The cauldron at Jack Poole Plaza was extinguished at the end of February 2010, but the Winter Olympics and Canada’s record gold-medal haul already defined that year in Vancouver’s sport business.
In 2011, the pendulum swung from global to local, as the market’s four main privately held franchises had their own kinds of comebacks.
“It has to go down not only as the best year in Vancouver sport history, but the culmination of the most entertaining and engaging 21 months in the city’s history,” said Tom Mayenknecht, host of The Sport Market on Team 1040.
“Add a $563 million stadium renovation with retractable roof technology and I’d say sport and sport business has impacted Vancouver more than any other city in North America in the past two years.”
Back in the bigs
After a 27-year absence, the Vancouver Whitecaps brought Canada’s soccer hotbed back to North America’s top level.
Owners Greg Kerfoot, Steve Luczo, Jeff Mallett and Steve Nash paid a combined $35 million to enter Major League Soccer. The Whitecaps opened with a 4-2 win over Toronto FC at sunny Empire Field on March 19 in a nationally televised TSN match. That was as good as it got on field.
The premature May 30 firing of popular head coach Teitur Thordarson and replacement with general manager Tom Soehn backfired. The last-place club failed to win on the road.
The team was a box office smash with an average 20,406 attendance – third best in MLS. The only true sellout, however, was 27,500 for the July 30 visit to Empire by the L.A. Galaxy without yellow-card-suspended golden boy David Beckham.
The traditional soccer atmosphere provided by the chanting Southsiders at Empire and later in BC Place Stadium was a pleasant surprise in a market where notoriously reserved fans are accustomed to bombardment with audio and video recordings.
Jersey sponsor Bell scored unlikely points in the telecommunications marketing war with its shrewd game day sponsorship of the pitch in Telus-supplied (but not yet re-named) BC Place. The December 9-announced departure of CEO Paul Barber, who was imported from the English Premier League’s Tottenham Hotspur, meant the Whitecaps remain far from their lofty goal of being among the world’s top 25 soccer clubs.
Back wondering and waiting
The Vancouver Canucks became President’s Trophy champions for the first time in the franchise’s 40 NHL seasons. It was an excuse to sell more merchandise, but Vancouverites wanted more.
The club dethroned reigning Stanley Cup champion Chicago Blackhawks with a Game 7 overtime goal before eliminating the Nashville Predators and San Jose Sharks.
The seven-game final with the Boston Bruins was a tale of two cities. In Vancouver, the home team eked out three victories. In Boston, the Bruins won by big margins. Game 7 at Rogers Arena drew a record 17.3 million viewers on both sides of the border, a ratings bonanza for CBC, RDS and NBC. It was history’s most-watched Hockey Night in Canada game.
The Canucks choked, sparking a riot in downtown – 17 years and one day after 1994’s cup loss to the New York Rangers touched off a smaller riot.
Material damage was estimated at $5 million; the harm to the city’s reputation from worldwide media attention cannot be estimated.
Canucks Sports and Entertainment (CSE) grossed $40 million to $50 million during the playoff run, selling tickets as high as $580 a pop. The NHL left with some of the loot to share with floundering southern franchises. The Canucks were such a money-magnet, the much-ballyhooed UFC 131 at Rogers Arena on June 11 fell far short of a sellout, drawing a disappointing 14,685.
Odds are against the Canucks winning the cup run in 2012 – runners-up rarely find quick redemption. But CSE scored new supply and sponsorship deals for 2011-12 with Pepsico and brewing giant AB InBev, replacing Coca-Cola and Molson Coors.
Back at the Nat
The Vancouver Canadians raised a league trophy at Scotiabank Field at Nat Bailey Stadium for the first time since the triple-A version hoisted the Pacific Coast League championship in its last game there in 1999.
The short-season, single-A Cs won the Northwest League title September 11 over the Tri-City Dust Devils, capping the first season as an affiliate of the Toronto Blue Jays. The alliance brought more Canadian players to the field and regular meet-and-greet appearances by Jays greats in the grandstand.
The 162,162 attendance for 38 regular season games was second best in the league. The overall operation was recognized by Baseball America with its Bob Freitas award for top short-season single-A business at the baseball winter meetings in Dallas. Owners Jeff Mooney and Jake Kerr are mulling how to bring triple-A back to Vancouver. First they need to buy a team and expand the Nat to meet Minor League Baseball requirements or build a new ballpark. BC Place’s giant video board is unlikely to pass because it dangles in fair territory.
Back with Pride
The BC Lions began a dismal 0-5 and then won 12 of their last 14 games, including the 99th Grey Cup at renovated BC Place.
Owner David Braley, president Dennis Skulsky and head coach-general manager Wally Buono stubbornly ignored media and fans’ calls for a mid-season shake-up. Their patience paid off.
The team won all six of its BC Place games, including the 54,313 Grey Cup sellout over the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. Not only did the Leos win before a 4.6 million TSN audience, but the club also grossed an estimated $10 million in ticket sales.
B.C. relied on quarterback Travis Lulay, aging kicker Paul McCallum and superstar receiver Geroy Simon after dispatching two of the most-exciting and marketable players before the regular season. Kick returner Yonus Davis was caught in a California ecstasy sting and running back Jerome Messam violated training camp curfew.
The Grey Cup win was the 276th and final victory for the CFL’s all-time winningest coach Buono, who retired from sideline duty on December 4 but remains general manager.
The Grey Cup festival, chaired by Moray Keith and managed by Scott Ackles, included the 47th Vanier Cup. McMaster Marauders upset the defending champion Laval Rouge et Or in one of the greatest games in three-down-rules history before an impressive 24,953 fans, which put a smile on organizer and Canadian Interuniversity Sport booster Jim Mullin’s face.
Back to the capital
The Fraser Valley’s hockey power play meant the Vancouver Giants were again the Lower Mainland’s only Western Hockey League franchise.
Competition from the American Hockey League’s Abbotsford Heat, recipients of a controversial civic taxpayer subsidy, was cited by Chilliwack Bruins co-owner Brian Burke as a major reason for selling the team to Graham Lee. Lee moved the franchise to Victoria’s Save-On-Foods Memorial Arena, where it was rebranded the Royals.
The Heat remain the Calgary Flames’ top farm club, but they scored some Canuck credibility when ex-player and ex-assistant coach Ryan Walter was hired to be president.
Watch for local sport in 2012 to be an even bigger battleground for the telecommunications marketing war than it was in 2011 as the players in that battle realize ways to exploit smartphones and tablets. The biggest pressure is on the Whitecaps to beat rivals Portland Timbers and Seattle Sounders, vie for a playoff berth and bring a European giant like Manchester United or Barcelona to fill BC Place. •
