The Written Word
for March 28, 2001

I must say that the City of Vancouver – indeed the whole province of B.C. – is taking the loss of the Grizzlies very well. It’s almost "Memphis’ loss is Vancouver’s gain". This no doubt has a lot to do with the fact that Vancouver has never been much of a basketball town. Many people go through school without ever seeing much less playing a game. Moreover, for some reason we just don’t grow people 7’ tall and bigger.

Vancouver has always been a football and hockey town but in terms of hockey is now much more so than when I was a kid because there are so many artificial ice surfaces. When I was growing up there was one – the old Forum at Hastings Park. (The second, Kerrisdale Arena, was built when I was at University.) When I was a kid, Vancouver College used to fill the old Athletic Park for their games with Washington and Hawaii high schools and Junior Football – the old Big Four – always drew big crowds.

But I think the problem with the Grizzlies went deeper. From the outset, it didn’t seem like Vancouver’s team. It isn’t just because they were all Americans – we’ve always had lots of them on our football teams – but more just that they didn’t seem to make any effort to be part of our community.

The huge salary to Bryant "Big Country" Reeves didn’t help either. I don’t think it was the salary so much as that it was being paid to a guy who showed up at training camp 50 pounds overweight and none of him ever seemed to show up at game time. He sort of typified the team – slovenly and lazy. The only player who generated any excitement was Blue Edwards and he only did because of the lovely salacious facts that came out of his child maintenance case.

And it didn’t help that from the outset management didn’t seem to care, an indifference that only increased when the new owner clearly bought the team just to flip it.

Moreover, you don’t have to have an NBA basketball team to be world class. When Vancouver was again voted the best city in the world none of the reasons had anything to do with basketball.

I think there is something we should be alarmed about, though. The Ford Theater. Ever since Garth Drabinsky went south with the dough – or whatever happened - we have been deprived of an excellent theater. When I say that, I recognize that as a building it has its failings not the least of which is insufficient toilets. But there were some super shows that came to the theater.

It may be that with the lovely old Orpheum and the still serviceable Queen Elizabeth Theater we have sufficient capacity but I don’t think so. I believe there is an element of "build it and they will come" involved here.

If there is a sugar daddy around – and Jimmy Pattison always comes to mind – forget the Grizzlies and let’s buy, rehabilitate and re-energize the Ford Theater.