CKNW Editorial
for October 1, 1999

There is a great deal of gnashing of teeth over the almost certain loss of the Grizzlies and the possible loss of the Canucks. Much ink has been spilt and many words fulminated. I am bound to repeat some of what has been said but there we are. We have to ask ourselves some questions, Why are these teams so important to us? It surely can't be because we see these teams as family entertainment ... sort of the family that goes to Canucks games together stays together.

The prices for Grizzly games and Canuck games are out of sight. I make a very good wage but when I look at the cost of going to one of these games as opposed to other things I can do with the same money, other things invariably win. I find myself confined to the odd basketball game with friends with corporate season's tickets.

Is it because of the money these teams bring to town? This is an argument that can't be quickly thrust aside because there is an economic impact. But how big is it? Wouldn't some - certainly not all - be offset by junior hockey which would certainly come to GM place. And isn't some of this income loss illusory in that those who can afford the price of tickets to Grizzly and Canuck games would spend that disposable income elsewhere?

Is it perhaps what Allan Fotheringham so delicately called municipal masturbation? Is this a self inflicted feel good thing we have going with us. Having a hockey team makes us feel big league – especially basketball because while hockey has lesser cities involved, basketball puts us right up there with Toronto ... I mean really in the big leagues?

If we're truly honest with ourselves don't we have to admit that we're a marginal big league town at best? And shouldn't we admit that it's loss of face that's bothering us more than loss of either team.

I'll tell you what troubles me more than the loss of the hockey and basketball teams is the loss of the Ford Center. Now don't get me wrong - I'm no egghead. I went to a couple of operas last year - by all accounts brilliant performances - and you'll never get me to another. Too damned long and with plots thinner than an old Ma and Pa Kettle show. But I think, down through the ages, cities have become known for how they deal with the arts. And the thought that we will not have such performances as Showboat or Ragtime in that fine, if somewhat loo-less theater ought to be more disturbing. I must admit that I too am bothered about being a minor league sports town again but I think there has been an inevitability about it all for some years. Salaries are out of sight so prices of admission are out of reach. The games don't belong to the people of BC, they belong to the well to do and corporations that can write off much of the cost. The game is not for the kids on the streets of Vancouver who can go to it with Big Brother or Big Sister but to kids whose families live on the right side of the tracks.

It's very hard for the community to rally behind big league sports when the sport does not really belong to or even care about the community.

It will be a shame not to be able to cheer on the Grizzlies or the Canucks - but when you think about it, cheering for them is a little like cheering for US Steel or Microsoft. A grinder … a marginal player is making a million dollars a year … unless he’s playing for the New York Rangers in which case it’s two million. It really is hard for the average member of the community to relate to that … especially when that grinder, if he has a half decent year is off to another team for more money.

If I had one wish for a sugar daddy like, say, Jimmy Pattison it would be not that he save the Canucks or the Grizzlies but save the Ford Theater instead.

Even though the tickets there can be a bit pricy, at least you know that you’ll get an honest nights work … and entertainment … for your buck.