Canucks could be out up to $1 million per game at 50% capacity
After 38 days away from home, the Vancouver Canucks took to the ice at Rogers Arena Friday for a home game against the league-leading Florida Panthers.
The return to home ice happened just in time for Robin Delisle, who happened to be in town for a few days.
“While I was here, decided to grab tickets online and go check out the Panthers being that they’re kind of dominating the league right now,” he said.
The Canucks last played at home on Dec. 14 when they beat the Columbus Blue Jackets 4-3.
After that, several games had to be postponed due to a high number of players in COVID-19 protocol, both on the Canucks and their opponents.
For a brief period in December, the National Hockey League shut down all cross-border travel amidst a surge in new cases in Canada and the United States.
And most recently, the league and the Canucks postponed a pair of January games in the hopes of an imminent change to provincial health orders limiting attendance to 50 per cent of capacity.
The restrictions did not change, so the team will play the next several games in a half-empty arena.
Rogers Arena can accommodate 18,910 spectators for hockey — meaning about 9,500 fans were notified their tickets were no longer valid for Friday’s game.
“We had to make some decisions on who could come to the game and our first priority is our season ticket members,” said Michael Doyle, president of business operations for Canucks Sports and Entertainment.
Doyle was reluctant to put a dollar figure on the amount of money the Canucks expect to lose while operating at 50 per cent capacity.
“It’s obviously a significant impact. Not just for the Canucks but also everyone that works at Rogers Arena and for Canucks Sports and Entertainment,” he said.
Sports business analyst Tom Mayenknecht thinks the team could lose several million dollars over the next few weeks.
“Minimum $750K, up to a million dollars per game, especially when you add on concession sales,” he estimated.
But with the restrictions extended past their original mid-January end date, the team did not have the luxury of postponing any more games.
It will push ahead at 50 per cent capacity and hope that the restrictions are lifted as the pandemic situation evolves with the Omicron wave.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
MPP Sarah Jama asked to leave Ontario legislature for wearing keffiyeh
MPP Sarah Jama was asked to leave the Legislative Assembly of Ontario by House Speaker Ted Arnott on Thursday for wearing a keffiyeh, a garment which has been banned at Queen’s Park.
Mountain guide dies after falling into a crevasse in Banff National Park
A man who fell into a crevasse while leading a backcountry ski group deep in the Canadian Rockies has died.
2 teens charged in Halifax homicide: police
Two teenagers have been charged with second-degree murder in connection to an alleged homicide near the Halifax Shopping Centre earlier this week.
'Deep ignorance': Calls for Manitoba trustee to resign sparked after comments about Indigenous people and reconciliation
A rural Manitoba school trustee is facing calls to resign over comments he made about Indigenous people and residential schools earlier this week.
ByteDance prefers TikTok shutdown in U.S. if legal options fail, Reuters sources say
TikTok owner ByteDance would prefer to shut down its loss-making app rather than sell it if the Chinese company exhausts all legal options to fight legislation to ban the platform from app stores in the U.S., four sources said.
12-year-old hippo in Japan raised as a male discovered to be a female
When Gen-chan arrived at a zoo in Japan in 2017, no one questioned whether the then-five-year-old hippopotamus was a boy. Seven years later, zoo staff made a surprising discovery: Gen-chan, now 12, was female.
Here's why Harvey Weinstein's New York rape conviction was tossed and what happens next
Here's what you need to know about why movie mogul Harvey Weinstein's rape conviction was thrown out and what happens next.
Improve balance and build core strength with this exercise
When it comes to cardiovascular fitness, you may tend to focus on activities that move you forward, such as walking, running and cycling.
Legendary hockey broadcaster Bob Cole dies at 90: CBC
Bob Cole, a welcome voice for Canadian hockey fans for a half-century, has died at the age of 90. Cole died Wednesday night in St. John's, N.L., surrounded by his family, his daughter, Megan Cole, told the CBC.