not the success he had hoped for. 1995 saw one of the American expansion teams won the Grey Cup for the first and last time.

Money was the crucial problem in the CFL’s nine team small market, players make substantially less in the CFL than the NFL. They make a tradesman’s salary compared to the superstar salaries in the NBA, NHL or the NBL. And that was part of the problem not only were the teams losing money but so were the players.

Larry Smith the commissioner who pushed expansion wanted to make the CFL competitive with the NFL, which was a sure fire formula for failure for the small community owned teams in Canada. He based his hope on Americans love of football, where they pull 60,000 bums into stadiums to watch high school football championships. But our game is different and did not attract the attention of sports broadcasters he had hoped for.

“The premise of expansion into the United States may have been the only real hope for CFL survival, but the execution of the plan was so inept that failure was the obvious result. So the expansion commissioner couldn't pull off expansion, leading him back to a leaner CFL - again. In his time in the CFL, Larry Smith has watched club salaries drop from a high of $4.1 million in 1992 to $3 million in 1994 to $2.5 million in 1995 and $2.1 million for this season. Next season, if there is a next season, the $2.1 million will include the cost for injured players which account for somewhere around $500,000 on most team’s budgets. He says his restructuring plan, if followed, is the only salvation for the league. "The issue is `Will we be here in 1997?' If everyone follows the plan, we will be,'' Smith said. This is the new plan, as opposed to the old plan. The expansion plan was going to eliminate the Canadian players. That was different from the plan to go to only Canadian players. Then there was the plan to have all private owners. Now, they want mostly community ownership.” By Steve Simmons, Toronto Sun, November 21, 1996

Despite having US teams in Birmingham, Shreveport, Memphis, and Baltimore, despite having to play at 40 above instead of 40 below during a game in Las Vegas, despite having a shorter season than the NFL ,a CFL season runs from June to November, the money was made, expansion ended in 1996 a failure except for the Baltimore Stallions.

“The Baltimore Stallions were the first and only U.S.-based team to win the Grey Cup. One player on that team -- O.J. Brigance -- went on to win the Super Bowl in 2001 with the Baltimore Ravens, becoming the only player to win both a Grey Cup and a Super Bowl with teams from the same city, a feat likely to never be repeated!” (Soudog, CFL/Edmonton Eskimos website).

The irony was that the success of Baltimore brought them a new NFL team, which they had lost when the Colts were moved to Indiana, and that brought doom to both the CFL franchise in Baltimore and Smiths idea of expansion into the US as an alternative league. CFL expansion helped owners in the U.S. get back into the NFL, while doing little for the CFL

“On November 4, the day before the CFL playoffs got underway, word leaked that Art Modell, owner of the NFL Cleveland Browns, was moving his team to Baltimore for 1996. Modell made it official at an outdoor media conference in Baltimore on November 6. After a twelve-year absence, the NFL was returning to town. The news struck Baltimore Stallions’ president Jim Speros like a thunderbolt. One thing was abundantly clear. Once Modell opened his mouth, the Stallions lost both corporate and fan support as well as media attention. The reappearance of the NFL was going to dominate anything on the Baltimore sports scene. Despite owning one of the most venerable NFL franchises, Modell claimed that he could not make a profit. Cleveland Memorial Stadium, with a capacity of more than 80,000, was antiquated and lacked the amenities which Modell felt were imperative to make money. Modell had threatened on numerous occasions to move the Browns, but no one took him seriously. He shopped around to bleed what he could from the most receptive bidder. What he got from Baltimore was probably the richest incentive ever offered to an owner of a pro sports team. It also demonstrated how serious Baltimore was about returning to the National Football League.” The Canadian Football League: The Phoenix of Professional Sports Leagues by Steve O'Brien

For example, in its analysis of the new stadium being built for the NFL's Baltimore Ravens, the Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development estimated an annual economic benefit to the Baltimore metropolitan area of $111 million and the creation of almost 1400 new jobs. According to Leeds and von Allmen, independent analysis found a much smaller impact on annual income ($33 million) and jobs (534). In general, independent studies by economists suggest that the value of local multipliers is at most 1.25, less than one-half of the value suggested in some impact studies. Should cities be ready for some football? Assessing the social benefits of hosting an NFL team Business Review (Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia), summer, 2004 by Gerald A. Carlino, N. Edward Coulson

One gain the league made was that the Baltimore Ravens moved to Montreal and became the new Alouettes in 1996. Expansion had been all about trying to get back both eastern teams or selling off the league to US owners, the later failed and the former meant Smiths demise as League commissioner. In 2002 Ottawa was resurrected as the Renegades. Today when the CFL talks expansion it is talking about Halifax.

(See SKYDOME: Political Economy of Sport)

(For Doug, a die hard Edmonton Eskimo’s Fan)

NFL Game in Toronto?
By David Naylor
with a report from Jeff Blair
Saturday, February 5, 2005 - Globe and Mail

National Football League commissioner Paul Tagliabue says the league is exploring the possibility of holding NFL regular-season games outside of the United States.
While specifically mentioning Mexico City as a candidate, he neither included nor dismissed Toronto.
"We're giving consideration right now to see whether we, in the next year or two, can play a regular-season game outside of the United States to continue to develop the interest and be responsive to fans," he said Tagliabue made the comments yesterday during his annual address at the Super Bowl, saying that Mexico City was a candidate to play host to a regular-season game because its "time zones and travel would be compatible with what you want to do with the teams."
Based on that criteria, Toronto would also presumably be a possibility. However, Tagliabue said the first hurdle to be crossed was to ensure that having such an event was "possible in terms of taking a game away from the fans of a team in its host city."
NFL teams, unlike those in baseball, hockey or basketball, play only eight home games a season.
With the 2005 NFL schedule already out, the earliest date for the league to play a regular-season game outside U.S. borders would be 2006. The NFL, which has already played exhibition games in Japan and Europe, would like to play some in China leading up to the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, Tagliabue said.
The National Basketball Association, National Hockey League and Major League Baseball have played games outside of the United States and Canada.
Toronto Blue Jays president and chief executive officer Paul Godfrey, a long-time proponent of the NFL in Toronto, continues to believe in the city as a viable market. He said yesterday that the decision by team owners Rogers Media to purchase a new Field Turf surface for the Rogers Centre in time for the Blue Jays' opening day has removed one obstacle to staging an NFL game.
In 1997, the only NFL exhibition game ever in Toronto was played, with the Dallas Cowboys meeting the Buffalo Bills at SkyDome.
Tagliabue said the league is still interested in one day having a Toronto franchise, although there was no timetable for such a move.
"I said before and I still feel this way that I think it could very likely be that the next franchises in the NFL beyond the 32 are outside the United States," Tagliabue said. "Toronto would certainly be a candidate."

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SKYDOME

THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF SPORTS

“The first retractable-roof stadium built in the major leagues, Toronto's striking SkyDome opened on June 5, 1989 and became an immediate landmark in Toronto -- as the tallest ballpark in the majors it can be seen from most parts of the city. Whether it's been a complete success is another matter: Since its opening the SkyDome has been a financial challenge for the Blue Jays and the many provincial and national governmental groups that took part in its construction. Its owners once were forced to file for bankruptcy, and the Blue Jays say that the stadium doesn't provide enough in revenues for the team to be compete adequately. At one time Toronto was consider a large market that could compete with the Yankees (remember when Roger Clemens went to Toronto and signed that huge contract?), but since that time the Canadian dollar has slid and the economy in both Toronto and Canada soured.

It has the unique feature of having a hotel as part of the stadium -- the Renaissance Toronto Hotel, a 348-room hotel with 70 rooms overlooking the field. Robbie Alomar actually lived in this hotel when he played for the Blue Jays, and there has been more than one time when a couple participated in an amorous activity (with the drapes open) during a ballgame.

The SkyDome also features the largest video display board in North America -- three stories high by nine stories wide”. BallParkWatch

The whole NFL business came up recently, though this is far from the only time it has, because billionaire Ted Rodgers bought the SkyDome and Blue jays franchise and promises to upgrade the facility and the MLB team.

SkyDome was originally constructed in 1989 at a cost of $580 million paid for by the taxpayers of Toronto and Ontario. Costs included building a hotel, a health club, demolishing Toronto's main water pumping station, restructuring a new one across the street, building new streets and bridges, and other area infrastructures.

As Toronto Sun Reporter Ken Fidlin asks; “But, lost in the latest solution to the CFL's problems in Toronto is how SkyDome became such an abhorrent relic in the span of 15 years. How does a place go from one of the wonders of the world in 1989, to a has-been in 2004?”

How does it happen, they outsourced the computer and electrical infrastructure for the facility which would end up costing millions in upkeep. Being one of the early P3’s-public private partnerships-during the economic downturn and the regime of Mike Harris, and his hell-bent on privatization Tory Government, the privatize at any cost forgot about the costs of outsourcing and privatization. One of those is cheap materials used in construction, and outsourcing in the computer systems. The collapse of portions of the SkyDome roof and the need to upgrade maintenance of the building after only a decade was one reason for SkyDomes bankruptcy.

Outsourcing has been the mainstay of computer systems for many years, and it works because you have to come back and buy a new system on a continual basis, if you don’t you will get no support for your old one. Ask yourself about how many computers you have had to buy over the last decade to keep up with software. See Canada's Billion Dollar P3 Boondoogle

Now multiple that by millions spent by all levels of government on obsolete stand alone systems and you can guess at the profit that can be made by profiteers at the publics expense.

When SkyDome opened to the public in 1989, several stand-alone computer systems were acquired to manage the profusion of security details:

* A photo ID solution was selected to produce identity cards for the 3,000-plus employees, team members and tenants. * The parking lots and entrances were equipped with 36 rotating and stationary CCTV cameras, integrated to eight monitors. * Magnetic stripe card readers were installed in all elevators to control access to secured floors. * Gates were equipped with door locks and alarms to ward off illegal entry from the street.

Finally, the readers, locks and alarms were wired to a central access control database.

All was state-of-the-art equipment at that time. All was supposed to be expandable. And all, as it turned out, was poorly supported by resellers who would eventually go out of business or lose interest in the service contracts.

When that happened, says SkyDome director of security Kelly Keyes, "things deteriorated very quickly."

"By early 1996," Keyes explains, "we realized our security systems were falling to pieces. We could no longer purchase film or other materials for badging because our only supplier went bankrupt. As for access control, we literally had to shut down all the alarms and door locks whenever the stadium opened for an event.

"To make matters worse, the wiring was not properly installed or maintained, so glitches were popping up all over the place. What we originally thought was an investment in leading-edge hardware quickly became money spent on the upkeep of out-of-date and malfunctioning technology."

Keyes began her search for an integrated security system to include: badging, access control and CCTV solutions linked across one network, using a common database.

When the quotes began to arrive, however, she discovered the all-in-one approach was "too expensive, well beyond anything we would need, and still wouldn't offer the features we were looking for." Reluctantly, she turned again to stand-alone technology.” Toronto Skydome, Jul 1, 1997 by James Whittall

The other reason for SkyDomes bankruptcy besides the costs of maintenance was the fact that those private investors who coughed up $5 million each made sure they made their money off the Dome as fast as they could. So what did the taxpayers as investors get in their ‘public’ stadium, they got a private capitalist boondoggle that made money for the private investors and left taxpayers holding the bag. But hey Torontonians got to cheer for their MBL team and the Argos, while forking over more cash in parking, beer, and ticket prices. And who benefits, why the folks who put up the $5 million each.

Court props up collapsing SkyDome

Toronto's 'crown jewel' in hock for $58-million

Saturday, November 28, 1998
John Saunders And Paul Waldie
The Globe And Mail

“Toronto's domed stadium, not yet 10 years old, was granted refuge in a form of bankruptcy last night, despite angry words from lenders who are owed more than $58-million.

It is not clear that it would be profitable even if all differences were settled, but its current management complains of special problems left over from a disastrous public-private partnership that built it in the 1980s.

Private partners who put up $5-million each provided about a quarter of the $600-million construction cost, but got most of their money back in special benefits.

"For its $5-million contribution, each consortium member received exclusive advertising rights, promotion rights and preferred supplier rights, rights to a skybox and parking spaces and other rights," laments a 242-page document filed in court by the SkyDome's lawyers. The deals still drain stadium coffers, it says.

The consortium featured interests as diverse as Coca-Cola, Ford, McDonald's, Canadian Airlines and The Toronto Sun (which got rights to run dome tours).

The consortium also involved the doomed Olympia & York real-estate empire (which at one time had exclusive rights to supply toilet paper).

Without giving details, the document asserts that some special arrangements compel the stadium "to pay prices or rates for goods and services which are not competitive, or to provide goods and services at prices or rates which are not competitive," threatening its financial survival. The SkyDome's fate depends partly on its ability to cancel or renegotiate the contracts, it says.

However, the biggest issue in the bankruptcy is whether the SkyDome can complete a new lease with its chief tenant, the Toronto Blue Jays baseball club, on terms that demand sacrifices from other interests.

The stadium and the Jays have already reached a tentative deal in which the ballclub would provide a $3.5-million emergency loan (with special priority over other SkyDome debt) and would get a bigger slice of the revenue pie -- an extra $72-million -- over the final nine years of a new 10-year lease.”

After a decade fiscal mismanagement and profiteering by its private investors, SkyDome in order to get out of debt was sold in 1999 to Sportsco International at a fire sale price for somewhere around $80-$110 million. Sportsco is one of several global sports companies of the rich national bourgeoisie in North America, in this case Norman Seagram of Molson’s and his longtime American friend and partner; Alan Cohen (see corporate profile below).

SkyDome was subsequently sold last winter for the bargain basement price of 25 million dollars to another member of the Canadian Bourgeoisie, Ted Rogers of Rodgers Cable and Broadcasting/Rodgers Communications, and his pal Paul Godfrey President of the Blue Jays, and former Publisher of the Toronto Sun, one of the original 5 million dollar investors who profiteered off the stadium leaving it in bankruptcy.

One ballpark, slightly used, cheap

November 29, 2004

Baseball stadiums typically cost upwards of $400 million to build, but what are they actually worth to own? For an answer, look no further than Toronto, where the SkyDome has been sold again, this time to Rogers Communications, owners of the Toronto Blue Jays, for $30 million (Canadian).Jays CEO Paul Godfrey called it "an opportunity for us to acquire a tremendous asset at an extremely attractive price," and he's not kidding: That's a 73% discount from the $110 million that Sportsco paid for North America's first retractable-roofed stadium in 1999, and a whopping 95% off SkyDome's initial $600 million price tag (most of which was footed by the good people of Ontario). Cities that are counting on taking possession of their stadiums in lieu of getting paid back on stadium "loans," take note - you listening, St. Louis? How about you, Washington, D.C.?

What a deal, and now they want to bring in the NFL, is that because the CFL Argo’s will no longer be playing in SkyDome, because they are building their own stadium. The idea is to reduce the size of SkyDome and make it MLB regulation, which would also make it NFL regulation size. Remember like our balls, our football fields are bigger.

Toronto is not the only city to succumb to Stadium fever, build it and they will come is the motto of the business elite who are also the team owners. They want the public to pay and pay and pay for their profitable sports businesses.

We build it they buy it at fire-sale prices, paid for by salary caps on their workers (the players). Expansion cannot happen in the professional sports industry with out salary caps, as Sportsco International VP, Alan Cohen proved when he introduced it into the NBA. It has nothing to do with reducing ticket costs, or reducing operational costs, it has to do with making a profit and reducing the impact of workers wages (player salaries) on the bottom line.

“The findings in this article do not suggest that there is a significant difference between a soft salary cap and a payroll tax as far as placing limits on salary growth is concerned. If a salary cap were enforced as a hard cap, the difference might be greater because this would be a firm and direct limit. Economists know that programs for controlling wages and prices at the national level, sometimes called incomes policies, are not particularly effective. The same might be said of industrial wage and spending controls in sports. Player salaries are mostly determined by market conditions, such as attendance, television revenues, luxury boxes, licensing revenues, league expansion, and stadium deals. Salary caps and payroll taxes may seem beneficial to owners, but their effects appear to be more symbolic and cosmetic than fundamental.” Salary Caps in Professional Team Sports, Compensation and Working Conditions Spring 1998

Edmonton, Calgary, Vancouver, all have built facilities that have been sold off to pay for their maintenance costs at fire sale prices. And still the owners cry “gimme more” as is currently the case with the NHL lockout. What part of “sports is a business” don’t the fans understand?

“In an interview with the Times, Cohen was asked if it were more important to win a championship or to earn profits for his shareholders. He replied that as a public company, his first priority was to his shareholders: “That’s the bottom line.”

And that’s the deal when it comes to the selling of SkyDome and the musings of it’s owners about getting an NFL franchise in Toronto.

NYC group: Stadium benefits overstated

April 08, 2004

A report by New York City's Regional Plan Association (PDF file available here) says other cities' experience with major stadium/convention center projects shows they're poor catalysts for commercial development - putting a dent in the arguments of Deputy Mayor Dan Doctoroff, whose $5-billion-plus Hudson Yards plan would rely on property taxes from 28 million square feet of new office development to pay off its bonds.

Neither Seattle's downtown stadiums and convention center nor Baltimore's twin stadiums have sparked "significant commercial or residential growth," according to the RPA, while with Toronto's Skydome "the hope that the central business district would expand into this area never panned out." As for St. Louis' Edward Jones Dome, the prototype of a football/convention complex along the lines of New York's proposed Jets stadium, the RPA notes that while it "successfully creates the kind of synergy between the stadium and the convention center, the area around it is barren and deserted" on non-game days. The report concludes:

"When clustered together, stadiums and convention centers often make for a successful tourist corridor but as yet, they have not shown the ability to sponsor development of intensive mixed-use districts. There is little evidence of such facilities thriving in districts as dense as the one proposed for the Far West Side."

The much touted social benefit of stadiums is exaggerated if unproven economically. But the ruling class, those with the deep pockets, invests not so much in the infrastructure as in the promotion of building the infrastructure at taxpayer’s expense and then buy it back when it can no longer be supported. The reason it can’t be supported is that these same capitalist fund right wing think tanks and political parties that promote tax breaks and smaller government. The real infrastructure needs of our cities, social housing, roads, sewer and electrical upgrades are forgotten for the need of “sports” infrastructure. It’s Bread and Circuses for the masses and another profitable opportunity for the rich and monied elites.

Typical of the boosters of sports capitalism, they play on the nationalism of the population. Our city versus your city, our province versus your province, our country versus your country, sports jingoism replaces the jingoism of war, but is just as insidious. It builds the We’re Number One, ideology that so quickly can go from fans in the stands, to the marching bands of the war machine of Imperialism.

Sports are Political, and it is ruled by the political economy of capitalism, even amateur sports if there is such a creature any longer. One look at the globalized sports movement of the Olympics shows that amateur sports no longer actually exist, more and more professionals are entering the Olympics as individuals and teams. The old 19^th century values of the ruling class, the last of the aristocratic pretensions of the bourgeoisie, have passed on to be replaced with the commoditization of sports and athletes. Athletes even those who are amateur, are workers in sports, whether paid a salary or given time off and collecting sponsorships for their training, it is still ‘work’ and ‘labour’ producing the commodity so valued by the sports nationalist, a win, a medal.

To rephrase Marx, the ruling sports are the sports of the ruling classes. And in North America that market is American Teams and Sports, and the Toronto ruling classes want into that lucrative market. But what is good for the ruling class is not necessarily good for us or the players, or our national games like Hockey and Football. But the ruling class is willing to sacrifice our sports, on the altar of profit, profit sharing, cable TV contracts and of course, salary caps.

Rogers plays name game with SkyDome

Toronto stadium now called Rogers Centre

Keith Mcarthur and Richard Bloom –

Globe and Mail, Thursday, February 3, 2005

Some might say Ted Rogers is toying with the curse of the corporate playground.

There's a veritable graveyard of companies that have shelled out big bucks to have their corporate brand carved into the sides of stadiums and arenas only to become embroiled in scandal or insolvency, such as Enron Field in Houston, Adelphia Coliseum in Tennessee and the Canadian Airlines Saddledome in Calgary.

Mr. Rogers, chief executive officer of Rogers Communications Inc., announced yesterday that Toronto's SkyDome, which the firm acquired recently for $25-million, is being rebranded as Rogers Centre.

But sports marketing experts say that despite some naming disasters, the move makes great sense for Rogers -- not only because it competes in an industry where marketing to consumers is paramount, but also because the price is right.

Since Rogers owns the stadium, which is located along the city's major downtown highway, it won't pay the usually hefty naming rights.

"From Rogers's standpoint it's completely a natural," said Bob Stellick of Toronto's Stellick Marketing Communications Inc.

"The question will be how large a Rogers sign can they stick on the Gardiner Expressway with 400,000 cars a day going by?"

One of the challenges for Rogers will be getting fans (the company also owns the stadium's major tenant, baseball's Toronto Blue Jays) and media to use the new name. After all, many fans still think the National Hockey League's Montreal Canadiens play (when they're not locked out) in the Molson Centre. That building was renamed the Bell Centre in 2002.

"When you're renaming something, it's often very difficult to get the media to call it by the revised name," Mr. Stellick said. "What will people on [all-sports TV network] TSN call it? Obviously they're a competitor."

Bell Globemedia's TSN competes directly against Rogers-owned Sportsnet. Bell Globemedia also owns the CTV network and The Globe and Mail.

Companies look at various factors when calculating the value of naming rights. The most obvious is how often the brand name is used in the media and the local community. But naming deals also include various other rights, from exclusive supplier and advertising relationships to corporate boxes.

In 1994, General Motors of Canada Ltd. snapped up the rights to slap its name on the side of Vancouver's pro hockey and basketball facility, a decision spokesman Stew Low says has been money well spent. (The company hasn't disclosed what it paid to call the arena General Motors Place.)

"It's really all about marketing and building your presence and awareness within that community," he said. "It has absolutely worked."

Because of the deal, GM's name is used millions of times each year on media broadcasts, ticket stubs and more, Mr. Low said. But he said companies have to do more than spend money for the name; they also have to leverage the investment.

GM does so by putting car displays in the venue, painting its name on the ice surface, branding the boards around the ice and getting involved in the NHL's Vancouver Canucks' charitable foundation, he said. "It has to be a holistic approach as opposed to just the name on the building."

Keith McIntyre, president of K. Mac & Associates in Mississauga, which advises companies on sports marketing, says renaming SkyDome makes sense for Rogers. He said branding of the Air Canada Centre in Toronto also works well, since the airline takes a disproportionate share of revenue from business people, who show up in large numbers to watch pro sports.

But for every deal that works, there are just as many that don't, Mr. McIntyre said. He believes naming rights have become passé because they are now so common.

"At one point it was a unique way to do sports marketing, to get a company name or product out there. But everybody's doing it at all levels now," he said.

Part of the reason there are so many failures among companies who buy naming rights is that fast-rising firms see it as a great way to look big and important. And occasionally, companies that rise fast, fall just as quickly.

"It's a bit of an ego boost for a lot of these companies. It's a bit of an ego boost for these CEOs," Mr. McIntyre said.

Houston's Enron Field has been renamed Minute Maid Park after fraudulent accounting at Enron Corp. led to it filing for bankruptcy protection in 2001. Adelphia Coliseum became The Coliseum after Adelphia Communications Corp. filed for bankruptcy protection in 2001 after a major scandal. And the Canadian Airlines Saddledome became Pengrowth Saddledome after the nearly insolvent airline was acquired by Air Canada in 2000.

The stadium name game

Rogers Communications announced yesterday that the SkyDome, above, the home of the Toronto Blue Jays, has been renamed the Rogers Centre. Many of Canada's sports palaces have been branded with corporate monikers, but there are also examples where companies have shelled out big dollars before succumbing to scandal or insolvency.

Canadian sports venues with corporate names

Air Canada Centre Toronto

n NHL, NBA

Canad Inns Stadium Winnipeg

n CFL

Rexall Place Edmonton

(formerly Northlands Coliseum,

formerly SkyReach Centre)

n NHL

Bell Centre Montreal

(formerly Molson Centre)

n NHL

GM Place Vancouver

n NHL

The Corel Centre Ottawa

n NHL

MTS Centre Winnipeg

Naming mistakes

Enron Field Houston

n Now Minute Maid Park

n Fraudulent accounting led to a filing for bankruptcy protection in 2001.

Canadian Airlines Saddledome Calgary

n Now Pengrowth Saddledome

n Was losing $2-million a day before being acquired by Air Canada in 2000.

Adelphia Stadium Tennessee

n Now The Coliseum

n Filed for bankruptcy protection in 2001 because of major scandal.

PSINet Stadium Baltimore

n Now M&T Bank Stadium

n PSINet filed for bankruptcy protection in 2001.

TWA Dome St. Louis

n Now Edward Jones Dome

n Financial troubles at TWA led demise of brand through American Airlines takeover

THE ECONOMIC BENEFITS OF SPORTS STADIUMS ARE EXAGGERATED

A 1996 Congressional Research Service (CRS) report, "Tax-Exempt Bonds and the Economics of Professional Sports Stadiums" concluded that sports stadia represent a small percentage of a local economy. There is little real impact or multiplier effect associated with building sports stadia. That the building of stadia merely transfers consumption from one area or one type of leisure activity to another, and that overall, sports and stadia contribute little to the local economy and instead represent an investment that costs the public a lot while failing to return the initial investment. Hundreds of other studies and books by individuals such as long-time sports economists Arthur T. Johnson in Minor League Baseball and Economic Development, Mark Rosentraub in Major League Losers, Kenneth Shropshire in The Sports Franchise Game, and Roger Noll and Andrew Zimbalist in Sports, Jobs, and Taxes, reach the same conclusion — public support of professional and minor league sports is a bad investment. In practically none of the cities these studies examined did new sports stadia lead to any significant new private investment or provide for any significant economic benefits to the local economy besides the jobs generated by the initial capital construction of the stadia. More importantly, the new stadia generally were not even profitable or self-financing. Sportsfare: The political economy of publicly funded stadiums by David Schultz

Image impacts captures the concept that a city may experience benefits from being a “major league city”, home to a franchise from one of the four dominant sports leagues in North America. Proponents routinely cite image building as one of the primary benefits of building a new stadium or arena. Image related impacts include increased community visibility and an ability to better compete for relocating businesses and households. The status of being a major league city is one that has driven many cities to vigorously pursue major league sports, as cities like Jacksonville, Indianapolis, and Nashville pursued and eventually acquired teams through massive investments in sports facilities.

While most analysts agree that there are image impacts following a new sports facility, identifying these and quantifying these impacts has been difficult. To be sure, having a major league sports team allows smaller cities like Green Bay, San Jose, and Memphis to have a national and international marketing presence not likely available to them otherwise. The value of this community visibility remains unknown. Studies of business and household relocation decisions have found sports facilities to be largely irrelevant, as business are usually more interested in factors such as low taxes and a positive business climate, while households too want low taxes, but also good schools and good medical facilities (Danielson, 1997). Finally, while “major league city” status is desirable, there is no evidence that this status conveys any quantifiable benefits to a community.

Political impacts refer, not surprisingly, to the political costs and benefits that flow from a sports facility. Because sports facilities are high profile projects, they offer opportunities for politicians to rally a community around redevelopment efforts, in the process catapulting a leader to higher political office. For example, William Donald Schaeffer’s efforts to redevelop downtown Baltimore, including support for plans for two new downtown stadia, played a role in his ascendancy to the state’s governorship. Similarly, Cleveland’s George Voinovich support of the Gateway Project helped propel him to statewide prominence and eventually to the governor’s office and later the U.S. Senate.

In their case study of New Haven, Johnson and Sack (1996) found that political impacts were among the among the most important of the noneconomic impacts. Minority and poor residents in the city saw a tennis facility as just another in a long line of large, expensive projects that benefited a limited set of individuals, with only very minor trickle-down benefits to those community residents most in need. The authors concluded that these political costs were considerable, requiring substantial energy and time from the administration to see the project through. Pelissero et al (1991) identified a very similar conflict in Chicago surrounding a new ballpark and a new football stadium. In that city, political leaders had to very carefully manage both sides of the debate and attempt to balance the wants of the teams and sports fans versus the needs of poor and minority communities.

Identifying the Real Costs and Benefits of Sports Facilities Tim Chapin © 2002 Lincoln Institute of Land Policy Working Paper

What Ruth Built, Let George Tear Asunder
By Neil deMause

What has really changed, though, is the financial structure of baseball. When the owners and players finally settled on a new collective bargaining agreement on August 30, 2002, forestalling a strike that had seemed all but certain, one of the key provisions was an expanded revenue-sharing system among rival clubs: henceforth, on each new dollar earned, about forty cents would be sent back to the league for redistribution to other teams. And while, in general, revenue-sharing payments were to be paid on gross revenue, not net—no deducting (as Steinbrenner has done) that $20 million payment to yourself for negotiating your own cable deal, in other words—teams would be allowed to deduct "stadium operations costs," including debt payments on construction bonds.

Nobody noticed it at the time, but this was a huge bombshell in the world of stadium finance—in effect, an enormous "tax break" for spending private funds on stadium construction. The St. Louis Cardinals were apparently the first to take advantage of it: within months of the new CBA, Cards management was offering to shoulder two-thirds of the cost of a new $387 million stadium—without mentioning that by doing so, they'd be reducing their revenue-sharing payments to the rest of the league by about $6 million a year.

As far as taking advantage of the new revenue-sharing deduction, though, Steinbrenner's plan would dwarf that of the Cardinals. By spending $750 million on a new stadium, the Yankees would reduce their reported revenue by about $40 million a year; multiply this amount by their 39 percent revenue-sharing "bracket," and you get an annual revenue-sharing break of $15 million. Over time, about $300 million worth of Steinbrenner's new pleasure palace would come straight out of the pockets of the other twenty-nine teams.

The implications of all this for baseball are staggering, and a bit of a mixed bag for fans. First off, the fact that the revenue-sharing plan encourages private spending would be a huge boon to taxpayers—the Cardinals' new stadium will be only the second ballpark in the last forty years to be funded primarily through private sources, and the new CBA no doubt deserves much of the credit.

For fans of baseball's few remaining historic ballparks, however, the Steinbrenner dodge could be a disaster. Because while it creates an incentive for owners to fund new stadiums with their own money, it also creates a huge new incentive to subject old parks to the wrecking ball.

A simple thought experiment shows why. Say a team—let's call them the Red Sox—is weighing renovations to its existing park versus building anew. Suppose that the Red Sox have crunched the numbers for the two options and determined that they can either spend $50 million on renovations that would, over time, bring in $100 million in new revenue, or spend $500 million on a new stadium that would bring in $400 million in new revenue. Easy choice, right? Renovations make a moderate profit; building anew turns a large loss; so renovation wins out.

Now let's apply the revenue-sharing deduction and see what happens. The $50 million in renovation now creates a $20 million revenue-sharing savings, meaning the effective cost to the Sox is $30 million; new revenue remains the same, so profits from renovation are now $70 million. Meanwhile, the $500 million build-new option creates a $200 million deduction, so its effective cost is $300 million; new revenue remains $400 million, so building anew now turns a $100 million profit. Suddenly a new stadium means a bigger profit, even though, in pure economic terms, it would be a money loser.

Since baseball's new stadium boom began in 1989 with Toronto's Sky-Dome, most of the sport's "classic" ballparks have either been demolished or abandoned: Comiskey Park, Memorial Stadium, Cleveland Municipal Stadium, Tiger Stadium, Candlestick Park, County Stadium. Those few that remain—Fenway Park, Wrigley Field, Yankee Stadium, and Dodger Stadium—have survived mostly because the teams that play in them have decided, reluctantly at times, that if they could keep packing fans into the old buildings, it wasn't worth the tremendous costs of building anew. Fenway Park, in particular, came perilously close to the wrecking ball in 2000, only to have plans for a replacement falter when local banks insisted that the potential new revenue wasn't enough to pay off the new debt. Today, with the revenue-sharing breaks to be had, those same banks might say: Go ahead, bring on the bulldozers.

It's a dangerous moment for classic ballparks, as the four remaining holdouts to the mallpark boom are all publicly mulling tearing down and starting fresh. Wrigley Field was recently granted city landmark status, but after this summer's falling concrete incidents, the once-unthinkable talk has begun around Chicago of whether the Tribune Corp. would be better off razing Wrigley for more luxury-box-friendly confines. The former owners of the Dodgers had floated the idea of tearing down Dodger Stadium before selling out to Frank McCourt—perhaps ominously, a Boston-based real estate developer. And while John Henry has given every indication of going full-speed ahead with more modest renovations to Fenway Park—a couple thousand seats here, a couple thousand there, along the lines of the relatively unobtrusive additions already made atop the right field roof and the Green Monster—it's hard to see how he could long resist the lure of luxury suites coupled with a huge revenue-sharing windfall, especially when his hated AL East rivals were already availing themselves of it.

None of these parks, nor Yankee Stadium itself, is doomed just yet. Even at sixty cents on the dollar, new stadiums remain staggeringly expensive to build—and nearly impossible to make work without appeals for public cash. It will be interesting to see if the rave reviews continue for Steinbrenner's plan once that $400 million in public "infrastructure" cash hits the city council docket. Moreover, the remaining owners, those who'd be footing the bill for their rivals' new parks, could yet revolt and eliminate the construction-debt deduction when the next CBA is negotiated in 2006.

If not, though, baseball's attempts to level the playing field between teams could end up creating a windfall for rich teams at the expense of their less-rich competitors—and destroy much of baseball's remaining heritage in the process. In the long, sad history of baseball ownership, that could be the bitterest irony yet.—EFQ

SPORTS: THE RULING CLASS GENTLEMAN’S ENTERTAINMENT (AND INVESTMENT)

Professional sports were organised in mining and industrial towns and cities as businesses, while amateur spectator sports, particularly "American" football, were introduced on university campuses. Because Britain was still the global hegemonic power, its sports (football, cricket, athletics) proliferated throughout the world, superseding traditional games and adopting national identities. At the turn of the century the Olympic Games were revived by Western patricians to promote national prowess. During the 1920s and 1930s professional and university sports reached an unparalleled popularity, supported by local working class and middle class spectators. The British Empire Games and football's World Cup were organised during this period. After World War II, the United States assumed imperial hegemony, which resulted in the extension of "American" sports (baseball, basketball, volleyball) throughout the world, generally taking on national modes. Professional and collegiate sports did become increasingly influenced by television and corporate sponsors in the 1960s, but retained a national orientation. Moreover, international sports competitions were still run by bourgeois elites who were not preoccupied with making profits. During the past two decades, however, there has been a marked change in how the sports industry has operated. This is seen in the implementation by the owners and managers of sport of globalised strategies designed to generate enormous profits. These strategies, in fact, have paralleled and complemented the restructuring occurring in the global economy. "Globalization and Sport", George Wright

The Pivotal Role Played by Elite Groups in Canadian Cricket

Cricket was the most popular summer game in independent schools which used English public schools as their models and were often predominantly staffed by English teachers. Upper Canada College is a prime example of this tradition where even to this day cricket is played. In the nineteenth century, the strong bond between Upper Canada College and Toronto Cricket Club was established and has now existed for over 150 years. Both institutions have catered to an elite group which have included upper- and middle-class English immigrants and Canadian anglophiles who kept cricket within their own social confines. In the early years this helped sustain the game but in the twentieth century has hindered its domestication.

Many cricket clubs in the nineteenth century copied the trend that had been established in Toronto. Woodstock and Darlington both had cricket clubs which were socially exclusive and were the premier teams in those towns. They were eventually replaced by baseball teams which were open to a wider spectrum of the public.

As the nineteenth century drew to a close, Canadian-born or –educated cricketers began to play a more prominent part in determining the future of the game. They were usually educated in an independent school and came from a selectgroup of male middle- and upper-class Canadians who were either first- or second-generation immigrants from England. They were found mostly in Toronto, Hamilton, Ottawa, and Montreal and were imbued with the Corinthian philosophyof amateurism.

Professionalism in late nineteenth-century Canada was frowned upon by “gentlemen” who cherished the very English notion of amateurism in sport. Metcalfe is very clear about the hegemonic control exerted by the elite classes who governed amateur sport and had no need or desire for remuneration. The ideology and structures of amateur sport . . . were rooted in the ethic of Victorian England—hard work, structured inequality, and obedience to the legally constituted authority.

Later in the twentieth century, cricket enjoyed the support of two prominent Canadian citizens who invested their personal wealth in promoting Canadian teams both at home and abroad. Norman Seagram, who was born in 1879 in Waterloo and was part of the Seagram family empire built on distilling and horse racing, financed a private cricket tour to England in 1922. They were called the Norman Seagram Xl and were a team of experienced Canadian players. Although they did not win a game, they continued the tradition of being fine Canadian gentlemen and were granted the ultimate cricket honor: a game against the MCC at Lord’s.

A Brief History of The Toronto Cricket Club By Edgar A. Brach 2003 “The Club became a vagabond club and in the early 1920s, to the rescue came a group of benevolent cricketers spearheaded by Norman Seagram, one of the most prominent and generous players of the time. This group which included George Wm. Gooderham, Edward F Seagram, Thomas W .Seagram, Norman Seagram and Robert A Laidlaw showed great foresight and purchased from the Kendrick Land Company a parcel of land in the outskirts of Toronto near the Armour Estate at Wilson Ave and Avenue Rd. for $ $40,880 and build a cricket pitch and club house for and additional $24,495.”

SPORTSCO INTERNATIONAL

Norman M Seagram

Chairman of the Board at Hydrogenics Corporation (USA)

Norman M. Seagram was elected Chairman of our board of directors in July 2000. Mr. Seagram was President of Sportsco International LP from February 2001 to March 2003. From September 1996 to May 1997, Mr. Seagram was President and Chief Executive Officer of Molson Inc., a company that he had previously served for 24 years in a variety of senior management positions. From October 1992 to August 1996, Mr. Seagram was Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Air Liquide Canada, Inc., a producer of industrial gases. Mr. Seagram is a trustee of Trinity College School and serves on the International Advisory Council of INSEAD, France, and on the advisory board of the Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering, University of Toronto. Mr. Seagram resides in Toronto, Ontario. He is a director of Harbourfront, which is where Skydome is located.

Molson’s 1998 Summary Compensation Table

SEAGRAM FAMILY HISTORY

INVESTMENT IN RECREATION AND TOURISM INFRASTRUCTURE
BENEFITS THE GREATER TORONTO AREA

TORONTO - Tennis Canada will soon see the development of a new tennis centre through an investment announced today under the Canada-Ontario Infrastructure Program.

This investment will make an important contribution to the Greater Toronto Area. The Honourable Maurizio Bevilacqua, Secretary of State (International Financial Institutions), the Honourable David Tsubouchi, Ontario Minister of Culture, Bob Moffatt, President and CEO, Tennis Canada, and Harold Milavsky, Chair, Tennis Canada announced the investment today. Norman Seagram, is Tennis Canada Vice-Chair

Tennis Canada will construct a national Tennis Centre at York University. The proposed new tennis centre will feature a 12,500-plus Centre Court stadium, a 5000 seat grandstand court, a 3000 seat court one, 12 outdoor courts and 8 indoor courts for year-round development and community programs, which will be made available to the surrounding area and neighbouring municipalities. The development of this world-class tennis facility will ensure that Toronto continues to host internationally celebrated events, such as the Tennis Masters Canada and the Rogers AT&T Cup. Construction will be complete by 2004.

The Government of Canada through Industry Canada and the Government of Ontario through SuperBuild will each contribute up to $5,000,000 to the project. The Government of Canada's investment will be made following the successful completion of an environmental assessment of the proposed project under the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act.

"The Government of Canada's investment will ensure that our tennis community has first-rate infrastructure to support the training of our many talented Canadian athletes. This new centre will improve recreational infrastructure for the community, and will enhance Canada's ability to attract the highest calibre of international competitions," said Mr. Bevilacqua. "I am pleased to announce this important Canada-Ontario Infrastructure Program investment in Tennis Canada."

Alan N. Cohen, sports and entertainment executive, Purchase, N.Y., and Boca Raton, Fla., passed away on August 10, 2004.

Cohen was born in 1931 and graduated from the Law School in 1954. After serving in the Army, he joined Paul, Weiss, Rifkin, Wharton and Garrison in 1957 and became a partner in 1964. In 1970, Cohen joined the entertainment company then known as Warner Communications (now Time Warner) as executive v.p. and oversaw the company’s recorded music subsidiaries, including Atlantic Records, Electra and Warner Brothers records. During this time, he and several partners, including Warner CEO Steve Ross, purchased the New York franchise of a newly-formed professional soccer league. The team was known as the New York Cosmos, and, according to The New York Times, “it was to be the start of Mr. Cohen’s long and influential involvement in major sports ownership.” In 1974, Cohen became chairman and CEO of Madison Square Garden Corp., then a public corporation that owned the Knicks and the Rangers. In an interview with the Times, Cohen was asked if it were more important to win a championship or to earn profits for his shareholders. He replied that as a public company, his first priority was to his shareholders: “That’s the bottom line.” As a result, he was known for a time in the sports pages as “Bottom Line Cohen.” In 1978, Cohen and a group of investors purchased the New Jersey Nets NBA basketball franchise; he moved the team to its current facility in the Meadowlands. In 1983, Cohen sold his interest in the Nets and with his partners, Don Gaston and Paul Dupee, purchased the Boston Celtics. Under their ownership, the Celtics enjoyed a decade of great success. Led by Larry Bird, Kevin McHale and Robert Parish, the Celtics often reached the NBA Finals, winning the league championship in 1984 and 1986. Cohen was chairman of the NBA Board of Governors from 1985–87, and, along with Commissioner David Stern (who chairs the University’s Board of Trustees), Cohen was instrumental in the NBA’s moving to adopt a salary cap structure for its teams, pioneering its use. At the time of his death, Cohen was chairman of ANC Sports Enterprises, a leading provider of rotational and LED signage at sports facilities, and was co-chairman of Sportsco International, which owns the SkyDome in Toronto. Cohen was involved in charitable endeavors including service as a trustee or director of Independence House, a facility designed to rehabilitate youthful offenders; Alvin Ailey Dance Theatre; International Center for Photography; Haifa University; American Friends of Hebrew University; Educational Alliance; and the Graduate School of Management of The New School, as well as the College and the Law School, for which he served on the Boards of Visitors. Most recently, he was chairman of the Law School Annual Fund and a director of the American Friends of Tel Aviv University. Cohen received a John Jay Award in 1988 and was elected to the Jewish Sports Hall of Fame. He is survived by his wife, Carol; and their daughter, Rebecca. He also is survived by his children from his earlier marriage to Joan Fields Cohen (deceased), Laurie Cohen Fenster and Gordon; and a sister, Beryl Zankel.

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