The Puck Stops Here

The Aquilini group, headed by Francesco Aquilini has purchased 100% of the Vancouver Canucks pending approval from the NHL. He had earlier become a 50% partner to Orca Bay Sports Entertainment, which was headed by John McCaw. It was announced that he has purchased the other half of the team. Probably this means the end of the Orca jerseys and a new Canuck jersey that actually relates to the Vancouver Canucks. Although numbers were not officially discussed, it is expected that Aquillini paid about $150 million for the final 50% of the Canucks and GM Place. That would put their total value around $300 million. That is a great return on investment for John McCaw.

This shows that the value of a hockey franchise is higher in Canada then it is in most US markets. Recently, the Pittsburgh Penguins sale was announced for $175 million (although this does not include a state of the art arena) and the St Louis Blues were sold for around $150 million. This mirrors the NHL revenues which are strongest in Canda and lagging in many US markets.

Here is the Globe and Mail article on this sale. Usually, I routinely quote TSN articles but I feel the Globe article is much better today.