The window is closing.
How often have you heard that phrase since June 15, 2011, when the Vancouver Canucks lost the Stanley Cup on home ice to the Boston Bruins? The season after the ensuing riot, the Canucks played true to the runner-up jinx and lost 2012’s first round to the eventual champion Los Angeles Kings in five games. They knew their way to San Jose in 2013 but not to sweep-avoidance against the San Jose Sharks.
The Canucks were 1994 Stanley Cup finalists who failed to return in 1995 after a lockout-shortened season and fell into a funk for the rest of the decade. Will history repeat?
That was at the end of the era of Arthur Griffiths ownership, when the team was gearing up for a move downtown and pairing with the NBA expansion Vancouver Grizzlies. Absentee owner John McCaw took over when the bills became too big.
Now the Aquilinis are the local lords of the puck. Daniel and Henrik Sedin are aging. Ryan Kesler is often ailing. Roberto Luongo is aching to find a crease in another city.
Francesco Aquilini won the legal battle with Ryan Beedie and Tom Gaglardi to reaffirm his position as the managing director of the family-owned franchise in early 2008. That was before the real estate market was on ice because of the recession. The slowdown afforded Aquilini extra time to ponder how to remake the team. Now it is one of the National Hockey League’s biggest moneymakers. Each playoff game was estimated to be worth $3 million gross revenue.
Canucks fans are becoming restless as they question high prices and low returns. A pair of season tickets in section 110, for example, costs $10,820.70 for 2013-14 –including mandatory purchase of pre-season exhibition games. One ticketholder who contacted me complained that his subscription doesn’t appear to benefit from the end of the HST. Tickets should be 7% cheaper, but they’re not.
A Craigslist posting said it all: “Why are we paying for season tickets months in advance when an employee or corporate friend receives an ‘internal email’ stating that if you go to a link and enter a password you will be able to purchase lower bowl tickets at 50% less than the posted walk-up price [approximately 21% less than season ticketholders pay]”?
Without a blockbuster trade, the Canucks are unlikely to inspire the hype that’s needed to bring back the buzz of the high-scoring teams of 2010 to 2012.
The benefactors of an erosion of interest in the Canucks could be right across the street at BC Place stadium, where the BC Lions and Vancouver Whitecaps are both searching for ways to boost the crowds.
If the Canucks’ fortunes take a dip, so will viewership of Rogers Sportsnet, the main carrier of telecasts, which recently inked a 10-year rightsholder deal through 2022-23. Instead of flipping the dial, viewers may go spend money on other sports or entertainment products.
Add it all up, and the post-lockout Canucks of 2013 face a hazy future on and off the ice.
London Olympic legacy’s local connection
There’s a Vancouver connection to a prominent “legacy company” of the 2012 Olympics.
Guy Lodge was the venue delivery vice-president for Vancouver Olympic Committee and the London Organizing Committee’s (LOCOG) overlay head last summer. He joined with three others from LOCOG to form Trivandi Major Project Consultants.
The roster includes London 2010’s head of venue development Paul May, head of Olympic Park operations Jonathan Branson and director of venues and infrastructure James Bulley. Their Canary Wharf office is in the same neighbourhood as the organizing committee’s.
Trivandi will have a busy summer handling project assurance services at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park where the London Legacy Development Corp. is hosting two big music festivals and the London 2012 Anniversary Games – an IAAF Diamond League track and field meet.
