Vancouver's Olympic city brand takes a hit

Vancouver saw the worst of two worlds collide Wednesday night - the heart-breaking disappointment of Stanley Cup defeat and, worse, the stinging embarassment of public disorder gone wild.

On the ice, the NHL's Vancouver Canucks were shut out 4-0 by Tim Thomas and the Bruins, giving Boston its first Stanley Cup championship in 39 years and denying the Canucks franchise their first in 40 seasons and 41 years.

That in and of itself is disappointing to Canucks fans and the team's corporate, broadcast and merchandising partners, and the many other businesses who rise and fall with the NHL team, let alone the very brand equity of the franchise that had been building at an impressive rate this anniversary season.

Yet disappointment around the Canucks missing a golden opportunity to win the 2011 Stanley Cup paled in comparison to the disappointment – the utter embarrassment – the City of Vancouver suffered off the ice in the aftermath of Game 7.

In three hours of rioting, vandalism, looting and violence, Vancouver saw its global brand – one so elevated by the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games – badly diminished. The tremendous global goodwill and image generated by Vancouver 2010, almost all but gone. The local economic impact of two months of Stanley Cup playoff hockey – arguably north of $45 million – fully erased by the negative exposure the city received across Canada, throughout North America and around the world.

The few million dollars in damage and costs directly associated with Wednesday night are mere water drops when juxtaposed against the wave of damage done to the city’s reputation nationally, continentally and globally.

The ugly side of the public celebrations that made Vancouver such a fun place to be for a Stanley Cup spring have undoubtedly bruised the city’s civic pride.

Yet it is that same ugly side -- both the criminals who may have triggered the riots and the other disaffected, angry young people who elevated and sustained the disorder -- which cannot be allowed to shape the future of the city in particular and the region and province in general.

Many are concerned about the public plazas that seemed to anchor the post-game stupidity, but in my view the best defense against hooliganism is to continue building civic pride through public celebration, not reducing it out of fear.

Protecting the city’s capacity to stage big events and hold public celebrations began with those who rose on Thursday to help clean the streets of downtown Vancouver and it is something we should stand behind. The follow through to protect future public events -- Stanley Cup-related and others -- will require smart security measures, inspired public policies and leadership, and creative public-private partnerships, not to mention more of the spirit and community caring shown Thursday morning and into the weekend.

It will also require more of us to embrace sport as an essential element in the fabric of any community and in society at large...belief that the infrastructure of professional sport creates value for a community, ranging from the tangibles of jobs and economic impact to the intangibles of continental and global name recognition and, closer to home, civic pride.

First and foremost, civic pride contributes to our sense of identity. The privilege of gathering to celebrate and share as a community is worth protecting because it’s in large part how we are defined as a civil society. It’s how we feel at home in our community and it’s how most of us best express the pride we take in living in Vancouver and in being Canadian.

It would be senseless to compromise that civic pride and it would be wrongheaded not to continue to leverage the many positives that spin off of professional sport by making the most of hosting opportunities such as the Stanley Cup, the Grey Cup and other special events. 

Losing that would be the biggest cost of all.

www.TheSportMarket.biz
The Sport Market on TEAM 1040 and teamradio.ca
Saturdays 9 a.m. to 12 noon PT
Facebook.com/TheSportMarket and Twitter.com/TheSportMarket  

Improbable Stanley Cup playoff run allows Montreal Canadiens' centennial to resonate

If I've said it once, I've said it a thousand times: the most important part of the business of sport is the business of winning. It's certainly the most persuasive part.

Winning is the best marketing. It's all about substance and cliches such as walking the walk and talking the talk. If business success in sport is one part product and one part marketing, the product is by far the bigger part.

That's why those who make the Montreal Canadiens the best-marketed franchise in Canada and arguably the best in the National Hockey League can thank their player roster for validating the 100th anniversary festivities in which the oldest hockey club in the world has invested so much of their resources and our attention.

This year's unexpected playoff run -- to the fifth game of the National Hockey League's eastern conference finals -- has given substance to the centennial celebrations that have become the club's staple industry the past 18 months; if not the past five years.

No amount of clever marketing can replace the inspirational impact of winning on the ice.

In this case, the Montreal Canadiens have done everything imaginable to mark the 100-year milestone with a sense of thoughtfulness, history and class: by retiring a series of sweater numbers in the five years leading to the 2008-'09 centennial; using last year to showcase and market a cross-section of the club's retro jerseys dating back to their first game in 1909; producing a 100th anniversary DVD; and culminating everything with the actual anniversary game in November of 2009, which was an unprecedented presentation of pomp and circumstance in Canadian -- if not North American -- sport.

Yet the 2008-'09 centennial season missed one important piece: a winning season...a bridge to that long and storied history... a sense of connection to the lineage represented best by Maurice Richard, Jean Beliveau and Guy Lafleur...and of course the illustrious tradition of 24 Stanley Cups.

After finishing first in the eastern conference and reaching the second round of the 2008 Stanley Cup playoffs (before losing to the same Philadelphia Flyers), the Habs faltered badly during the Centennial season, finishing eighth and enduring the embarassment of a four-game sweep at the hands of their arch rivals, the Boston Bruins, in the first round. The very glory years that were being celebrated in 2008-'09 seemed so long ago.

These past two months in 2010, however, the players and the team ignited what the entire Centennial was designed to provide; pride of association, memories of yesteryear and what it felt like to be in the hunt for the trophy Canadian sports fans cherish most.

It's been 17 years since the Canadiens last reached the Stanley Cup finals and won. It could be another 17 years or more before they do so again. But Montreal's run in what Stanley Cup-winning head coach Mike Babcock calls a "marathon of hope" was a final touch this year to the 100th anniversary celebrations that was better than anyone in their front office could have scripted.

It has not only given the organization and its fans a sense of hope and optimism but a restored sense of identity for a team that, for the first time in its great history, has gone this long between championships.

www.TheSportMarket.biz
The Sport Market on TEAM 1040 and teamradio.ca
Saturdays 9 a.m. to 12 noon PT
Facebook.com/TheSportMarket and Twitter.com/TheSportMarket