The Vancouver Whitecaps are blaming undisclosed "scheduling conflicts" for the cancellation of an October 16 Vancouver Board of Trade event featuring embattled executive chair John Furlong.
"There were other conflicts that we're not going to get into publicly. That's the long and short of it," Whitecaps' president Bob Lenarduzzi told Business in Vancouver. "Scheduling conflicts, plural."
Lenarduzzi would not say whether the scheduling conflicts are related to Furlong's legal troubles. On September 27, Furlong vehemently denied accusations of abuse contained in a Georgia Straight story and threatened a defamation lawsuit against the newspaper and writer Laura Robinson.
The Whitecaps' October 16 "Behind the Bench: An Insider's Look at Whitecaps FC" event was to feature Furlong, team coach Martin Rennie and captain Jay DeMerit. Similar events have been held in recent years with executives, coaches and players from the B.C. Lions and Vancouver Canucks. Furlong was a fixture at annual Board of Trade addresses while chief executive of the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics.
The cancellation of the business-targeted event coincides with the Whitecaps' intensified efforts to sell ticket subscriptions and sponsorships to the city's business community.
"It is my understanding that John Furlong and the Whitecaps initiated the postponement," Board of Trade spokesman Greg Hoekstra told BIV.
Hoekstra said that the event was postponed on October 2 and ticket buyers were notified by phone. The event listing was removed from the Board of Trade website two days later "once we had a chance to contact all registered guests," Hoekstra said.
Hoekstra said it is standard procedure to remove postponed or cancelled events from the website. However, as of Wednesday, the website still contained notices for postponed appearances in March 2011 by creative director Marc Stoiber and May 2012 by author Jeff Rubin.
"We hope to reschedule the Whitecaps event. We won't be commenting any further on the matter at this time," Hoekstra said.
October 2 was also the day Furlong published a "final statement" on his website, further denying the allegations against him. The same day, Lenarduzzi told CKNW SportsTalk that Furlong had not been in the office while he dealt with the disputed accusations. Lenarduzzi told BIV the situation has not changed.
Furlong continues to enjoy the support of colleagues and companies with which he is associated, which rallied to offer him their backing in BIV's cover story this week.
