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Melnyk gives $1 million to amateur athletes

BEVERLEY SMITH

From Thursday's Globe and Mail

Latest comment posted at 10:23 AM EST 09/08/07

Senators owner is looking for help in funding Canada's top athletes — and he's started the ball rolling ...Read the full article

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  1. ryan rankin from Canada writes: Oh Melnyk, you're my hero!
  2. R. M. from Regina, Canada writes: Nothing like have a drug manufacturer get involved with amateur sports where they are trying to eradicate supplements/etc. abuses! Maybe he has a new undetectable product to promote.
  3. k d from Canada writes: Ryan - perhaps we'd all be better off if he never donated a million bucks?
  4. M D from Canada writes: Amateur sport (at the grassroots level) needs this. I'm talking real sport, not high school weightlifting. We need funding and support where the governments erased the cash in the past 20 years. Get your fat kids off the couch and onto a bicycle!

    So how about the rest of corporate Canada? Are they realizing, finally, that social payback trumps professional sponsorship/marketing exposure? Would you rather put your $1M to be the 100th sponsor of an NHL team, or $1M to be a title sponsor of almost any one of Canada's NSOs? (National Sport Organizations). Down at the community level, $5K buys a summer (but reaps a lifetime) of fun and experience in sport.
  5. Janis Miller from Canada writes: I knew there'd be a cynical backlash. Where would you rather see his money spent? On a yacht in the Med., another house in Malibu?

    I think it's an excellent step that sends a great message. Earlier this year Melnyk also donated hockey equipment (and delivered it himself) to the Canadian soldiers on bases in Afghanistan...give the guy some credit.

  6. Sean O'Reilly from Canada writes: There should be more of this, specifically from Corporate Canada, which in comparison the US drops the ball big time!

    This country as a whole comes up short when it comes to investing in the culture of sport, outside of hockey that is.
  7. Howard Young from Canada writes: Hey Pension Fund And MLSE, why don't you blow the dust off your chequebook? Right now I'm imagining a scene where the dinner cheque arrives at the table and both the Pension Fund and MLSE pretend they can't find their wallets as they pat their pockets, waiting for someone else to pay the bill.
  8. greg panke from Orangeville, Canada writes: Way to go Mr. Melnyk, now if we got a bunch of other moneyed types to do the same our amateur athletes could do so much more. It is amazing how well they have done with next to no help from Canadians. The first two posters here fall in to that category, or are they planning on matching Eugene's contribution?

    Amature athletes bring a lot more prestige to the country than most of our highly paid pros do and for phenomenally less money. To those who say they would get paid more if Canadians watched their sports more I say if tv and the media in general paid as much attention to them as we do hockey, football and baseball they would have just as many supporters.

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