Scorecard

Yvan Dubois, mayor of Montreal's Olympic Village, where the athletes will stay, describes it as "a place of residence where comfort, which is less important, will give way to a living humanism and continuous animation." Translation: Spartan and crowded.

Each two-bedroom apartment, for example, will house 12 athletes—two to sleep in the kitchen, four in one bedroom, two in the other and four in the living room. Many competitors will use communal toilets and showers at the end of the halls. But Olympic officials recommend that the athletes shower at the venues, because of an expected shortage of hot water in the village.

There will be only 980 apartments for an anticipated 12,000 participants; in Munich in 1972 there were 4,700 apartments for 10,500. And since there is only one elevator for every 1,000 athletes, they will be expected to use the stairs in the 19-story buildings, which would be of some benefit if mountain climbing were an Olympic sport.

But there is a silver lining to all this—or at least a cotton one. The athletes will get regular cotton sheets and pillow cases, the original idea of paper sheets and cases having been crumpled up and discarded.

TALK IS CHEAP

In the current hockey season, the Toronto Toros of the WHA compiled the worst record in the league (24-52-5) and blew $1� million doing it.

The other day, club president John Bassett called a team meeting and asked the players to help in a telephone campaign to persuade season ticket holders to renew for next year—if there is one for the Toros. Stockholders meet in early June to decide the fate of the club. Bassett stressed two points: that the scheme is strictly voluntary and that the players' futures (average Toro salary is $55,000) are on the line.

It seems to be working. Superstar Frank Mahovlich (salary: $235,000 a year) is among the callers; so is Defense-man Jim Dorey, a former refrigerator salesman, who is terrific at peddling tickets. At week's end, pledges were in for 2,200 tickets (worth approximately $600,000) and the players were getting 85% affirmative answers. But some of the fans were attaching strings. One told Leftwinger Lou Nistico, "I'll buy if you get Mahovlich to call me so I can tell him what I think of him, which isn't much." Nistico promised.

Meanwhile, fans of the more successful NHL Toronto club have organized a drive against buying Maple Leaf season tickets to protest hooliganism in the sport. A citizens group handed out flyers reading, "Let's get back to real hockey so the whole family can enjoy the game."

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