dupsdell1 wrote:the 1999 game were BC had to beat Sask to rap up first place, that was also the return of Pavel Bure since he left Vancouver, ( all though he did not play that night ) all the attention was on the Canucks , but I do remember when the canucks game was let out ( into the 3rd quarter of the lions game ) they let every one from the canucks come over to the lions game for free , I believe the lions had a crowed of 22,000 and by the time the lions game was over , there was a crowed close to 30,000
Hmmm, I'd forgotten, and still don't actively recall, some of these details. I do recall at least one instance of the Lions comping fans into the building who came over after the Canucks game wrapped but I wouldn't have recalled exactly which one it was. Now that you mention it, the Nov 5/99 return of Pavel (though he didn't play) also happened to fall on the anniversary of his Nov 5/91 NHL debut so I'm sure this only enhanced the media narrative. I would have to correct you on the attendance though — on Nov 5/99 the reported attendance was only 19,378. There was another Ssk visit earlier that year (Thu Aug 26) that drew 21,617; perhaps you're thinking of this other figure?
With several conflicts in the Canucks' early years playing downtown, it got me to wondering if the NBA Grizzlies — with whom the Canucks shared their building for its first six years — weren't also a factor in this. Certainly, it would leave the Canucks with fewer available dates to play in their own building, and would expectedly be a bigger scheduling factor than whether the Lions happened to be playing across the street on the same day, whether or not they ever cared to avoid such conflicts.
I looked into some of this, and since the NBA season starts a little later than NHL, the Grizzlies had even fewer conflicts with the Lions than the Canucks. Only two to be exact, in their entire six seasons in Vancouver.
One was on Sun Nov 21, 1999. This was the date of the Lions' Western Final, its first at home in over a decade; my search through the archives says the Grizzlies also played at home that day against Minnesota, although I couldn't figure if it was also an afternoon start like the Lions or an evening affair. While this might have been a negative in terms of the Lions having to compete for media coverage, I don't think it impacted their gate all that much (the NBA at the time was just coming off a lockout-shortened season and the Grizzlies' attendance plummeted at this point). The NBA game drew under 13k, far from a sellout. The Lions on the other hand, who'd been playing with a lower bowl-only set-up all year including this playoff game, had a near-sellout of 28,238, compared to their 1999 regular season average of only 22,433. This WF crowd was actually larger than current lower bowl capacity of ~27,100; at the time it was approx 29,706 with the old, smaller blue seats.
The only other Lions-Grizzlies conflict occurred for the Lions' final game of 2000 on Sat Nov 4, which turned out to be, and was heavily promoted as, Lui Passaglia's final regular season game (both at home and overall). I have no firsthand recollection of what I'm about to describe, but from my searching, it turns out that on the very same day, the Grizzlies also happened to be hosting the defending NBA champion LA Lakers; this was their Shaq/Kobe era and they would go on to win another crown that season.
Like I said, I don't recall any of it firsthand since I'm not a basketball fan, but I have to believe that this NBA happenstance ate into the media attention that Lui and the Lions would have otherwise received in the run-up to their game. However, it once again seemed to have little effect on the Lions' gate. The Grizzlies game drew over 18k but it was a 12:30pm start. So it was long over by the time the Lions kicked off (7 or 7:30pm) across the street and drew 33,232, well above the 21,503 average of their other home games in 2000. Even if the Grizzlies had never existed, I don't know if they could have drawn any better than this, given the local climate around the CFL/Lions at the time. It was the first 30k+ crowd of the post-Comrie era and there wouldn't be another until the 2004 finale on Sat Oct 30 in which BC beat Ssk at home before 32,402 to deny the Riders a home playoff game that year.
Anyway my main point is, Canuck-Lion conflicts were more common in those years when the Canucks shared their building with the Grizzlies and less so now since they moved to Memphis. Incidentally I just discovered from looking all this up, that Michael Heisley, the Grizzlies owner who moved them out of Vancouver, died earlier this year at age 77, although he'd sold the team two years before this.
Sports can be a peculiar thing. When partaking in fiction, like a book or movie, we adopt a "Willing Suspension of Disbelief" for enjoyment's sake. There's a similar force at work in sports: "Willing Suspension of Rationality". If you doubt this, listen to any conversation between rival team fans. You even see it among fans of the same team. Fans argue over who's the better QB or goalie, and selectively cite stats that support their views while ignoring those that don't.
