I originally posted this to the Voyageur message board.
A press conference was held at the Howard Johnson Prince Hotel in North York by the Toronto Lynx on Tuesday April 27th at 12:00pm. . .
by Rocket Robin
Lynx Media Relations spokeperson Stan Adamson was the MC for the maybe 60 press that turned out. He joked around that the Canada--Northern Ireland game was about to start because of the time zone differences.
He first introduced the head table and thanked various corporate sponsers.
Each of the guests at the head table gave a brief speech:
1. Nicole Hartrell CEO outlined how there have been improvements in marketing and there will be a better team on the field this year.
2. Stan Adamson announced that CTV Sportsnet would broadcast about nine or ten A-League games, including three Lynx games and the Final this year. (I'll post that in my next message).
There are 17 players with International National team experience and 10 players have played for the Canadian National team at least at one age level. Brian Ashton has played at four levels of the Canadian National team.
There's a theme night this year for every game including a bold move to hold a game during school hours and cram Varsity Stadium with kids on field trips.
3. Paul James from the CSA congratulates the Lynx executives.
4. Ed Grenda from the OSA congratulates the Lynx executives.
5. Enzo Iantorno the Lynx President and GM outlined that in this the third year of the Lynx they were going all out to develop youth players. The average age of the team is 23. In their 2nd year going with older local players didn't work.
Also he mentioned hopes for the three Brazilian imports who hadn't stepped into Canada until April 2nd. The Lynx are a FULL time team in that they practise twice a day in hard dedicated training. This is their occupation for six months and this is not semi-pro!
6. Peter Pinizzotto (head coach) thanked his staff. The new equipment manager is Carl Titus.
Peter also outlined his support of the decision to go with younger players. Earlier that morning the Lynx had just signed 18 year old Chris Bosniak (?) from the Canadian National U18 team.
7. Armando Costa (assistant coach) didn't speak.
Stan Adamson introduced the players one by one. There accomplishments were read right from the Lynx program for 1999 which looked very professional.
He warned us to read the portion about the new point system and a new accumulated Yellow card rule.
The conference was broken up by a buffet lunch being served. There wasn't a question period but any reporter could collar a player or exec and ask away.
Rocket Robin
robing@clo.com