SUNDAY READ: Comparing and contrasting the three pro teams’ ownership groups
The state and future of Vancouver’s pro sports franchises
The B.C. Lions season has just started, the Vancouver Whitecaps are in the middle of theirs, yet the Vancouver Canucks, their season long since concluded, have dominated the headlines this summer with their high draft picks and freeagent signings.
The fact is, the Canucks dominate the sporting landscape in Vancouver. And even though they’ve fallen on hard times on the ice, the interest still burns intensely as desperate fans hope for a rebuild to an elusive championship. With the Canucks looking to retain their fan base as they hit hard times and the Whitecaps and Lions scrambling to increase theirs, we take a look at all three franchises from ownership on down to see where they stand in Vancouver’s sporting landscape.
VANCOUVER CANUCKS — AQUILINI INVESTMENT GROUP
In 2004, the Aquilini Investment Group, led by Francesco Aquilini, purchased a 50 per cent share of the Canucks from American businessman John McCaw for a tidy sum of $250 million.
Two years later, the Aquilini group became the sole owners of the Canucks, completing a purchase of the remaining 50 per cent from McCaw. Businessmen Tom Gaglardi and Ryan Beedie sued Aquilini, claiming Aquilini broke a partnership between the three to purchase the team.
A Supreme Court of B.C. judge ruled in 2008 that Aquilini was the sole owner and that the three parties no longer had a partnership — a decision upheld in the B.C. Court of Appeal.
The Aquilini Investment Group empire owns a diverse portfolio of businesses, including real estate developments, agricultural land and golf courses, wineries and upscale restaurants. Today, the Canucks are among the most valuable franchises in the National Hockey League.
They aren’t on the same level as the New York Rangers, Montreal Canadiens or Toronto Maple Leafs — each valued at more than a billion dollars U.S. last year — but, according to Forbes, the Canucks were the seventh most valuable team in the league last year at US$700 million, though that’s roughly a six per cent decline from 2015, when Forbes listed the Canucks at US$745 million.
The past six years have marked an agonizing decline from Vancouver’s perch atop the NHL standings at the end of the 2011 regular season, beginning with their Stanley Cup Final loss to Boston.
The Canucks haven’t won a playoff series since the 2011 Western Conference Final, with their last post-season appearance coming in 2015.
The regression on the ice has led to a decline at the gate, with average attendance dropping from 18,710 per game in 2014-15 — the first year of the Trevor Linden, Jim Benning, Willie Desjardins era — to 18,436 in 2015-16, according to Hockey-Reference.com. Last year, attendance experienced a modest increase, moving to 18,509 fans per game at the Aquilini-owned Rogers Arena.
The team once boasted about 17,000 season-ticket memberships. In March, Canucks Sports and Entertainment chief operating officer Jeff Stipec told The Vancouver Sun that season-ticket membership renewals had declined by about 15 per cent last year.
“The challenge is repatriating the fans who have sort of walked away from the team in the period of decline,” said sports marketing expert Tom Mayenknecht, estimating that season-ticket memberships may now be between 13,000 to 14,000.
“There is a normal ebb and flow in a professional sport. I think the Aquilinis are hoping they can find a way, working with their front office, to make the flatline … a shorter period of time and get back into relevance as a Stanley Cup contender.”
The NHL has two national television deals. In the U.S., the league has an agreement with NBC Sports that runs through 2020-21.
It’s believed that deal is worth a total of US$2 billion, which is reportedly split evenly among all teams. In Canada, the NHL made headlines with a 12-year, $5.2-billion deal with Rogers Communications. According to Forbes, each team could earn about $16 million in “hockey-related revenue” throughout the lifetime of that deal.
The local media market has seen a massive shift with the addition of Sportsnet 650 to the airwaves.
That station now holds the radio broadcast rights to the Canucks, after TSN 1040 carried games for 11 seasons.
Mayenknecht, himself a radio host of The Sport Market on TSN 1040 every Saturday morning, estimated that current numbers for viewing and listening audiences for Canucks games is about half to two-thirds what they were six years ago. From the start of the lockout-shortened 2013 campaign to April 10, 2017, the Canucks have fired three coaches — Desjardins being the latest.
John Tortorella lasted a single season following the dismissal of Alain Vigneault.
For the past two seasons, the Canucks have been mired near the bottom of the overall standings, finishing 29th out of 30 teams this year and receiving the fifth overall pick in the draft.
The Canucks desperately need a push from their younger players.
This past season, the organization finally admitted it was in a rebuild, as Alex Burrows and Jannik Hansen were moved at the trade deadline in order to acquire younger assets for the future of the franchise.
The great debate in this city for the past two or three years has centred around whether or not fans will support a rebuild, in the hopes it will eventually pay off with a Cup contender.
“What’s important for a team like the Canucks is just to be clear about their vision,” said Mayenknecht.
“I think more fans are … aligning with where the Canucks are in July of 2017 than they might have a year ago or even two years ago.”
VANCOUVER WHITECAPS — JEFF MALLET, STEVE LUCZO, GREG KERFOOT, STEVE NASH
With an ownership group consisting of Jeff Mallett, Steve Luczo, Greg Kerfoot and NBA great Steve Nash, the Whitecaps were awarded a Major League Soccer franchise in 2009.
Two years later, they kicked off their inaugural MLS season, having paid an expansion fee of US$40 million. Today, that would be quite a deal. With plans to continue to grow the league, commissioner Don Garber has set the entry fee at US$150 million.
Over the past few years, the league has seen a substantial rise in the value of its clubs.
According to Forbes, the average worth of an MLS franchise in 2016 was US$185 million.
That’s an increase of 18 per cent from the previous year, with the Whitecaps coming in at US$128 million a year ago.
Already signed to an eight-year television deal with ESPN, Fox and Univision to the tune of about US$90 million per year, the league also announced a five-year extension with TSN in January.
One of the reasons for such growth, the magazine cited, is the capital being spent on brand-new stadiums and training facilities for player development. The Whitecaps are part of that trend, recently moving into their $32.5-million National Soccer Development Centre at UBC.
The Whitecaps have been praised in this market for the vibrant, festive atmosphere during their home matches at B.C. Place.
Announced regular-season attendance increased last year, to an average of 22,329 from 20,507 in 2015, based on numbers from their website. In 2016, the club released its number of season-ticket memberships, stating they had 15,500 memberships.
While average regular-season attendance has dipped so far this year, to 21,323 per game before Wednesday, the number of season-ticket memberships has remained even for this year, a club spokesperson said via text message.
They’ve tantalized in the past with their on-field product, showing the potential of a club that could challenge for an MLS championship, but have yet to experience a true breakthrough in MLS competition.
Hosting a playoff game in 2015 only raised expectations for the following season. But instead, they fell to eighth in the Western Conference and out of the playoffs last year. Midway through their 2017 season, the Whitecaps hold the final playoff position in the West, with Seattle, L.A. and Real Salt Lake on their heels.
“Despite some very good … marketing initiatives, at the end of the day, to really reach the casual fan and bring in more fans in Vancouver, you need to be winning,” said Mayenknecht.
B.C. LIONS — DAVID BRALEY
David Braley took over as owner of the B.C. Lions in 1997, purchasing the team out of bankruptcy during a time when the fate of the entire Canadian Football League was in jeopardy.
The league had a disastrous — and brief — spell with expansion into the U.S., and a number of Canadian-based teams were in trouble during a particularly fragile financial time in the mid-1990s.
In fact, Braley, a former Conservative Senator and owner of Orlick Industries Ltd., has stepped in to help not only the Lions, but later the Toronto Argonauts as well. He acquired ownership of the struggling franchise in 2010, keeping it afloat before Bell Canada and Larry Tanenbaum officially purchased the team two years ago.
Now, at 76 years old and after a three-month stay in the hospital due to a bacterial infection last year, Braley is trying to sell the Lions.
In an interview with BCLions. com in March, Braley said there were “several people interested” in the Lions. There have been reports, including from Ed Willes of The Province, that the Aquilini Investment Group and former CFL player and UBC alum David Sidoo are among those showing interest.
The CFL and TSN have extended their television deal, initially valued at $200 million in total, through 2021, with the league reporting a three per cent increase in viewership during the 2016 regular season. The money from the TV agreement is distributed evenly among the league’s nine teams, with the Lions receiving about $4 million annually. The challenge for any prospective new owner will be to attract fans to B.C. Place.
Average attendance in 2014 was just over 28,000 fans per game, in what was the last year the Lions opened the upper bowl. White sails now cover the entire upper portion of the stadium for both Lions and Whitecaps games.
In 2016, average attendance fell to 21,055. An official with the Lions could not be reached to discuss season-ticket memberships before deadline.
Anyone interested in buying the Lions, said Mayenknecht, would not only look at attendance, but the television deal with TSN and lease agreement at B.C. Place to get a better sense if it would be a “bullish buy or a bearish buy.”
“If you’re a perspective owner, you’re looking at how long the term is on that TSN deal because it’s the lifeblood of the league,” said Mayenknecht. “It basically ensures that most, if not all of the clubs in the CFL, including the Lions, can be profitable with even a modicum of football operations savvy.”
Mayenknecht added that a potential buyer would also look at what the club is doing to strengthen and maintain its “brand footprint.” On that front, he praised the Lions social media department for providing a behind-the-scenes look into the team through digital components.
The single greatest concern, he said, remains attendance, adding there are adverse factors beyond the team’s control — such as parking prices, nearby construction, bridge tolls and traffic.
One initiative the Lions have committed to this season, and which will run through the summer part of the schedule, is introducing $5 tickets for children 12 and under. That, Mayenknecht said, qualifies as an aggressive ticket-pricing strategy, but he believes it should run through the entire season, not just June, July and August.
“It’s a terrific teaser,” he said. “In order for the whole thing to work, you still need a reasonable price for your adult tickets (single-game prices range from $25.50 in the upper end zone to CA$138 in the Club Seating Section, according to Ticketmaster), that’s what the family tends to look at.”
The Lions haven’t won a Grey Cup since 2011, despite making the playoffs for 20 straight seasons — the second-longest streak in CFL history (Edmonton Eskimos, 34 straight years; 1972-2005).
For now, they’ve regained stability, with Wally Buono returning last year to the sideline and rising star Jonathon Jennings taking over the starting duties in the fall of 2015.
With Buono back as coach and Jennings in his first full season as the starter, the Leos surprised many in 2016, providing a far more balanced and dynamic offence, winning a home playoff game versus Winnipeg and advancing to the West Final versus Calgary.