Episode 7

Soul of a Nation

Feature Stories

Vancouver Goes From 'Bush' To Big-Time

When the NHL announced in February 1966 that six new teams would be added to the league, many hockey fans in Vancouver saw it as their big chance to get back to the big leagues.

Home to a strong tradition of professional hockey dating back to the 1915 Stanley Cup champion Vancouver Millionaires, led by the legendary Frank Patrick and Cyclone Taylor, Vancouver seemed a wise choice for a new pro team. But when the NHL announced it was awarding new franchises to Los Angeles, the San Francisco Bay Area, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, St. Louis and Minneapolis-St. Paul, Canada's third-largest city was left in the cold.

Many in Vancouver reacted angrily, accusing NHL president Clarence Campbell of conspiring with Maple Leafs owner Stafford Smythe and Canadiens owner J. David Molson to ensure Toronto and Montreal remained Canada's only NHL cities. The league, though, had a legitimate motive for naming an all-American expansion class - with the Original Six teams playing to 95 per cent capacity at their arenas, a U.S. network television contract was seen as the NHL's next great revenue frontier.

Of course, there was more to the story.

In August 1964, almost two years before the NHL announced its expansion plans, Smythe came to Vancouver with a proposal. In exchange for a $2.5 million parcel of prime downtown property, Smythe would build, own and operate an $8 million, 20,000-seat arena. And the deal came with a kicker - Smythe promised to use his position on the NHL's board of governors to get Vancouver an NHL franchise.

As Campbell warned Vancouver that a new rink, despite being a precondition for expansion, would not guarantee a team, Smythe's proposal was put to a referendum in December 1964. Needing a 60 per cent majority to pass, the deal got the approval of less than 43 per cent of voters.

Outraged, the Toronto owner left Vancouver in a huff, calling it "a bush town" and vowing the city would never get an NHL team on his watch.

After Vancouver failed to make the NHL's expansion list in 1966, Campbell said the city had "fumbled the ball" and "was never in it." He explained that the league wanted only two teams on the West Coast, and that Los Angeles and the Bay Area were chosen based on their population, major-league background and TV market opportunities.

Along with Smythe and Molson, the NHL president ripped the proposed Vancouver ownership group for containing too many owners with too small a stake in the franchise. Curiously, though, the Pittsburgh group contained thirty-one partners, all of whom controlled less than five per cent of the team.

Campbell also sent conflicting signals by saying before the expansion announcement that no city would be admitted without an arena that seated at least 12,500, and then proceeding to award teams to three cities - Philadelphia, Los Angeles and Minneapolis-St. Paul – that didn't meet that standard.

Adding to the intrigue was a Vancouver Sun story that quoted Molson and New York Rangers owner Bill Jennings as saying the proposed sale of the Western Hockey League's Vancouver Canucks to a group that included broadcaster Foster Hewitt – not the ownership group favoured by the NHL- may have led to Vancouver being denied a franchise.

A few years later, Vancouver got another crack at an NHL expansion team. Typically, things went less than smoothly.

Vancouver appeared to be a lock to receive an NHL team when the league announced in 1969 that Vancouver and Buffalo would begin play in the 1970-71 season. However, the Vancouver ownership group quickly balked at the NHL's $6 million US expansion fee.

With the team in jeopardy of collapsing before it played a game, Molson, Jennings and Minnesota North Stars president Walter Bush reached out to a Minnesota investment company for financing. The firm ponied up $2.85 million US to buy both the Rochester Americans of the American Hockey League and the WHL's Canucks, the latter which they would turn into an NHL team.

Following a successful citizen protest that convinced the American interests to keep the team's nickname, the Vancouver Canucks played their first NHL game on October 9th, 1970, falling 3-1 to the Los Angeles Kings.

NHL Expansion, Hockey Hall Of Fame