COLUMBUS, OHIO -- John Tortorella, the coach of Team USA for the upcoming World Cup of Hockey, isnt backing off on his comments that hed bench any player who didnt stand for the U.S. national anthem.On Tuesday, Tortorella told ESPN: If any of my players sit on the bench for the national anthem, they will sit there the rest of the game. The coach seemed taken aback Wednesday by the reaction to his comment, but he did not backtrack on his stance.Im not backing off, Tortorella said after the teams on-ice workout Wednesday.Ill tell you right now. Try to understand me. Im not criticizing anybody for stepping up and putting their thoughts out there about things. Im the furthest thing away from being anything political. No chance Im involved in that stuff, Tortorella said.But the Columbus Blue Jackets coach says he remains unequivocal in his belief that the flag and the anthem should be sacrosanct. Tortorella has a son who is deployed in Afghanistan for the third time as a member of the U.S. Army Special Forces.Listen, he told reporters. Were in a great country because we can express ourselves. And I am not against expressing yourselves. Thats whats great about our country. We can do that. But when there are men and women that give their lives for their flag, for their anthem, have given their lives, continue to put themselves on the line with our services for our flag, for our anthem, families that have been disrupted, traumatic physical injuries, traumatic mental injuries for these people that give us the opportunity to do the things we want to do, theres no chance an anthem and a flag should come into any type of situation where youre trying to make a point.It is probably the most disrespectful thing you can do as a U.S. citizen is to bring that in. Because thats our symbol. All for [expressing] yourself. Thats whats so great. Everybody does. But no chance when it comes to the flag and the anthem. No chance.The issue of respecting the anthem has created a firestorm of debate and controversy after San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick chose to sit for the national anthem during one NFL preseason game and then kneel for another.Tortorella, 58, said a number of the players on Team USA came to him after his comments were made public and supported his views on respecting the anthem and flag.Team North America defenseman Seth Jones was asked Thursday about Tortorellas comments regarding sitting for the anthem.I have no problem with the comments, Jones said. Youre not going to see me sitting down. ... I dont know Kaepernick at all, but I wont sit down. Not even a thought.Jones, the son of former NBA player Popeye Jones, plays for Tortorella in Columbus and is the highest-drafted African-American in the NHL.In a follow-up interview with ESPNs Linda Cohn on Wednesday, Tortorella described what would happen if a player on one of his teams decided to boycott the national anthem.On this team here, this World Cup team, there wouldnt even be a player that would think about doing that because I know the guys well enough. Weve gone through it, he said. But if I was ever involved in a situation where someone is trying to make a point, and they have a perfect right to do that, but to disrespect our flag and anthem, as I said yesterday, they would not play.If that ever happened, theres no question, its just not right. And its not black, white, blue, red. It has nothing to do with the politics of all of this. Its just not right. This is our country. Our people are fighting for our country, our flag and our anthem. That shouldnt come into this equation at all. There are other ways of doing things.Earlier Wednesday, a member of the U.S. Army addressed the team but neither Tortorella nor the members of Team USA would describe the exchange.We are playing hockey, Tortorella said. Other people are doing real stuff. This gentleman who spoke to us this morning is doing the real stuff. Life and death. We just want to give to our country in our own little way. Quite honestly we are entertainers. What this man talked about in our locker room and what he does casts a huge shadow over us as far as what were doing.Canada World Cup coach Mike Babcock, who also coaches the Toronto Maple Leafs, was asked what would happen if one of his players sat during the national anthem in protest.This is what I know: Im not going to have to make that decision because thats not going to happen, he said. So I dont have to worry about that reaction. At that time I guess I would decide what to do. One of the greatest things about this tournament is that most of us get to play for your country, and thats a thrill of a lifetime in itself. And then when you get to do it on Canadian soil, thats another thrill.For those of us who have the life we have, and the freedom we have, to repay respects to the people who went before us and made sure that happened; I mean, its pretty straightforward and common sense to me. But I dont know why were talking about this.ESPN senior writer Craig Custance contributed to this report. cheapjerseysforsale .net . Michell Burger, a woman who lives on an estate next to Pistorius gated community, said she and her husband were awoken by the screams in the pre-dawn hours of Feb. 14 last year, when Pistorius killed Reeva Steenkamp by shooting four times through a door in his bathroom. www.cheapjerseysforsale.net . Only three players drafted by NHL clubs were included on the Czech selection camp roster on Wednesday. Those players were Dallas Stars 2012 first-rounder Radek Faksa, Winnipeg Jets 2013 fourth-rounder Jan Kostalek and Phoenix Coyotes 2012 seventh-rounder Marek Langhamer. http://www.cheapjerseysforsale.net/ . -- The Bishops Gaiters are showing they belong among the countrys top varsity football teams. cheapjerseysforsale.net . The Hall of Fame defenceman told Landsberg that he believes fighting still has a place in todays game, but thinks staged fighting needs be outlawed. www.cheapjerseys forsale .net . Artturi Lehkonen, Joni Nikko and Ville Leskinen had the other goals for Finland (1-0) while Juuse Saros stopped 28 shots. Tim Robin Johnsgard had the lone goal for Norway (0-2). Theres plenty going right with badminton at the moment. There are at least ten Indians playing tournaments across the globe at any point of time. In Olympic silver medalist PV Sindhu, the sport has an extremely popular icon. So if you were a marketer, the Premier Badminton League auction on November 9 might have seemed an easy product to sell. Yet at the convention center of a South Delhi five star hotel, where six teams of the Premier Badminton League (PBL) would bid for players for the third edition of the league, there was something else on everyones mind. The auction had been upended just a few hours earlier by a far bigger announcement. The previous evening, prime minister Narendra Modi declared that 500 and 1000 rupee notes were no longer legal tender. It was the start of whats been termed demonetization.The auction got completely hijacked by the issue. Some of the media who we expected to cover the league werent around because they were running around trying to make sense of this. We knew that things had changed, says Prasad Mandipudi, managing director of Sportslive, which owns the rights to the PBL.The governments decision was expected to have an impact - certainly in the short term - on the Indian economy. And indeed the alphabet soup of sporting leagues in India were not going to be immune to those changes. Within a few days, the Pro Wrestling League (PWL), scheduled to begin from December 15, was postponed to January. Last week Mahesh Bhupathis International Premier Tennis League (IPTL) announced that two of their biggest names - Roger Federer and Serena Williams - would not be returning to the league this year.We have had challenges this year, Bhupathi admitted. He blamed the current economic climate in India and uncertainty of spending money for the withdrawal of big names.Its an assessment shared by other sport leagues in the country too. 99 percent of organized sports are funded by the market scenario. I think we were the first guys to say ten days ago that demonetization has hit us really bad. Its time that everyone should be honest and talk about it, says an official associated with the PWL.There is no doubting that financially the leagues have been hit particularly since advertising spends - the primary source of revenues -- have fallen across the board. According to reported estimates, advertising will take a hit of between Rs. 1500 and 2000 crore this quarter.There is pain. Team owners are worried because sponsorships have dried up completely. Because for a company, spending on sports is last in terms of priority. Ive read a figure of Rs 5000 crore thats been cancelled for the next two quarters. So yes, it has had an impact, says Mandipudi.While the overall economic uncertainty is the predominant cause of concern, the shortage of hard cash - currency notes - is causing headaches as well. While leagues say that all athletes receive their payments through official banking channels, there are other costs that need to be taken care of as well.Twenty percent of my league budget is spent on travel and lodging. Another 20 percent goes in marketing. 60 percent of my budget is spent in operational costs. Thats money I need for buying equipment, security, labour etc. Operational costs are almost entirely conducted in cash. If you have some exigency, you are still going to need some cash. Suppose a light goes off, you will have to pay cash and get it replaced. If you have to get a stage made, you cant hope that the labourers will accept Paytm. Thats not happened yet, says the PWL official.Not all leagues are created equal and indeed some will weather the current economic climate better than others. It depends on what the ownerrs are in the league for.dddddddddddd. Owning a team is very aspirational. Because if you have the intent to stick around in this business and if money is not a concern then you will not be bothered, says the official. He is referring to the Reliance-owned Indian Super League (ISL), which began before demonetization and has seemingly not been affected by it.There is more of a challenge?for smaller leagues. In order to cut costs, the PWL has shifted all its matches to Delhi. We cant overspend. The main objective is conducting the league and by shifting to Delhi we have halved our operational costs, says the official.But while the PWL has scaled down, Mandipudi has said there are no plans to do so for the PBL, which remains a multi-city tournament. This isnt to say they have found a loophole in the system.We have been able to go to the team owners and tell them that they will lose more money than they planned this time. We ourselves had to rewrite our expected profit and loss statements three times from what we began with. Some of the franchises have asked us to help out with their marketing costs and we have done that as well. We have accepted that we will take a hit but we will keep moving forward, he says.Mandipudi says after the initial shock, leagues are adapting to the change. A couple of days ago, the league had a press conference in Hyderabad on short notice. This would be one of the moments where cash might have been needed for an exigency.Usually the vendors - these are the guys who make the backdrop, the standees and photographers were paid in cash. This time around they have submitted their bills and given their account numbers, Mandipudi says.He adds that in the current scenario, leagues need to have credibility. I needed some T-Shirts for the press conference. I knew a vendor in Mumbai and he made the T shirts and couriered them to Hyderabad. In the past I would have had to pay a cash advance but this time around, he was willing to wait for his payment, he says.Mandipudi says that there are still some positives sports leagues can take away from the current climate.Normally the season between the festivals of Diwali (November) and Pongal (mid-January) is when advertisers make the most money. Now, since there have been so many cancellations, I can negotiate good terms with the TV guys, newspapers and hoarding guys to promote my own brand. The newspapers, TV guys will have to sell their ad space. I can get better value for my own budget, he says.Mandipudi believes ticket sales will pick up as well. Demonetisation doesnt make you poorer as an individual. Your cash is tied up in the banks but Im confident that my target market will not be affected. The audience for this league is urban, upper middle-class people who mostly buy tickets online, says Mandipudi, who expects to sell 70 percent of tickets for the league.The demonetization scenario is just a temporary bump on what Mandipudi calls the beginning of a growth curve. Do you think because of the current crisis, the corporate world will stop investing in the country? It doesnt mean that the Indian story is doomed. This league isnt a goose that you can make money off in a years time. It will take five years at least to see something out of it. Our team owners understand this as well, he says.Indeed if the events of the day of the auction are any clue, the PBL has reason to be hopeful. After some of the TV crews didnt come for the auction, they called me and asked if I had any video I could share. They still wanted to carry it on air, says Mandipudi. 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