{"id":42454,"date":"2026-05-12T20:26:34","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T20:26:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/42454\/"},"modified":"2026-05-12T20:26:34","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T20:26:34","slug":"sources-former-vancouver-canucks-and-grizzlies-owner-arthur-griffiths-has-whitecaps-interest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/42454\/","title":{"rendered":"Sources: Former Vancouver Canucks and Grizzlies owner Arthur Griffiths has Whitecaps interest"},"content":{"rendered":"

Get the best of Vancouver in your inbox, every Tuesday and Thursday.\u00a0Sign up for our free newsletter<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In all the turmoil surrounding the Vancouver Whitecaps, one thing is clear. As Bonnie Tyler famously wrote<\/a> (though millennials and Gen Z now attribute the song to Shrek 2), the soccer team needs a hero.\u00a0<\/p>\n

With rumours swirling that the team is set to move to Las Vegas unless a local ownership group steps up to buy the team amidst a huge valuation increase, many consider the MLS franchise as good as gone.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But there\u2019s still hope to be found.<\/p>\n

For one, a reported discussion<\/a> happening Wednesday among parties like FIFA vice president Victor Montagliani (who was born and raised in East Vancouver), MLS, the Whitecaps, BC Place, and three Indigenous Nations is a positive development.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That is promising, but it would still likely need an owner or a group of owners to make any sort of MOU agreement with BC Place work.\u00a0<\/p>\n

There was also Minister of Jobs and Economic Growth Ravi Kahlon\u2019s recent statement<\/a> that a local party has interest, though the identity of that group hasn\u2019t been confirmed yet.<\/p>\n

The Straight has heard from multiple sources that asked not to be identified that former Canucks and Grizzlies owner Arthur Griffiths has interest in being part of the next ownership group of the Whitecaps.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not yet known if Griffiths is part of the group Kahlon referenced, though a source did indicate that. It\u2019s also not known whether Griffiths could potentially pull this off.<\/p>\n

One source said that while they had heard that Griffiths was interested, they didn\u2019t know where the money would come from. Another said that Griffiths is working with an international group.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The former Canucks and Grizzlies owner sold both teams and what was then GM Place to John McCaw in 1997, mostly due to a weak Canadian dollar. When there were calls for Griffiths to buy the Canucks from the Aquilini Group in the mid-2010s, Griffiths told Business in Vancouver<\/a>, \u201cI sold at an all-time low price, so to buy the team back at an all-time high? I don’t think I could be counted as too bright if I did that.\u201d<\/p>\n

He has been involved in local sports since\u2014he spent some time as chair for the successful 2010 Vancouver\/Whistler Olympics bid and has made multiple appearances on Vancouver sports radio, including a recent one on Donnie and Dhali<\/a> that touched on the importance of keeping the Whitecaps in town.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It was recently reported<\/a> that Griffiths had to pay $30,000 to the BC Securities Commission for security violations relating to a cannabis company he was in charge of.<\/p>\n

Griffiths did not respond to requests for comment.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Get the best of Vancouver in your inbox, every Tuesday and Thursday.\u00a0Sign up for our free newsletter. In…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":42455,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[415,17,412,413,418,407,414,420,416,423,226,389,419,422,421,417,95],"class_list":{"0":"post-42454","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-vancouver","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-city","11":"tag-culture","12":"tag-dining","13":"tag-entertainment","14":"tag-events","15":"tag-fashion","16":"tag-film","17":"tag-food","18":"tag-lifestyle","19":"tag-music","20":"tag-nightlife","21":"tag-restaurants","22":"tag-shopping","23":"tag-tv","24":"tag-vancouver"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42454","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42454"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42454\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42455"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42454"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42454"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42454"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}