Canucks: The ownership chatter is not going away
The Griffiths' ownership era plays different from the Aquilinis'. Frank Griffiths bought the team with a partner in 1974, but controlled the team until 1988 when he handed it to his son Arthur, who expanded the family's sports holdings to include the Grizzlies and build what is now Rogers Arena. But as everyone knows, between building the arena, paying a higher-than-expected expansion fee to the NBA, plus the sagging Canadian dollar, Arthur Griffiths had over-extended himself and started running short on cash. So entered Seattle billionaire John McCaw and, for a time, his brother Bruce.
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They were supposed to be silent partners, providing a needed cash injection at a moment when the team needed one. But the project stayed big and so did the expenses. By 1997, it was all over for Griffiths, who sold his remaining shares to McCaw, who, as the story goes, never really wanted to own the Canucks and Grizzlies. Seven years later, McCaw began to offload what was then called Orca Bay to the Aquilinis, a now infamous transaction that blindsided Tom Gaglardi and Ryan Beedie, who had originally been negotiating with McCaw. Francesco Aquilini was the third member of their trio, but he left those talks and, it turned out, cut a deal of his own in 2004.
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The Aquilinis took full control of the Canucks in 2006. The early years of their ownership carried much hope, and for a time, the Canucks were a leading light in the NHL.
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Since the heights of the 2011 season, the Canucks have been on a downward slide. Fans remember what those days were like. They want them back. And they have come to dream of a new reality.
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Could the Aquilinis really sell, as these perpetuals rumours pre-suppose? It's highly doubtful. The arena and its adjacent towers are a high-value proposition, ones that bring big value to the family. It's hard to imagine them moving on — and their denial of looking to sell makes sense.
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The arena is a big profit-maker for them, even if the building is aging and needs repairs. Concerts are lucrative. The Canucks have been a money-printing machine at times as well, although an expensive machine even when times were good. The team's huge increase in value has tracked well with Luigi Aquilini's guiding philosophy: 'There's no money in the sell, only in the buy.' In other words, look for value when you buy something, play the long game, sit on it, and watch it appreciate in value.
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