Despite Vancouverites having to wait nine years for a home playoff game, no official outdoor viewing parties were held in Vancouver for either Game 1 or Game 2.
On Thursday, Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim finally gave some concrete answers as to why.
“We have to be incredibly responsible and thoughtful. We have a history of 1994 and 2011,” Sim told reporters at a press conference.
“I would love to throw a party right now, but we have to be responsible.”
Sim said city staff and council are taking into account public safety reports, like Douglas J. Keefe and John Furlong’s The Night the City Became a Stadium, as to why the city is not hosting any official watch parties.
“When you look at that report, you could have doubled the number of police officers (at the 2011 riot) and it wouldn’t have made a difference,” Sim said.
“We are being thoughtful. … While having a party is great, we also have (to think about) local businesses (and) personal safety for all of the people there.”
Sim was asked his thoughts on having no watch parties, despite running his campaign on rebranding Vancouver and moving away from the notorious “No fun city” nickname.
“I don’t think you can just say, ‘Hey look, we want to have a party and let’s have fun,’ and not listen to the experts and the people who have history,” Sim said.
“I think we have the best police service on the planet, and a lot of the leadership members were there in 2011 on the front lines. I think it would be incredibly irresponsible to discount.”
While Vancouver had no watch parties, the City of Delta and the City of Port Coquitlam did.
Port Coquitlam Mayor Brad West was more than happy for the city to host a watch party for the community.
“It’s a great way to bring the community together and when you experience a sporting event with other people, it just adds a little something extra to it,” West said at the party.
“I hope we get to do this a bunch as the Canucks go further — we are going to ramp this up bigger and bigger.”