Fearing a third Stanley Cup riot this spring, Vancouver city hall said Tuesday it wont show Vancouver Canucks playoff games on big screens in downtown.
But Canada Place, which is operated by a federal Crown corporation, is considering whether to display Hockey Night in Canada telecasts on its 25-foot-high, Canadas Storyboard LED screen.
We are just working through that question right now, spokesperson Robyn McVicker said Wednesday. We should have a plan by next week.
Some 4,000 people watched the Canucks lose Game 7 of the 2011 Stanley Cup final outside Canada Place. However, the official civic fan zone on Georgia, Hamilton and Homer streets drew 55,000 people on June 15, 2011 and was ruined by a riot. Downtown property damage was estimated at $5 million.
If Canada Place doesnt carry games on its screen, clever citizens with the right wireless connectivity and mobile projection equipment could create their own impromptu live sites and promote them via social networks. Occupy Vancouver protesters on the Vancouver Art Gallerys north plaza showed what was possible last October and November with mobile webcasts and projections of still and video images on the blank, white Howe Street wall of the adjacent Sears department store.
The only barrier to such unsanctioned playoff gatherings could be the copyright holder, says the director of Simon Fraser Universitys Centre for Policy Research on Science and Technology. Its certainly technologically possible, said Prof. Richard Smith. How much technical people like sports, I can imagine some of them are thinking about ways to do stuff like that themselves. Doing a projection, of course, of a live [National Hockey League] game might bring down the NHL lawyers on your head pretty quickly.
Canucks Sports and Entertainment launched its This is Our Home: Celebrate Responsibly playoff ad campaign Wednesday featuring the Sedin twins, Kevin Bieksa, Ryan Kesler, Manny Malhotra and ex-captains Stan Smyl and Trevor Linden.
Chief operating officer Victor de Bonis described the message as both inspirational and preventive.
De Bonis said the Canucks have pledged to share the $100,000 cost with the city of family-oriented, community centre viewing parties, but the company wont pay extra for policing away from Rogers Arena because the government manages the public space.
We talked really conceptually about the different options and the city really wanted to do things in the community to support the unity of everyone, de Bonis said. The primary focus for us is winning games and managing the experience at the venue.
The privately owned Canucks do not publish their finances, but it is estimated they grossed more than $40 million from ticket sales from the 14-home playoff games in 2011. De Bonis said the company already pays taxes like other businesses and contributes to various community causes and charities year-round. Businesses take risks, sometimes there are rewards, sometimes there isnt, de Bonis said. I cant express how much that issue gets overblown.
Canucks executives were notably absent from the Tuesday city hall news conference. We talked about whether it made sense to participate, de Bonis said. It didnt feel like it was the right thing to do. The collaboration has been real good. Weve got to focus on winning.
Playoffs begin April 11, but the odds are against the Canucks winning their first Stanley Cup in 2012. Since the NHLs 1968 expansion, only two runners-up have become champions the next season: the 1984 Edmonton Oilers and 2009 Pittsburgh Penguins.
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