The Vancouver Canucks are a marketing juggernaut and have cornered the market as the number one professional sports property. They have made General Motors Place the number one destination and Canucks' games the number one local TV draw.
Not so difficult to achieve with little competition, except for outdoor sports and recreation. The Canucks are Vancouver's only connection to a big continental sports league during dark and stormy winters. The sport is Canada's national winter pastime. Many Vancouverites are from points east of the Rockies where hockey is life. Just wait until 2011 when the Vancouver Whitecaps enter Major League Soccer and challenge the Canucks for the finite pool of ticket and sponsor money available in this market. You will quickly witness why Canucks' owner Francesco Aquilini was bidding against Greg Kerfoot for an MLS franchise.
The Canucks will be celebrating their 300th consecutive home sellout April 3 when the Minnesota Wild visit. I'm a stickler for statistical honesty and I won't be sending the Canucks a 300-candle cake.
Only the beancounters inside 800 Griffiths Way know how many tickets have been sold and distributed over the last 299 games.
I do know that on March 15, 2007 -- when the Canucks beat St. Louis 3-2 in overtime -- there were 18,325 tickets scanned by GM Place staff at the arena entries. The NHL scoresheet falsely reported the arena was at 18,630 capacity and that was also the attendance figure announced in the arena. I asked Canucks Sports and Entertainment for comment but never got a response.
The 18,325 figure comes from a Bunt and Associates study for the City of Vancouver's Olympic transportation office. The same report said 16,653 season ticket holders attended the game. Capacity was increased to 18,810 with the Best Buy Club for the 2009-2010 season.
The Canucks' average $62.05 ticket price is third highest in the NHL -- a portion of that revenue is shared with the league's struggling southern franchises including the Phoenix Coyotes. But most of the money stays here to support a franchise that still hasn't delivered a Stanley Cup to its fans after almost 40 years.
Fans love the franchise too much. One could argue it doesn't have the incentive to make a Cup run because the organization is not desperate for revenue. Cup-winners like Tampa Bay, Carolina and Anaheim were. The proliferation of spring concert tours and big events like the Ultimate Fighting Championship fill GM Place dates and keep the Aquilinis flush with cash.
Saturday, April 3, 2010
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