The Halifax Mooseheads won’t be able to put a number to increased ticket sales until the season renewal deadline in mid-August, but early indications are that fans will be coming back in a big way.

After three consecutive losing seasons, the Moose, led by young local star Nathan MacKinnon, turned things around with a strong regular season and playoff run this year. That, along with the anticipation of a better team next season, is behind the anticipated boost in sales.

“We struggled for three years and lost a lot of season tickets and 15-pack ticket holders,” said Brian Urquhart, the Mooseheads’ vice-president of business operations.

While the organization sold about 3,000 season and 15-pack tickets last year, the goal for this off-season is to get closer to the 4,000 mark — that lofty area the franchise last enjoyed about five years ago.

Urquhart said early signs are that sales will keep climbing as the Aug. 15 ticket-package deadline draws near.

“It has been the strongest summer for the 15 and season (packages) since I’ve been here in ’03-04.”

It’s been almost a couple of weeks since the National Basketball League OK’d the Quebec Kebs’ move from Quebec City to Laval, on the outskirts of Montreal.

And I’ve seen not a single negative comment of the type generally made when a minor league basketball team moves from one market to another.

Why not?

Perhaps because the NBL has proven itself a stable operation and the Kebs’ ownership is a league member in good standing. To those familiar with the situation, it’s an understandable relocation.

This is clearly a franchise other owners in the league believe is worth saving. And the league needs this visible presence in Quebec.

It’s incredible the way the Canadian heavyweight championship, a title that garnered such interest way back when George Chuvalo ruled the national boxing scene, has become so ignored these days.

The last three title holders were Raymond Olubowale, Grzegorz Kielsa and Neven Pajkic — not exactly household names among those outside the hard-core boxing world.

Then again, maybe heavyweight boxing is falling out of favour with casual fans all across the world. Does anyone out there know who holds the once-prestigious WBA heavyweight title? The answer, Alexander Povetkin, is far from a household name.

I’m surprised the Toronto Blue Jays are willing to take such a huge gamble on slugger Edwin Encarnacion.

A $27-million, three-year deal seems like a shaky investment for a career .264 hitter who is bad with a glove.

Sure, Encarnacion is having a great offensive season but this is the first star-type season of his eight-year career. Obviously, the Jays must believe this is his new norm.

Perhaps his home runs are making it easy to forget that it was only two seasons ago that the Jays placed Encarnacion on waivers.

If the latest reports are accurate and several Penn State officials hid knowledge of assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky’s child abuse, let’s hope that all those involved in the coverup are called to justice.

If anything good comes of this sad story, I hope it serves as a warning that no sports figures — whether they be athletes, coaches or school administrators in the case of university sports — are above the law simply because they’re high-profile members of a storied team or institution.

While this abomination happened in America, the lesson that everyone can learn is that no sports legacy is worthy of defending when it plays a role in victimizing innocent children.

(ccochrane@herald.ca)