Longshoremen's rec hockey team loses coveted Agrodome ice time to pro women's team
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And many of the faces in that photo, and others in the photos hung alongside it, are ones he's seen on a weekly basis for the past three decades as part of the Longshore Hockey Club's drop-in games.
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'It's like church to us,' he said. 'We go there at nine o'clock in the morning and we're there till noon.'
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It'll take a Hail Mary to keep the Longshore club — a team that has roots stretching back more than 60 years at the Dome — from losing its home.
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The incoming Professional Women's Hockey League team has blocked out the 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. slots, seven days a week, for its practice time.
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The alternate times offered to the Longshoremen, 2:30 p.m. and 10 p.m., don't match up with their work schedules. Their 10:30 a.m. spot was early enough to allow afternoon starters to shower before work, and late enough to allow the night shift, who form the majority of participants, to get some rest before playing. The players used to lace up the skates twice weekly at 10:30 a.m. before dropping to a single day, Fridays, a few years ago.
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'We're kind of just getting the shaft,' Cinnamon said. '… Basically in the middle of the day when everyone's working, or at 10 o'clock at night.'
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In decades past, when they worked at multiple docks, there were up to six teams that formed a league. And it wasn't just the dock workers; neighbourhood players would also join.
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'There's so much history we had there,' said Cinnamon, 43. 'It's kind of a tradition — the PNE staff even come and play. It's pretty well known. … It's bond building with all the coworkers and people from neighbourhood. We probably have about 70 guys that show up throughout the year. It's pretty crazy. … It's a gut punch.'
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Laura Ballance, who handles communications for the PNE and facilities, stressed that the team isn't being kicked out of the Agrodome.
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'The Longshore Drop aren't being displaced from the Agrodome. With the recent announcement naming the Pacific Coliseum and Agrodome as the home venue of the new Vancouver PWHL franchise, some changes to traditional dressing rooms and ice times are required,' she wrote to Postmedia.
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Exclusive articles by top sports columnists Patrick Johnston, Ben Kuzma, J.J. Abrams and others. Plus, Canucks Report, Sports and Headline News newsletters and events. Unlimited online access to The Province and 15 news sites with one account. The Province ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition to view on any device, share and comment on. Daily puzzles and comics, including the New York Times Crossword. Support local journalism. SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Exclusive articles by top sports columnists Patrick Johnston, Ben Kuzma, J.J. Abrams and others. Plus, Canucks Report, Sports and Headline News newsletters and events. Unlimited online access to The Province and 15 news sites with one account. The Province ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition to view on any device, share and comment on. Daily puzzles and comics, including the New York Times Crossword. Support local journalism. 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Vancouver Sun
19-07-2025
- Vancouver Sun
New book unravels the story of B.C. sports mogul and Australian fugitive Con Jones
You've probably never heard of Con Jones. But he was once a household name in Vancouver, a fixture in local newspapers and sports pages in the 1910s and '20s. Jones owned a chain of tobacco shops called Don't Argue, which featured early Vancouver's most unforgettable logo: a guy in a bowler hat shoving another guy in the face. He also ran several pool rooms and a bowling alley. However, the real source of his wealth was probably gambling, which was illegal but tolerated by the police. With his profits, he founded a professional lacrosse team, and even built his own sports stadium by the PNE, Con Jones Park. Get top headlines and gossip from the world of celebrity and entertainment. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. A welcome email is on its way. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder. The next issue of Sun Spots will soon be in your inbox. Please try again Interested in more newsletters? Browse here. For all the notoriety he received, the details of his background seemed a bit fuzzy. Jones was Australian, but his life Down Under was a mystery. So John Fuller set out to unravel it. It took a decade, but Fuller has just released a Jones bio, Fatigue, Fortune and Fear: The Rise and Fall of Con Jones (Tellwell). It's subtitled 'Australian fugitive, Canadian sports mogul.' It turns out that Con Jones wasn't his real name. It was Thomas Shortel. He changed it after he fled Australia when his betting shop didn't have the money to pay out to customers after the Melbourne Cup, a big horse race. Essentially, he bet the favourites would lose, and he wouldn't have to pay out the money. 'The first two favourites came in first and second,' relates Fuller, 68, a former copy editor at The Province. 'He gambled and lost, and had to take off. 'If the favourites lose, that's great, I'm legit, I've got this money. And if the favourites win, I'm just taking the money (and skipping town).' That's the game.' He sailed to Vancouver with his brother, arriving in November 1903 with the money he didn't pay to bettors. Most people on the lam would have stayed out of the public eye, but Tom Shortel was a showman, with a penchant for the limelight. So he became Con Jones, opened a pool hall with card tables and started promoting special events, like smokers, through amateur sports clubs. 'In those days, the cities had what they called a 10-cent rule,' explains Fuller, who was born in London, England, grew up in South Africa and immigrated to Canada in the 1980s. 'The city inspectors would tolerate gambling as long as nobody could lose more than 10 cents at a time, and Con just milked that to the max. He would have all sorts of different little games going on in his building that the guys could play.' When the authorities tried to put a stop to all the gambling going on, Jones hired the best lawyers. 'He managed to keep himself on the right side of the law through high-powered legal muscle,' said Fuller, who is selling his book online through Amazon and Chapters/Indigo. 'His little trick was he never participated ever in the stakes of any game. He would have a little slot on the side of the table, (and) before each hand got dealt, you had to drop a penny in the slot. 'It's amazing, (his) wealth was built up sort of a penny at a time.' Jones spent a fortune enticing star lacrosse players to play for a team he began in Vancouver. Some were also hockey stars. Jones paid Newsy Lalonde $5,000 to play for his lacrosse team, at a time when Lalonde made $1,300 per season to play for the Montreal Canadiens. It worked. Jones' lacrosse team won the Minto Cup over the archrival New Westminster Salmonbellies in 1911. His finances also grew with the Don't Argue chain, which included 20 East Hastings St., longtime home of The Only seafood restaurant. But behind the scenes there always seemed to be turmoil. Fuller believes Shortel/Jones may have been blackmailed in Australia by a ruthless newspaper owner named Norton. In Australia, Shortel/Jones also left behind an illegitimate daughter, Victoria Johnson, who reconnected with him when she was 17 and was constantly causing a kerfuffle. Victoria had a knack for conning wealthy men out of their money, which eventually landed her in an Australian jail. –OPTIONAL TRIM FOR PRINT– 'She was a real talent, in a criminal sense,' said Fuller. 'It was breathtaking, the scope of it. She would pretend to be someone really wealthy who had this huge inheritance coming, and then once she got to know somebody, she would borrow money from them, usually quite a big sum. And then disappear.' –END OPTIONAL TRIM– Jones and his family still managed to remain quite respectable in the public eye, building a handsome mansion in Shaughnessy in 1922 that was adorned with the latest rage, a King Tut-themed chandelier. Jones also put a $1,000 down payment on a site in east Vancouver to build Con Jones park in 1920, which was a major venue for lacrosse, soccer and baseball for decades. It's now known as Callister Park, after the man who had sold it to Jones, who had never paid off the mortgage on the land. Fuller discovered all this through his grandmother Margaret, whose second marriage was to one of Con Jones' sons, Dill. When his grandmother died in 2002, she left behind boxes of the Jones archive, including diaries, metal token/coins that were used at the Don't Argue, and a couple of dazzling scrapbooks featuring newspaper clippings, photos and illustrations. Sadly, the health of Jones declined in the 1920s after decades of alcoholism. He died on June 3, 1929, at only 59 years old. jmackie@
