A FUTURE IN CHINA?
Inclusivity is a great start, but having a winning team would go a long way in securing new fans in B.C. and abroad, Joanne Lee-Young writes.
A winning Canucks team would help attract new fans at home and abroad
They played two exhibition games in Shanghai and Beijing against the Los Angeles Kings, visited the Great Wall of China, and now the Canucks are back at home.
Up next, as the NHL seeks new supporters of hockey in China’s rising middle class — including mainland Chinese who travel and spend money overseas — many eyes will be on how the Canucks capitalize on Vancouver’s ties to these potential fans.
“Hockey has the ability to be the thing that ties people together,” says Canucks team president Trevor Linden. “Vancouver has such a huge Chinese community and it’s growing. We’re an inclusive brand. We are all Canucks, regardless of where you come from. You can be part of the culture in Vancouver.”
Indeed, the games in China give the Canucks a chance to further engage Chinese-Canadian fans who have supported the team since its earliest NHL days.
What will be harder to attract is the leisure dollar of investor immigrants, as well as visitors from mainland China, who are more comfortable speaking Cantonese or Mandarin than English, and are already used to being courted for their discretionary spending on everything from golf weekends to winery tours to real estate, auto and clothing purchases.
It makes sense for the Canucks to take the lead when it comes to connecting the NHL to China, says Victor Tsao, a Vancouver-based business lawyer and co-founder of the non-profit Canada China Sports Foundation, which promotes sports development in the two countries.
“Vancouver is the most Asian city outside of Asia,” says Tsao.
"There is an emerging group of investor immigrants here who still have close business ties in China. They are a group of elite businessmen who could be encouraged to see hockey as a sport to watch, a platform from which to socialize and be a part of the local business scene.
“If you think about it, they already spend money enjoying golf, going to casinos, taking a look at real estate properties, eating at restaurants,” says Tsao. “They are eager to participate in the local culture and to have a place for entertaining their corporate guests. What could be more Canadian than enjoying a bottle of wine and soaking in the hockey culture?”
The NHL hopes the Canucks will capture the Chinese market in the way the NBA’s Houston Rockets appeal to both Chinese-American fans and those across mainland China.
Canucks chief operating officer Jeff Stipec says: “The whole Chinese strategy for us is not new. Going back to when the Canucks became an NHL team since the 1970s, the Chinese community has been a big part of our fan base.”
There is chatter about adding community events that will appeal to Chinese fans, including a Lunar New Year game in mid-February at Rogers Arena where the Canucks will face off against the Boston Bruins.
Playing the recent games in China “has allowed us to be more meaningful to a community group that is important to us,” says Stipec.
It’s a group that has sometimes felt like it was on the outside even as it cheered passionately alongside, says Kelley Lee, a professor at Simon Fraser University’s faculty of health science, hockey player and diehard fan.
She recalls growing up “near the PNE. I knew that the Canucks were playing hockey six blocks away (from our house), but it might as well have been on the moon. It was something rich people and other families did. So I would listen to the games with the radio and (Canucks play-byplay announcer) Jim Robson's voice under my pillow . ... In my family, my generation was the first to play.”
As an adult, she played community hockey for the Kitsilano Kanakas and, later, for the University of B.C. team. She continued on ice when she moved to do her doctorate in London, England.
“Both my kids played rec hockey and, of course, I'll be the pushy 'poh-poh' (grandma) insisting on my grandchildren all playing.”
Lee says the team's marketing slogan resonates.
"'When they say, 'We are all Canucks,' they are trying to tap into diversity. Look around, we are pretty diverse.”
Stipec, the Canucks' COO, says, “We will take a look at what we are doing to engage that community. How can we show up at more events that are important in the local, Chinese community such as the Chinese New Year parade?”
At the same time, Stipec is tasked with engaging a Chinese market in Vancouver that is more closely linked to mainland China.
In addition to the Lunar New Year game, the Canucks will also host a minor hockey tournament that week involving eight teams from China. Most of the games will be held in Richmond, but the final one will be played at Rogers Arena.
“We have been working with the economic commissions and other individuals to gain insights on how to make some of our spaces more welcoming to the Chinese marketplace ... coming from overseas, who might be following us back from Beijing and Shanghai,” says Stipec.
“There are certain colours that speak to power. Even though it's not in our colour palette, you may see some red in our suites. There are certain things that are good luck, we have been learning in the last couple of months. You will see a lot more of that flavour in Rogers Arena.”
Ahead of its recent trip to China, the team relaunched a new Canucks micro-site in Chinese, as well as its WeChat social media account. It also unveiled a flag with the “We are all Canucks” slogan, also in Chinese characters.
A welcoming feel is a good start. But, naturally, having a winning team would go a long way in securing new fans who particularly covet spending money on products and experiences that convey status and prestige.
Compared to other Vancouver companies and institutions eager to win over this demographic, the Canucks' start could be described as a slow one.
Many others — from the smallest of swanky shoe stores to the oldest of cultural institutions eager to groom the next generation of deep-pocketed patrons — already have tailored VIP lists. They reach out to individuals or curated groups with special offers or customer appreciation events via various Chinese-language apps and platforms. They are equipped to do business with Chinese payment systems and credit cards such as Alipay and UnionPay.
The Canucks acknowledge a desire to proceed with caution and develop the market for the long-term following the initial, whirlwind exhibition games this past week.
To be sure, there can be pitfalls in knitting together so many dynamics.
One year, when the Houston Rockets set out to outfit themselves for a Chinese New Year game, they chose special jerseys decorated with Chinese characters. Their opponents, the Golden State Warriors, another team in a city with a significant Chinese population, had an image of the Great Wall of China stitched down the sides of their uniform and a goat on their sleeves, a nod to the incoming Chinese zodiac animal. For some, the overt tribute made sense. But for others, the designs were pilloried as being Western perceptions of Chinese tastes.
The Canucks' pursuit of this demographic poses the question of what owner Francesco Aquilini stands to gain for his other businesses, including Aquilini Development, which has seven current real estate projects across Metro Vancouver. They are a mix of master planned communities, including single-family homes, townhomes and apartments, malls and other amenities. The list also includes an upcoming tower in Kelowna. In addition to development and construction, the Aquilini portfolio also includes investments in hospitality, recreation, and agriculture.
Many competitors in these businesses and sectors have offices or active strategies in mainland China to attract customers. In their efforts to connect with these customers and build lasting relationships, they keep detailed lists of clients' purchasing preferences.
The Canucks emphasize the exhibition games in China were an NHL-driven event and didn't make Francesco Aquilini available to discuss the wider benefits of understanding Chinese customers in Vancouver.
The Vancouver Canucks landed in Beijing on Friday for their second game in China and, as they did during their stay in Shanghai, immediately began to explore the capital city.
There were the wonders of old China, most notably The Great Wall. But as they made their way into town, they took in the sights and sounds of modern Beijing, the stunning Centre for the Performing Arts, the CCTV Headquarters, the China World Trade Center, The Bird’s Nest and The Water Cube from the 2008 Olympics.
Like Shanghai, it’s a city where things move at the speed of light and bullet trains move at 350 km/h. A gleaming megapolis which stands as a monument to the country’s ambition and entrepreneurial spirit. And the Canucks are here now, ambassadors for their game and pioneers for the NHL. There’s just one thing. They’re not the first Vancouver-based hockey team to travel to Beijing and China. They are, more to the point, 44 years late to the party. In one of the most under-recorded but remarkable events in Canada’s sports history, the UBC men’s hockey team coached by Dr. Bob Hindmarch travelled to China for a seven-game series around Christmas of 1973, a trip that was captured by the National Film Board and can be viewed on the Web.
What can’t be captured, however, is everything that team saw and felt as they made their way around the dark and mysterious empire.
“There were virtually no cars,” says Bruce Brill, then a defenceman on the ’Birds, now a retiree. “The only cars would be government cars or trucks. Everyone was on a bike or walking. There were no street lights. They’d paint tops of trees white so there would be a bit of light at night.
“Everywhere we went we stayed in Friendship hotels. We were literally the only guests. They’d take us to Friendship stores and it was the same thing. We were the only customers. It’s amazing to think what’s happened since we were there.”
The Thunderbirds’ trip was conceived by the Trudeau — that would be Pierre — government as part of a larger attempt to open and normalize relations with China.
It also followed the “ping-pong diplomacy” conceived by Henry Kissinger and Richard Nixon in which the American table tennis team toured China in 1971, the first Americans to visit Beijing officially since 1949.
The UBC trip wasn’t as dramatic or well-publicized. But the T-Birds still saw things in China that no Canadian had seen. There’s a bit in the film where one of the players undergoes acupuncture, a technique only a handful of people knew about in the West. There are images from Beijing of horsedrawn carts moving hay around the capital. There are highlights of a game in Harbin where a crowd of 17,000 took in the game at an outdoor rink the day after another crowd of 17,000 watched the Thunderbirds practice.
And there are pictures from another game at an outdoor arena in Changchun where the Canadians and Chinese played in snow, wind and minus-20 C weather. Don’t see the Canucks having the same experience this time around.
“I found a diary I kept during the trip,” says Richard Longpre, a forward on the Thunderbirds. “If you’d asked me before I couldn’t help you. It feels like such a long time ago.”
Maybe. With shaggy hair and an inclination towards large bow ties, the UBC players were certainly of their time and place. They were also the first Westerners many of the Chinese had seen. Brill says people would gather to watch the Thunderbirds board the team bus and gaze in wonderment at Bill Ennos, a forward with a shock of red hair.
“I think the biggest impact we had was going out and interacting with the Chinese,” says Longpre. “It was the first taste of the West for all those people.”
The university team was far superior to their hosts, winning all seven games by a combined scored of 56-5. The tour opened in Beijing at The People Sports Palace, the largest indoor facility in the country, which was also holding its first-ever hockey game. A crowd of 18,000 took in the game, which the Thunderbirds won 5-0.
Longpre remembers it for other reasons.
“The crowd wasn’t allowed to yell or cheer,” he says. “A loud speaker would come on and tell everyone to be quiet. I’ve never been in an arena where so many people made such little noise.”
The Chinese team had also prepared themselves for a visit from the Broad Street Bullies, not a Canadian university team. As such, both Longpre and Brill report there was a lot of stick work from the hosts early in the game before they realized the Canadians weren’t interested in brawling.
The Chinese, in fact, were in top physical shape and could handle the game’s physicality.
As for hockey’s skill aspect, not so much. Part of the problem was their hopelessly inferior equipment which featured comically long wooden sticks and skates without rockers or twin edges.
Brill reports the Chinese would watch the Canadians sharpen their skates with the portable sharpener they’d brought from Canada. One of the players who could speak a little English finally screwed up the courage to ask if his skates could be sharpened by the wondrous new machine.
“His skating improved like 30 per cent,” says Brill. “All the Chinese players lined up to have their skates sharpened after that.”
In Hindmarch, the Thunderbirds had the perfect group leader for their great adventure. A legendary figure around the UBC campus, Hindmarch had been an assistant coach on Father Bauer’s Canadian team at the 1964 Olympics and served as a vice-president of the Canadian Olympic Association.
In the film he can be seen speaking to his team before the first game.
“You’re representing Canadian hockey,” he says. “What we do, we do really well.”
“He was a wonderful diplomat,” says Longpre. “He was really good at getting us to understand this was important.”
Longpre has since been back to China a couple of times. Brill hasn’t but both are aware they were part of a unique moment in history and if others have forgotten, they haven’t.
“We were briefed by the Canadian government before we left,” says Longpre. “Everyone was told there was a bigger issue and the issue was to exchange cultures.”
And play a little hockey. What could be more Canadian?