Yup, the now post John McCaw era in Vancouver Canucks hockey (Orca Bay Entertainment) is now modeled very closely to the Maple Leafs Sports and Entertainment business.
How? Well, in the past 10 years, since the dark days of mid-90s sub par hockey, the Vancouver Canucks have managed to amass a very strong fan season ticket/fan base. Brian Burke brought a lot of credibility back to this team with strong business sense coupled with icing a fairly entertaining hockey team. That has all changed with the Aquilini Group now running this ship.
It has become a popular idea on the net that these guys have alterior plans for this franchise.
The first theory I read was THIS from a poster by the name of The.Burrows states that the Aquilini group needs to pay off bank debt so they will not run the current salary structure up to the Cap and pocket more to address their current finacial state. Makes sense and could very well be.
Also, a friend suggested to me that the Aquilini group has business interests in Las Vegas and would love to move the team there. Oh and that will conjur up a healthy fan base?
Perhaps the plan is to gut the team, lower the cap by a ton, play out the year, get some high picks (John Tavares) , sign a bunch of free agents next summer and start from scratch in two seasons.
Whatever this ownship/management group is up to the people that get screwed the most are those that bought season tickets expecting to see a new, exciting team on the ice this fall.
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