The Ryan Beedie Canucks Saga
After battling in court with Francesco Aquilini over ownership of the Vancouver Canucks, Ryan Beedie shares lessons learned.
Ryan Beedie has had little to say about the court fight for control of the Vancouver Canucks. When it came to talking to the media during that episode of his life, he left that to his partner Tom Gaglardi.
The pair sued Francesco Aquilini, claiming he had violated a partnership agreement the three had to buy the team. After originally being involved with Beedie and Gaglardi, Aquilini stepped away and ended up striking his own deal with then-team-owner John McCaw.
The original Supreme Court of B.C. trial lasted months. When Gaglardi and Beedie lost, they appealed to the B.C. Court of Appeal and failed there too in February 2009. Gaglardi is now reportedly close to buying the Dallas Stars. Beedie has no involvement in that bid.
“I think I came out of the whole thing a stronger person,” Beedie says today. “It was not fun, though. Being on the stand for six or seven days being grilled – it took me out of my comfort zone, that’s for sure.”
When asked what, if anything, he learned from the entire affair, Beedie says, “Keep the middleman happy.” In this case the middleman was Stan McCammon, who was the president and CEO of the Canucks and McCaw’s chief lieutenant. It was McCammon who was negotiating with Gaglardi and Beedie originally before he ended talks to strike a deal with Aquilini.
“Stan McCammon is the untold story,” says Beedie. “It all came down to ensuring the one person who really had a vested interest in the outcome was looked after. And I don’t mean that in an inappropriate way. But if you’re going to buy a company, the president might be worried about what this means for him. If we had done a better job of securing Stan’s future, everything might have worked out fine.”
At the time, rumour had it that Beedie and Gaglardi planned to bring Brian Burke back as team president if they got control of the team.
Today, Beedie describes his relationship with Aquilini as cordial. “I chose not to view people negatively. It’s not good to have negative energy build up. It’s over. It’s finished. It’s in the past.”
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