CANUCKS 17TH PRO FRANCHISE TO REACH 300-SELLOUT PLATEAU

Long before Vancouver 2010 made us the bastion of Canadian patriotism and sports pride, the Vancouver Canucks transformed the market into a hotbed for the National Hockey League in particular and professional sport in general.

The makeover from Vancouver’s reputation as a fickle, tough sports market – even a “graveyard” for professional sports teams – into an emerging cradle of successful major and minor league franchises is reflected in the 300th consecutive home game sellout the Canucks will register tomorrow night when they host the Minnesota Wild at General Motors Place.

That the milestone will be reached against the Wild is fitting because the 11-year-old Minnesota franchise is the only NHL team with an active sellout streak that’s longer than the Canucks’ almost eight-year run.

The Canucks have sold out the 299 regular season and playoff games they’ve played at General Motors Place since November 14th, 2002; second only to the Wild, who have packed every one of the 381 official games they’ve played at the Xcel Energy Center in Minneapolis. The Wild have also sold out all 27 of their home pre-season games to boot, for an overall total of 408 sellouts in their expansion history.

Yet having the second-longest active sellout streak in the 30-team NHL is only part of the story for the Canucks, who at around $1.2 million US per game night are knotted with the Philadelphia Flyers as the third most prolific box office in the league behind only the Toronto Maple Leafs ($2.2 million US) and Montreal Canadiens ($1.5 million US).

The Canucks entered the new decade hitting 283 sellouts, which allowed them to leapfrog past the Los Angeles Kings, who sold out 282 consecutive home games in the late eighties and early nineties when Wayne Gretzky ruled the roost at the old Forum in Inglewood.

Not counting the Original Six Maple Leafs and Canadiens -- who are thought to have reached the 300-range twice each before sellout records were logged -- the Canucks’ sellout streak is now the fifth-longest in NHL history behind only the Colorado Avalanche (who sold out 487 consecutive home games at the Pepsi Center between 1995 and 2006), the Detroit Red Wings (452 from 1996 to 2007), the current Wild and the seventies-era Philadelphia Flyers (319).

Vancouver will need more than four playoff-rich seasons to break the all-time NHL mark set by the Avalanche – who visit Tuesday night -- and almost that to surpass the Red Wings. Yet with season tickets renewing last month at a blistering pace of around 95%, the Canucks will overtake the Broad Street Bullies by hitting 320 consecutive sellouts early in the 2010-’11 regular season.

The Canucks are now eighth in active sellout streaks among all major league franchises in North American professional sport and are 17th all-time.

Reaching the 300-sellout plateau puts the Canucks within striking distance of several of the biggest brands in all of professional sport, including the Denver Broncos and Pittsburgh Steelers of the NFL, and iconic U.S. college franchises such as the sellout record-holding Nebraska Cornhuskers of NCAA football (306).

A deep playoff run will see the Canucks pass the Broncos and their 309 sellouts over four decades, but the Steelers – at 317 when they resume play in September -- will take more work. In terms of sellouts, Canuck Nation will overtake Steeler Nation by the 2011 NHL All-Star Weekend.

Given the cyclical nature of sports, it will take something other than a loyal fan base, solid marketing and an entertaining on-ice product for the Canucks to catch all-time sellout leaders such as the NFL’s Green Bay Packers (357), the Boston Red Sox of Major League Baseball (550) and the NBA’s Portland Trailblazers (814).

It will likely take at least one Stanley Cup, the equivalent of which each of those league-leaders won as championship teams to fuel their own remarkable home sellout records. For now, the Canucks have to settle for ranking among the NHL’s top contenders for the Stanley Cup of the hockey business.