'Double Loss' - Francesco Aquillini on 2011

[cuporbust]

1 hour ago, Goal:thecup said:

Sorry if you felt that I was saying all rioters were organized criminals.

I believe it was started by professionals, part of their program is inciting others to act inappropriately.

Some were Canucks fans, of course, but I do not accept the media generalization that it was caused by disgruntled Canucks fans.

Actually , the media did the oposite. They put the "organized criminal" story out there that u are talking about. It was damage control and a PR move. a few people can't be  blamed for a riot of that magnitude. It sucks , but it's the truth. Everyone that was involved embarrassed us and I don't believe for a second it can  be blamed on " professional rioters" , whatever that means. 

[Rocky Balboa]

With the way the games went in that series, the moment the Bruins went up 1-0 and Luongo looked up at the two Canucks in front of him...I knew it was over.

 

 

[cuporbust]

1 hour ago, Harvey Spector said:

True. But back then it was different.  Remember Burke's famous quote "twenty-five cents and a pay phone to move this team"?  It was a very real possibility back then. The dollar was at 65 cents or so and we were bleeding red. Just like the Grizzlies. If an American owner had stepped in you never know what would have happened. 

 

I agree we are a huge market and Bettman would have done what he could to keep the Canucks in Vancouver. But at the very least with the Aquilini family buying the club we assured ourselves of not having to deal with all the uncertainty that would have happened with foreign ownership. 

Ya that's true. Good point. Just sayin I didn't agree with sayin Bettman wouldn't have cared if we lost our team and I don't think he dislikes Vancouver like it is so often suggested. . I do agree things were different then, and I agree with your opinion on ownership as well

[Nuxfanabroad]

5 hours ago, Harvey Spector said:

Francesco has been a fan and season ticket holder of the Canucks since he was a kid.  The whole family.  They lived only a few blocks away from Pacific Coliseum as did I growing up.  He is very passionate about the Canucks.  A very sharp businessman as well.  You can say all you want about him in terms of his meddling with the team and getting involved in hiring, firing coaches, etc. But at the end of the day he is a fan just like all of us.  I think he is a great owner, we could have done alot worse.  To have a local guy buy the team was fantastic.  Alot better than that McCaw fraud.  Look what happened to the Grizzlies.  They got an American owner after the local guy sold and were gone the next year.  Same thing could have happened to the Canucks.  At the time of the sale we could have easily been bought by an American with no guarantee of staying in Vancouver.  You think Bettman would have cared if we lost our team?

 

The Canucks are here to stay as Francesco has invested millions into Rogers Arena and the surrounding area with commercial office space and now rental buildings going up.  We have an owner that wants to win.  Let's hope JB and TL can turn this ship around and get this team back to being competitive.

Nice post, HS.

[EV604]

The Aquillini group are the best owners the Canucks have ever had PERIOD

[HC20.0]

3 hours ago, Rocky Balboa said:

With the way the games went in that series, the moment the Bruins went up 1-0 and Luongo looked up at the two Canucks in front of him...I knew it was over.

 

 

In the second period, I remember Burrows had this glorious chance to score. He got Thomas out of position, but Chara somehow blocked the shot. That's when I knew we weren't winning. Then minutes later, Daniel runs over Luongo and Marchand scores because of that... 

[dura_mater]

6 hours ago, TheGuardian_ said:

The riot thing, an idiot could have predicedt that outcome regardless of win or loss. A win, it would have been less, but it still would have happened the way it was uncontrolled on the street. But a loss, how could the powers that were in charge couldn't see an uncontrolled reaction.

 

If there is a next time there has to be a bigger presence, not belligerent, but decisive and infiltrating, get to the problem people quicker and get them out quicker. I know there is a lot of controversy regarding taser's, but a taser to the ass might not be as effective, but it will get the attention, maybe not a taser, maybe something like a cattle prod, low powered. The idea being to move the trouble makers, move around in groups of 6, plain clothed with backup within a block. Bring back the horses, people like horses, break the groups into smaller numbers, create more check/choke points.

 

Especially if a loss could be the outcome.

 

I doubt any ordeal would be as bad now with all the camera's around, but there will always be those drunk fans that just had their heart's broken and want to vent.

 

No excuses for what happened, embarrassing, fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice shame on me. Should have learned from 94.

If that were true they would have been prepared for it - they weren't.  The best thing anyone can do in a situation like that is leave the area.  Much easier to handle a few idiots then trying to sort those idiots out of thousands of people standing around.  Some people just love to watch drama unfold.

[X-PatLostInEdm]

4 hours ago, cuporbust said:

Actually , the media did the oposite. They put the "organized criminal" story out there that u are talking about. It was damage control and a PR move. a few people can't be  blamed for a riot of that magnitude. It sucks , but it's the truth. Everyone that was involved embarrassed us and I don't believe for a second it can  be blamed on " professional rioters" , whatever that means. 

You mean like this story?

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/vancouver-not-typical-sports-riot-sociologist-says-1.1087616

By-line is Daniel Schwartz, a Toronto based producer for CBC. A senior, respected, producer at that. Hardly a Vancouver apologist. The sociologists consulted aren't even Canadian. Again, no agenda. But they both agree there was something seriously... off... about that riot. They don't claim anything like organized crime or professional rioters, but one does hint at the possibility. "almost as if there was an outside force" I believe were his words.

 

My family and I were very nearly caught in a riot one time. Ironically, it was here in Edmonton (Canada Day riot). I assure you these things can start small and grow like a forest fire. And that's one reason I don't take any guff from Edm fans trying to bug me about our riot. I just have remind them they once had riot because it was a long weekend. Plus, they've had a hockey riot as well (2006). Not nearly as big as ours, but still a riot.

[Cerridwen]

3 minutes ago, dura_mater said:

If that were true they would have been prepared for it - they weren't.  The best thing anyone can do in a situation like that is leave the area.  Much easier to handle a few idiots then trying to sort those idiots out of thousands of people standing around.  Some people just love to watch drama unfold.

Have you ever been in a mob/crowd situation that turns bad fast? It's not always possible to do that. In many cases, it's impossible to move, to get out, leave the area. You're trapped there by the sheer mass of people. Your comment is overly simplistic and rather uneducated as to the reality of being in the midst of such a crowd.

[Shirotashi]

I knew the team wasn't going to win after the first 10 minutes. They played it like it was a regular season game to me. Like the bruins motto was "Whatever it takes" and the Canucks was "Stay safe" or "Just have fun". I loved that team and they just didn't have the steam or whatever it was, injuries maybe, the tank was empty and it was game 7 in Vancouver. Very disappointing game.

 

[Salacious Crumb]

11 minutes ago, Shirotashi said:

I knew the team wasn't going to win after the first 10 minutes. They played it like it was a regular season game to me. Like the bruins motto was "Whatever it takes" and the Canucks was "Stay safe" or "Just have fun". I loved that team and they just didn't have the steam or whatever it was, injuries maybe, the tank was empty and it was game 7 in Vancouver. Very disappointing game.

 

I knew halfway thru game 6. Samuelssons groin, Malhotras eye, Ehrhoffs shoulder, Higgins broken foot, half a Kesler, Edlers broken fingers, no Hamhuis, Raymonds back, Salo was always injured, Rome hit, Luongos tires, league conspiracy.

 

if the Sedins had 2016 pushback in 2011 things may have gone differntly

[canuckledraggin]

52 minutes ago, Cerridwen said:

Have you ever been in a mob/crowd situation that turns bad fast? It's not always possible to do that. In many cases, it's impossible to move, to get out, leave the area. You're trapped there by the sheer mass of people. Your comment is overly simplistic and rather uneducated as to the reality of being in the midst of such a crowd.

I was at the epicenter of the '94 riot and I can attest to this. The crowd at Robson and Thurlow was obviously very intoxicated, but still in the mood to party. I was sitting on top of a Starbucks glass awning watching it all unfold. There was a guy that was attempting to climb along telephone wires across Robson street and he fell to the crowd below. An ambulance and police car tried to make their way to the victim, but it was impossible.

 

The streets were packed, so people that were too far away from the injured man had no idea what was going on and they started rocking the emergency vehicles. From there the police really didn't have much choice but to try to disperse the crowd to get to the injured man. I didn't hear the riot act or any kind of verbal attempt to get the crowd to leave the area, but I'm doubtful that it would have worked anyways given the nature of the crowd.

 

The teargas started the riot essentially, because once they started firing that into the crowd, all hell broke loose. Fans were already devastated by the loss and coupled with the level of intoxication, they felt like they were being attacked. So they attacked back. I got the hell out of there in a hurry once the teargas was fired off and people's reaction was to start smashing windows.

 

I was lucky that I was relatively away from the mass of people that were shoulder to shoulder in the streets. To say that you could just leave when you are boxed in like that isn't realistic. I don't live in Vancouver anymore and I was nowhere near the 2011 riot, but  I have seen the evolution of a riot firsthand. There really only needs to be a few dozen A-holes to turn a group of thousands into a hysterical, panicking mob. 

[89mogilny]

10 hours ago, Spotted Zebra said:

It's not really news, or anything recent, but Frank does his best to avoid the public's eye and rarely talks about matters such as these. He gets his name dragged through the mud a lot, maybe rightfully so, but this just shows how much of a fan of the product he is, and I found it interesting. 

http://vancouversun.com/sports/hockey/nhl/vancouver-canucks/the-double-loss-canucks-owner-on-the-night-his-team-and-his-city-came-up-short

 

Why the hell is this guy bringing this up after 5 long years? who cares, this stuff is done, he should have came out the next day and at the end of the month to tell this. This owner stinks and I don't care what anybody thinks, this team would be better off with a new owner. This guy was too cheap to buy out booth and ballard when our team actually had a chance to compete for a Stanley Cup. That's almost nine million cap space to do a lot of maneuvering. 

[Fanuck]

On ‎6‎/‎15‎/‎2016 at 9:39 AM, Harvey Spector said:

The Canucks are here to stay as Francesco has invested millions into Rogers Arena and the surrounding area with commercial office space and now rental buildings going up.  We have an owner that wants to win.  Let's hope JB and TL can turn this ship around and get this team back to being competitive.

I can't envision a time where Vancouver wouldn't be part of the NHL - it's a 'core' franchise if you will IMO.

 

OTOH, I can very easily envision a time, relatively soon, where Aquaman and his family are no longer owners of this franchise - and I don't necessarily think that would be a bad thing. 

[Harvey Spector]

1 hour ago, Fanuck said:

I can't envision a time where Vancouver wouldn't be part of the NHL - it's a 'core' franchise if you will IMO.

 

OTOH, I can very easily envision a time, relatively soon, where Aquaman and his family are no longer owners of this franchise - and I don't necessarily think that would be a bad thing. 

I don't think Francesco will sell the team anytime soon.  The Canucks, Rogers Arena, the surrounding land he owns with the commercial office space he's built and now the 3 residential rental buildings to be built around the rink.  All that is worth over a billion.  Plus once the viaducts come down that will open up more space for Francesco to acquire land and build more housing.

 

He's sitting on a real estate gold mine really.  The Aquilini family doesn't sell valuable assets unless its to acquire something equally valuable. The land is just too valuable to sell off.  And with no new land around that area it will become even more valuable in the future.  The only thing I can think of that would make sense is he basically becomes a Landlord and just sells off the team to someone else.  But who in Vancouver would have the cash simply to buy the team and have Francesco as his Landlord?  A foreign owner would never go with that scenario so it would have to be someone local.

[Fanuck]

27 minutes ago, Harvey Spector said:

He's sitting on a real estate gold mine really.  The Aquilini family doesn't sell valuable assets unless its to acquire something equally valuable. The land is just too valuable to sell off.  And with no new land around that area it will become even more valuable in the future.  The only thing I can think of that would make sense is he basically becomes a Landlord and just sells off the team to someone else.  But who in Vancouver would have the cash simply to buy the team and have Francesco as his Landlord?  A foreign owner would never go with that scenario so it would have to be someone local.

If/when necessary, assets can be valued, separated, and sold off.  Happens all the time when assets are linked initially.   

NHL doesn't require local ownership (although that may be preferred), only that any potential owners agree to keep the team in that city (which they would have to upon agreement to purchase).   

Admittedly, just my gut feeling, but I suspect the Aquaman group would have sold the franchise sooner if popularity/attendance didn't plummet so quickly after the cup run (thereby lowering value/return).  This whole 'make the playoffs at any expense' vs. a solid re-build process reeks of an owner who puts short-term personal gain (make the team look viable for a sale by making the playoffs) ahead of long-term success imo.  Again, I don't pretend to have insider knowledge, just my take on it. 

[Harvey Spector]

2 minutes ago, Fanuck said:

If/when necessary, assets can be valued, separated, and sold off.  Happens all the time when assets are linked initially.   

NHL doesn't require local ownership (although that may be preferred), only that any potential owners agree to keep the team in that city (which they would have to upon agreement to purchase).   

Admittedly, just my gut feeling, but I suspect the Aquaman group would have sold the franchise sooner if popularity/attendance didn't plummet so quickly after the cup run (thereby lowering value/return).  This whole 'make the playoffs at any expense' vs. a solid re-build process reeks of an owner who puts short-term personal gain (make the team look viable for a sale by making the playoffs) ahead of long-term success imo.  Again, I don't pretend to have insider knowledge, just my take on it. 

Francesco is a long time season ticket holder and a fan since he was a kid.  I used to see him at the Pacific Coliseum watching the games.  He's as big a fan as me and you.  If you feel he is only trying to up the value of the team to sell off then you don't really know him too well.  He wants to win a cup as badly as me and you.  The team IS re-building.  It may not be re-building in the way you and others would like, i.e. a total gut job by selling off all aging veterans for draft picks and then tanking for a few years to accumulate high draft picks.  This is not happening because it is not the plan.  Not because JB and TL and Francesco don't want to re-build, but because they are re-building in a different way.

 

The team is still keeping all their high draft picks while at the same time adding young NHL ready players who are already developed to help them at the NHL level.  This gets the team younger while still keeping some core older veterans around to help with getting these young guys to become professionally ready to help at the NHL level.  This team is not going to rely on a bunch of 18-20 year old kids to lead them to the promised land in maybe 10 years.  People might not like what JB is doing and don't agree with HIS re-build, but that is what is happening and so we have to deal with it.  In part of course Francesco wants to keep this team fairly competitive.  I don't think this market would actually be able to withstand 5-7 years of losing hockey and being at the bottom of the barrel.  We did that in the 1980's and it almost forced the Griffiths family into bankruptcy.  We had 7,000 people going to the games at the old Pacific Coliseum back in the 80's.  Luckily Arthur Griffiths was able to save the team by bringing Pat Quinn on board and getting us back to a competitive level and also being able to buy the land between the viaducts at a fairly cheap price back then ($14 million), and then be able to build GM Place, now Rogers Arena.  That is what saved the team from bankruptcy and most likely a sale to a foreign owner who could have very well moved the franchise, as the Pacific Coliseum was not viable enough to host an NHL team any longer.

 

That's where we are today.  We've had lots of success the last 12 years or so in terms of the regular season, not so much in the playoffs but a Cup final was in there and a couple of President's trophies as well.  We did make the playoffs 2 years ago but regressed last year.  So Benning is fixing that as we speak.  With a couple solid free agent signings to go along with the trades we made the last year and also the players we drafted, I hope to see us back in the playoffs next year.

[Fanuck]

The source is what it is, and I'll admit it's not necessarily as solid as some; however, neither you nor I can say that the team will remain in Aquaman's hands or will be sold with 100% certainty.  Only time will tell. 

 

http://canucksarmy.com/2015/10/15/aquilini-s-interest-in-selling-could-hold-canucks-back-on-the-ice-long-term

 

I personally suspect that the Aquaman group is biding their time, waiting to see if the franchise gains some of what it lost or if it's still on the decline financially - to then position for a sale.  You can't say they won't and I can't say they will 100%.  We know the NHL board of governors doesn't like instability in their organization, that's a factor also.  If Carolina/Florida/Arizona/expansion weren't taking up so much of the NHL's time these days, I suspect the Aquaman group would have pursued this further already. 

[-NucksFan]

On June 15, 2016 at 10:44 AM, Papa Sawce said:

Although it hurts looking back to 2011, It brings back such great memories and brings shivers down my spine. I live and went to school in the okanagan and there was so much energy walking through halls and wearing team colours it was awesome, it'll be a memory i'll cherish for a long time and it will make it all that much better when we finally get to see our boys hoist lord stanley!

Every time I hear the song "dynamite" it makes me remember , it was played in the room after wins and was shown on camera when the players entered ( dancing, lol )  after the game, it's stuck with me ever since . 

[cdubuya]

Wasnt aq interviewed post game swearig his head off? He ommited this part of the story of true.