Canucks Give Media the Shaft

by Jes

While my girlfriend was sifting through this morning's edition of The Vancouver Sun, she came across a small item posted by Brad Ziemer in his Canucks roundup. While it got very little space in the paper, the ramifications seem to me that it would justify more attention.

SUITE SURRENDER: In a continuing effort to squeeze every possible drop of revenue out of General Motors Place, the Canuck owners are apparently seriously considering a plan to turn the press box area into -- you guessed it -- corporate suites.

And where would reporters watch the games? Well, we'd be up, way up, in the rafters. No word if they're going to start charging us admission.

Other changes may also be coming. Canucks president Chris Zimmerman, chief operating officer Victor De Bonis and Harvey Jones, vice president and general manager of arena operations, spent part of the past week touring select NHL arenas searching for new ideas for GM Place. Their stops included the Bell Centre in Montreal, the Air Canada Centre in Toronto and Nationwide Arena in Columbus.

Now, I have been to the press box at GM Place, and it is a very good place to watch a game. The boxes are almost directly over the ice, and it gives anyone a great perspective of the scope of the action all over the ice.

Now, you move the media into the rafters with the rest of the commoners, and you expect the writers to have a good perspective of the game? I have been in the worst seats GM Place has to offer, and it would be very hard to give a good report of the game from there. Yes, they aren't 'terrible' places to watch a game, but not the kind of spot you'd want to be if you are trying to report on the game's action.

I suppose the role of the media has more to do with storytelling than game recaps and play-by-play recounts, but this seems to me like another move by the Canucks to screw over the media. From their disdain of bloggers (the official bloggers for the Canucks are nothing more than dronic shills), to their strong-arming of radio stations, to this ... it all reeks of arrogance AND greed.

For once, I'm on the media's side. The media does a real service to the Canucks, and it's in the team's best interest not to bite the hand that feeds them free coverage. Keep this up, and soon the reporters will be not inclined to give the Canucks positive press, or be inclined to tone down their coverage entirely.