1.
John Furlong
With huge cost overruns that are conjuring memories in Vancouver of Montreal Mayor Jean Drapeau, Irish-born Furlong, as the chief executive officer of the Vancouver Olympic organizing committee, is challenged to bring the Games home amid an economic recession. See Stephen Brunt's column (right).
2.
Keith Pelley
The president of Canada's Olympic Broadcast Media Consortium, arguably the most ambitious media effort in Canadian history. The consortium includes 11 television organizations, 50 radio stations, The Globe and Mail and a dedicated website, CTVOlympics.ca/RDSolympiques.ca, with articles and blogs to be written by former Olympians hired for the broadcast team. Rights fees paid: a record $90-million.
3.
Larry Tanenbaum
As the chairman of Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment, having recently increased his ownership stake, he's the driving force behind the Maple Leafs of the NHL, the Raptors of the NBA, the Toronto FC soccer franchise, the Air Canada Centre and two cable sports channels. Will MLSE become involved with Rogers Communications in a venture with the Blue Jays and an NFL team? Will MLSE acquire the Argos ... or bury them?
4.
Gary Bettman
The NHL commissioner continues to insist all is fine, despite mounting evidence of a failing franchise in Phoenix, ownership problems in Atlanta and Tampa and the league-approved purchase of a minority interest in the Nashville franchise by William (Boots) Del Biaggio (now facing U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission charges, with the minority interest at the centre of bankruptcy hearings). As Bettman's Sunbelt strategy deteriorates thread by thread, how he reacts to protect franchise equity will determine whether a franchise or two moves to Canada.
5.
Jim Balsillie
Research In Motion's co-chief executive officer is ready and eager to stake part of his fortune on an NHL team. If the transfer of a franchise triggers urban renewal (read: Hamilton), so much the better. His alternative is moving a team to Toronto. That devout mission makes him the reluctant symbol of NHL commissioner Gary Bettman's failing Sunbelt strategy. Once he becomes an owner, he has the resources and verve to become a major player on the hockey scene.
6.
Mark Cohon
For once, the state-of-the-game chat at the Grey Cup didn't involve squabbling owners or a financial crisis. Average attendance (28,914) ranked 10th in CFL history and television ratings in the 18-34 age group spiked by 31 per cent year over year, despite dreadful seasons by the Toronto Argonauts and Hamilton Tiger-Cats in the key Southern Ontario market. The challenge of the NFL persists, as the Buffalo Bills up the ante in 2009 by playing a regular-season game in Toronto during the CFL's regular season.
7.
Cathy Priestner Allinger
The executive vice-president of the Vancouver organizing committee is responsible for the nuts and bolts of the Games: the running of 82 medal competitions, venue management, medical services, doping control and the Paralympics. She was the lead author of the Own the Podium 2010 Report, the strategic blueprint for making Canada the top Olympic medal winner. A 1976 medalist as a speed skater, Priestner was the managing director of sport for the Salt Lake Games in 2002. Her husband, Todd Allinger, is the manager of Own the Podium's Top Secret technical research component.
8.
Phil King
The TSN president is riding high as the head of Canada's pre-eminent sports broadcaster. A record 3.684 million viewers watched Canada's junior hockey championship win over Sweden, the largest audience in TSN's 25-year history, and the network carried the Grey Cup for the first time as part of its exclusive rights with the CFL. TSN is a key player in the Olympic media consortium.
9.
Phil Lind
The vice-chairman of cable giant Rogers Communications, Lind influenced the late Ted Rogers to buy the Toronto Blue Jays and now leads the push to acquire an NFL franchise for Toronto. Rogers's Sportsnet is the No. 2 cable sports network in Canada.
10.
Steve Yzerman
Hockey Canada chose Yzerman as the executive director of Team Canada, replacing two-time executive director Wayne Gretzky, in part because he won gold and silver medals as the general manager of Canada's past two world championship teams and was a critical contributor as a player to the 2002 gold-medal team. That experience made Yzerman uniquely qualified to understand the pressure that a hometown Olympics will bring to bear on his team, and he can filter player selections accordingly.
11.
Bob Nicholson
The president and chief executive officer of Hockey Canada is a power player on countless issues, from the game's attitude toward fighting to fighting the Canadian Olympic Committee for the right to wear Hockey Canada's trademark jersey at the Vancouver Olympics. Nicholson has established a successful program that transforms NHL professionals into international stars, and all eyes will be on him as Canada looks to make history by winning an Olympic hockey gold medal on home ice.
12.
Jarome Iginla
The Calgary Flames' heart-and-soul forward is the odds-on favourite to captain Canada's team at the Vancouver Olympics. A member of the 2002 gold medal-winning team, he has continued to develop into a better, more complete player with the Calgary Flames. In the past five NHL seasons, he has scored no fewer than 35 goals and guided his team to the 2004 Stanley Cup final without losing a speck of enthusiasm for the game.
13.
Nancy Greene
Canada's female athlete of the 20th century, Greene was recently appointed to the Senate. While still working to promote skiing and Alpine Canada Alpin's Nancy Greene Ski League for young racers, the question now is whether she can use her new position to exert more influence politically regarding the funding of amateur sport in Canada. She directs skiing and owns a lodge at Sun Peaks near Kamloops, B.C. (where the Austrians have headquartered) and is the chancellor of Thompson Rivers University.
14.
Clara Hughes
Olympic skater, athlete activist. Not only has Hughes won medals at both the Summer (cycling) and Winter (speed skating) Olympics, but after her win in Turin, she donated $10,000 to the Right to Play program, a humanitarian group that salves some of the psychological damage of kids in refugee camps.
15.
Paul Kelly
In his second year as the executive director of the National Hockey League Players' Association, the Boston lawyer has spoken with Gary Bettman about getting the NHL back on ESPN, about expanding or relocating franchises to Canada and Europe about getting Jim Balsillie into the owners' club and about players being forced to wear visors when they make the jump from junior and college hockey. Kelly has made it clear the union wants to be an active participant in a partnership with the league under the current collective labour agreement. Now he needs to deliver.
16.
J.P. Barry/Pat Brisson
In the salary-cap era, money talks only so much. The former IMG Hockey managing directors joined Creative Artists Agency (CAA Sports), juxtaposing Hollywood connections and a stable of celebrity players. In the hockey division, the human inventory includes Sidney Crosby, Sergei Fedorov, Mats Sundin, Daniel Alfredsson, Joe Thornton, John Tavares and the Sedin brothers.
17.
Bill Daly
The deputy commissioner of the NHL is often perceived as the power behind the throne. He deals with the news media for increasingly cloistered Gary Bettman and is seen as an "ideas guy."
18.
Jennifer Heil
A good bet for Canada's first gold medal at a home Olympics, she took a year off to recuperate and rebuild her body for 2010. A four-time World Cup moguls champion and gold medalist at Turin in 2006, she used the year away from snow to study commerce at McGill University in Montreal. The B210 corporate support consortium for athletes was formed in response to Heil's fourth-place finish as an Olympic rookie. In the past six years, it has donated dollars to help athletes finish their Olympic journeys. An earnest role model, Heil travelled to Burkina Faso with Plan Canada to fight for the education of girls.
19.
Eric Lamaze
Olympic gold medalist and now the No. 1-ranked show-jumping rider in the world. His influence goes beyond sport. He overcame cocaine use and banishment from the team and lived to tell, over and over, the tale of triumphant recovery.
20.
Brian Burke
The president and general manager of the Toronto Maple Leafs, Burke has demonstrated the ability to build a champion. Having worked in Vancouver and Anaheim, he's taken charge of the most valuable franchise in the NHL, a club without a Stanley Cup since 1967, and is likely to be the most proactive manager among his peers with the five other Canadian franchises. Always an assertive voice, the flamboyant and forthright Burke is positioned to influence league policy well beyond the interests of the Leafs.
21.
Mike Gillis
The Vancouver Canucks' general manager is a forward thinker who's been known to shake the hockey establishment. Recall, Alan Eagleson's empire stumbled in part because former client Gillis exposed the former NHLPA czar. The rookie GM landed Mats Sundin, manages the salary cap with aplomb and is developing techniques to improve the sleep, travel and nutrition of his players.
22.
David Braley
The long-time power behind the scenes in the CFL took a more active hand as the owner of the B.C. Lions after the death of club president Bob Ackles. CFL commissioner Mark Cohon has wisely learned to work with him, and thus there's been relative peace in the boardroom. Rumours persist that Braley is pushing his son to be the next owner of the Toronto Argonauts, but so far they're not for sale.
23.
Georges St. Pierre
One-time Montreal bouncer and garbage man, the Ultimate Fighting Championship champion and the world's No. 1 welterweight was voted Canadian male athlete of the year by Sportsnet viewers. Canada's marquee name in this growing, brutal spectacle has signed with CAA Sports, putting him in a Hollywood stable with New York Yankees captain Derek Jeter and David Beckham.
24.
Don Cherry
Canadians know his voice, his face and his opinion, and many will line up behind him whether in support of his views on fighting or the Canadian troops in Afghanistan. His influence is chiefly old school, but it is influence, nonetheless.
25.
Roger Jackson
As the chief executive officer of Own the Podium since 2005, he divvies up $110-million to the elite athletes, coaches and trainers expected to make Canada the top medal-winning country in 2010. He has to play a tough game, as the expert who can differentiate between a merely good athlete and one who can come through with a medal performance on race day.
26.
Dave Branch
The CHL president says fighting should never be used to sell the game. Following the death of Don Sanderson, the debate about hockey fights is being renewed. Is Branch backing up privately what he says publicly? The Quebec junior league has moved to end fighting in the wake of in incident in which Patrick Roy sent his son to attack a goalie, yet the OHL logo is being used on a web site that celebrates the league's tough guys. Branch oversaw the OHL's decisionto ban hits to the head three seasons ago.
27.
Paul Beeston
The former president of Major League Baseball and former president of the Toronto Blue Jays is the Blue Jays' interim chief executive officer, allegedly looking for his replacement. But nobody would be surprised if he's his best choice. In the meantime, he's talking to everyone behind the scenes - not just about baseball. If there's going to be any kind of sports team merger in Toronto, Beeston would be involved.
28.
George Gillett
The American ownerof the Montreal Canadiens has demonstrated respect for the club's history and fan base, bringing Habs legend Bob Gainey aboard to build a Stanley Cup contender and pouring money into the team's centennial celebrations. The club will play host to the NHL all-star game on Jan. 25. Also co-owner of English Premier League's Liverpool FC, and the NASCAR racing team of Gillett Evernham Motorsports. 29.
Jane Roos
Former heptathlete and fundraiser for financially struggling athletes on the Olympic journey. She ticks off the Canadian Olympic Committee because she's selling the Olympic sizzle without official use of the actual word or rings. She has attracted donations of up to $1-million (from Ottawa Senators owner Eugene Melnyk).
30.
Patrick Chan
No Olympic sport energizes the female audience so much as figure skating, and Patrick Chan has an opportunity to electrify the sport for years to come by winning a medal at the Vancouver Games. The Canadian singles champion can bring an audience to its feet with dazzling routines. He's currently attempting to perfect the triple Axel, but will he be able to put a quadruple toe loop in his routine before the Games?
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