Canucks practice facility might not end up at Britannia after all
Örnsköldsvik, Sweden, has a population of about 35,000. Vancouver has a population of about 775,000.
According to Henrik Sedin, Örnsköldsvik has the same number of ice rinks as Vancouver.
“I’m just comparing to when I grew up in a town of 35,000 people, we had six or seven ice rinks,” said Henrik on the Halford & Brough show. “You could find ice times whenever you needed. And I see that Vancouver has the same amount of ice rinks for this amount of people — it is a problem, for sure.”
With that in mind, the Sedins are eager to help out minor hockey in Vancouver by adding more ice surfaces as they aim to build a practice facility for the Canucks.
“That’s a big goal for us, for this organization,” said Henrik. “We’re working hard to find a solution. I think we’re on a good track, but we’ll see what happens as we go forward.”
That might mean the Canucks won’t be pursuing Britannia as a location for their practice facility.
According to Chek TV’s Rick Dhaliwal, Canucks general manager Ryan Johnson sounded a cautious note on Britannia at a season ticket holder event.
“He said that Britannia may not be a done deal,” said Dhaliwal. “They are keeping their options open, especially to explore adding sheets of ice. The problem with Britannia — the pushback from the community in line with the complexity of being able to add an extra sheet, that’s the problem.”
When the Canucks announced a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the City of Vancouver to build a practice facility at Britannia Ice Rink, it seemed like their more than decade-long search for a practice facility had finally ended.
But when it became clear that the Canucks’ plans for Britannia did not include adding another sheet of ice, there was strong pushback from the community and the minor hockey teams that use the facility.
The Sedins have heard those complaints, and it seems they’re looking to pivot to a practice facility that would add ice time for the community, not take it away.
“We would love to give something back to the community and add rinks,” said Daniel Sedin ahead of the Canucks’ training camp. “That would be a dream of ours as an organization.”
Dhaliwal hinted that the Canucks could be looking to build an entirely new facility on city-owned land.
“The Memorandum of Understanding […] includes exploring other sites,” said Dhaliwal. “They can discuss different sites owned by the city, not just Britannia, so I think a new location is possible.”
In the twenty years the Aquilini family has owned the Canucks, the real estate developers have not built a single new sheet of ice in Vancouver. Once construction on the Calgary Flames’ new arena is complete, the Canucks will be the only NHL team without a practice facility.