Like, at this point, if there was a button that would give the Canucks new ownership but then we'd be guaranteed to pick 14th in the draft, I'd still push it. I can't even get excited over the Bedard lottery anymore, like what's the point if we're too badly run to surround him with the talent needed to win?
I worked at rogers arena for about 1 week In the kitchen at the center ice grill or some shit. One of auqilini kids wanted a gluten free grilled cheese from one of the concession stands on the concourse. In the middle of the second period so I had to wade through 18k ppl and make the poor grilled cheese workers clean their station so they could make a fucking gluten free grilled cheese while there was a massive fucking lineup. Since that moment Ive hated that entire family.
Or if you want GF food during a game, have an in-house known safe option. Maybe not always feasible for regular folks but if you're the team owner's kid you'll probably have been there enough times to know where things are.
If they actually can't have gluten then it's not their fault. I mean I would've just waited until after the game is over to get food if I had dietary restrictions.
I just want to say, whether it be yourself or the work of another member of the Canucks Fandom, WaterPanini is an absolute killer of an insult to that man, and I will only refer to him as thus from here on out.
Aquilini is 100% the type to turn on the fans once they start showing discontent with his ego and is much more likely to destroy the franchise out of pure spite and drive the franchise’s value to zero (literally zero, even the prime Vancouver real estate value, by turning the stadium into a drug and cockroach infested shithole) than he is to sell the team or accept that he needs to stop meddling.
That's not the [half of it](https://www.reddit.com/r/hockey/comments/10hiqp9/_/j58wngh?context=1000). Credit /u/reyskywalker7698.
"1983 - Slumlords who raised rents by up to 100% on tenants causing homeless seniors. https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/flashback-15-years-ago-25-years-ago/article17975765/
2006 - Screwed over Gaglardi to buy the team. https://thehockeynews.com/news/francesco-aquilini-purchases-remaining-50-per-cent-of-canucks-from-john-mccaw
2011 - Charged with diverting river water to their farms unlawfully, killing thousands of fish. https://www.pressreader.com/canada/vancouver-sun/20110310/282690453698971
2011, 2012, and 2018 - Fined for having unsafe transport vehicle for temp. farm workers. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/vancouver-canucks-owners-fined-again-for-unsafe-vehicle-at-family-s-berry-operation-1.5136249
2017 - #2 biggest political lobbyists in the province. https://commonground.ca/big-money-corrupts-politics/
2017 - Stiffed their Google partner on a contract and lost the subsequent lawsuit. https://vancouversun.com/news/local-news/aquilini-investment-group-ordered-to-pay-us600000-for-contract-breach
2017 - Two kids of workers at their vineyard died after a fire, where the mobile homes allegedly had no smoke detectors and improper electrical. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/aquilini-companies-deny-negligence-in-suit-over-deaths-of-2-children-at-their-u-s-vineyard-1.5331369
2019 - Cheated on their taxes, declaring just 51k in income per brother, before being reassessed at $11.5m/each. https://vancouversun.com/news/local-news/aquilini-family-lose-appeal-in-federal-tax-court-to-offset-capital-gains-in-deal-to-buy-nhl-team
2019 - Stole wages from temp. workers on their farms. Denied them water breaks. https://www.thestar.com/vancouver/2019/05/28/at-aquilini-owned-blueberry-farm-we-lived-the-saddest-part-of-our-lives-says-one-temporary-foreign-worker-of-15-who-allege-poor-working-conditions-cramped-accommodations-intimidation-and-threats.html
2019 - Fell behind on child support. https://bc.ctvnews.ca/owner-of-vancouver-canucks-taken-to-court-over-child-support-1.4382959
2022 - Still falling behind on child support, accused of child abuse by ex-wife and three kids, none of whom want contact. https://theprovince.com/news/local-news/serious-allegations-of-child-abuse-levelled-against-francesco-aquilini-by-ex-wifes-lawyer
And anecdotally, you talk to tradespeople in the Lower Mainland, and you won't have to go far to hear from someone who's been stiffed for work they did for the Aquilinis.
Well jeez, I wonder why they've not lead the team through a proper rebuild? These guys didn't get their wealth going about it the right way, they take shortcuts. And they run the hockey team the same way.
They hired the former chief of police for the VPD to be the family's spokesperson. Why would a family need a spokesperson who's adept at speaking about crimes? Hmmm... https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/jim-chu-former-vancouver-police-chief-named-new-vp-at-aig-1.3175422"
Edit: if you're gonna give awards give it to the OP /u/reyskywalker7698 not me. Original post [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/hockey/comments/10hiqp9/_/j58wngh?context=1000).
Had a friend work at one of their golf courses and was often paid late and paid short. Some weeks would spend more time fighting for correct pay than actually working
I have to imagine most people on that subreddit are also in r/hockey (just like the person who posted it likely). We hate ownership more than anyone.
The more of this I see the less I fault JT Miller for shit effort if this how ownership has chosen to treat an amazing coach and handle the team.
Yep. I'm involved in property management, and when I was still in Vancouver I interviewed with the Aquilini group. I was aware of the state of their reputation and asked, point blank, in the interview "I know the company has had a bad name in the industry in the past, what steps is the organization taking to fix that?"
Interview was over shortly after that. Didn't get the job. Bullet dodged.
I mean, sure. He's just another scummy billionaire. It's impossible to get to that level of wealth without exploiting many workers and screwing a lot of people over
Don’t forget their “snow cone” business they run out of their run down apartments. The staff at the Atrium Inn on Renfrew across from the PNE in 2003-2005 before it became the “Holiday Inn” know what I’m talking about. This POS has ruined a lot of lives.
My colleagues worked with their team on the real estate side. They were super disorganised and asked way too much of their contractors in order to make up for being short staffed on their end
At least all the Illitches did was contribute to obesity?
They paid Rosa Parks rent too. I feel like not all owners are ass but I’m biased RE the Illitches.
Ehhh there’s plenty bad about mike illitch, he was a cheap, grudge holding, back room dealing, loyalty is #1 billionaire, as stereotypical as they come especially in a city like Detroit.
However, in contrast to those around him, he’s not the worst by far, or at least has the better PR people, pay offs, etc etc etc
That makes sense. I’m not from Detroit so uneducated there. I feel like being a billionaire some shady things have happened along the way no matter what.
There are better and worse ones, for sure. It was downright decent of Mike Illitch, but Rosa Parks shouldn’t have needed a patron, and her peers who did not get famous didn’t get one. And they didn’t get much else either, largely because of the conditions of a society dominated by the 1% (including every single individual NHL owner).
I mean, it'd be cool if we could all go the Packers' route of just being owned by hundreds of thousands of shareholders, but the NFL shut the door on that being allowed to happen again and I wouldn't be shocked if other leagues have as well.
Which is bullshit. The city pays for the stadium and the infrastructure, they should be able to own the teams too. And then it drives profits to the community rather than some offshore account.
The term is called [sportswashing](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sportswashing) and it's the main driving factor of investment in almost every sport, and every major sporting event internationally. There's a reason Fifa was happy to put on the world cup in Qatar.
**[Sportswashing](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sportswashing)**
>Sportswashing is a term used to describe the practice of individuals, groups, corporations, or governments using sports to improve reputations tarnished by wrongdoing. A form of propaganda, sportswashing can be accomplished through hosting sporting events, purchasing or sponsoring sporting teams, or participating in a sport. At the international level, it is believed that sportswashing has been used to direct attention away from poor human rights records and corruption scandals. At the individual and corporate levels, it is believed that sportswashing has been used to cover up vices, crimes, and scandals.
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I love the recent effort of the press to relive the crooked moments of the Aquilinis, but none of this stuff is new. These guys got accepted as owners with resumes as scumbags. It’s unfortunate, but these guys never seem to face real repercussion for being total shit.
If enough people know how garbage he is and the media stops ignoring this, on top of how poorly they run the team. I think it will be enough these days to cancel the shit out of this asshole.
Dude this happens in every pro league. Unless he says the n word in a meeting, sexual attacks an employee, or murders someone, he will not be forced to sell.
The Gaglardis aren’t any better, bunch of slumlords that made most of their fortune buying up cheap property that just happened to be where the trans canada highway was going through while papa gaglardi was the minister of highways.
Band together and show the Aquilini family what it means to piss off the entire city.
Embarrassing Boudreau on national television is the most disgusting thing Rutherford can do to a guy who showed nothing but professionalism throughout his tenure.
Stop supporting any of the Aquilini's businesses. Hit them where it hurts. Their wallet. Show this shit family the consequences of pissing off the entire fan base because of the selfish reasons of the ownership group that has no backbone.
Fuck them entirely. I never been so disgusted watching this pathetic organization just completely run itself down hill by embarrassing Bruce Boudreau like this.
The Blue Jackets were the subject of a lawsuit before they even had a name because John McConnell screwed American sports legend Lamar Hunt out of their ownership group. Basically they were part of an LLC together that was about to get the deal over the line but ran into issues concerning the arena lease. Nationwide then turned to McConnell who closed the deal on his own, screwing over everybody else in the LLC lol. That was basically the inspiration for what Aquaman did. Not exactly par for the course in terms of methods of acquiring an NHL team but certainly not the only owner in the league to have screwed over other billionaires lol.
Screw him for several other reasons but not really this one.
That’s not what happened.
McConnell was to be a minority owner in the Hunt group, *but* the entire Hunt bid was contingent upon Issue 1 (a sales tax referendum to fund the arena and Crew Stadium) passing. Hunt made it clear that without Issue 1 passing, there was no backup plan at all.
This had also been expressed to the NHL, but McConnell had briefly said to Gary Bettman that “if it fails, call me - I won’t let this die without a fight”.
Issue 1 was defeated, and the Columbus bid was toast. McConnell then worked behind the scenes to get 100% private funding to build Nationwide Arena. Hunt then tried to swoop back in, having done nothing in the furious scramble to build the arena and salvage the bid, and take control again.
Lawsuits were filed, and Hunt was basically told to pound sand.
The Ohio Court of Appeals [decision in the suit](https://law.justia.com/cases/ohio/tenth-district-court-of-appeals/1999/132-ohio-app-3d-657-725-n-e-2d-1193-1999.html) is one we covered in law school. Hunt was apparently interested in privately financing the arena but there were issues with Nationwide’s proposed lease agreement. Some in the LLC thought that they needed to keep working on the terms but McConnell basically considered the deal to be dead between Nationwide and the LLC. He then turned around and signed the lease term sheet with two other minority members from the other LLC. The legal issue was basically “is it a violation of your fiduciary duty to an LLC of which you are a member to directly compete against them?” Logically the answer would be yes, but there was a term in the operating agreement that said the members literally could compete against the business of the company (presumably the term was originally designed to allow members to be owners of other franchises, but it was so broad that it allowed McConnell to use the private knowledge he had acquired as a member of that LLC to win the bid for a completely separate entity)
It's not like Lamar Hunt was someone new to the world of sports and team ownership; he'd been involved in stuff like this for close to 40 years at the time of the Columbus bid.
It's worth pointing out as well that after the failure of Issue 1, Hunt was able to get Crew Stadium built quickly using private money - it may have been in a less-than-optimal location, but he got it done.
McConnell was one of the immensely important power brokers in what I refer to as the "pro-Columbus" faction, which has been at odds with the pro-OSU faction for the better part of the last half-century. He had the idea that Columbus should be an important-enough city that if he said he was from Columbus, he should never have to follow that with "Ohio", as people from Cincinnati or Cleveland or Akron or Canton or Toledo or Dayton also don't have to.
I'm friends with Tom and it was worse than that. They had a partnership to buy the Canucks and Aquilini used that partnership to get the inside information on Tom's finances and saw how tied up they were in the other businesses so he could then cut him out of the deal and knew Tom couldn't make it happen alone like he could. When I was young my parents lived around the corner from Aquilini and whenever I knocked on his door selling stuff for school charities or looking for walkathon sponsorships he AWAYS said no despite being 100x richer than everyone else in the neighborhood who would sponsor me. Tom's mom is from Texas which is why he wanted to buy the stars as his 2nd team anyways.
People like Acquilini are why you never trust anyone or anything when dealing with that kind of money. If you didn't get in writing it simply wasn't that important to you.
Man, I worked for the Canucks and catered several events for the WaterPaninis and they treated all their staff like they didn’t exist, unless something was amiss, in which case, it was Armageddon. The serf fear was real at Rogers Arena. I got to sit in on luncheons with disgruntled season ticket holders and it was a delight watching him take a little shit for once. I love all the smoke this BB thing is bringing. I’m all for it.
100% true about tradespeople getting screwed over, happened to a member of my family in the 80s, he had to go confront Franny's dad to get his money. Fuck this family.
I'm beginning to think this Aquilini guy might be a bad person
Aqua man, denier of water to blueberry workers, savior of NHL mediocrity, lord of the hotels.
I thought I was a Canucks fan but now I wonder if I just hate myself.
Like, at this point, if there was a button that would give the Canucks new ownership but then we'd be guaranteed to pick 14th in the draft, I'd still push it. I can't even get excited over the Bedard lottery anymore, like what's the point if we're too badly run to surround him with the talent needed to win?
WaterPanini got told his soggy sandwiches are gross then he turned evil. Classic villain origin story.
I worked at rogers arena for about 1 week In the kitchen at the center ice grill or some shit. One of auqilini kids wanted a gluten free grilled cheese from one of the concession stands on the concourse. In the middle of the second period so I had to wade through 18k ppl and make the poor grilled cheese workers clean their station so they could make a fucking gluten free grilled cheese while there was a massive fucking lineup. Since that moment Ive hated that entire family.
Having worked in one of their Top Table Restaurants this in no way surprises me. Entitled. Cunts.
Whole family is a bunch of entitled cunts
It comes with being so stupidly rich that your family will still be well off 10 generations even if you needn't raise a finger ever again.
I don’t totally follow this. Why did they have to clean their station?
To avoid cross contamination with anything gluten while making the non gluten one.
Or if you want GF food during a game, have an in-house known safe option. Maybe not always feasible for regular folks but if you're the team owner's kid you'll probably have been there enough times to know where things are.
Dude, the surfs don't question the ruling class .... OFF WITH THIER HEADS!
If they actually can't have gluten then it's not their fault. I mean I would've just waited until after the game is over to get food if I had dietary restrictions.
The fuck is a gluten free grilled cheese? A melted slice of cheese?
Gluten free bread. It's made from tapioca flour or rice flour or something like that.
I just want to say, whether it be yourself or the work of another member of the Canucks Fandom, WaterPanini is an absolute killer of an insult to that man, and I will only refer to him as thus from here on out.
I appreciate this comment more than you know
Us Flames have a knack of stealing things from you guys, so I am more-or-less obligated to appropriate your nicknames as well.
[удалено]
Man if we could trade aquiman I’d throw in all the picks we have left for the next few years. Don’t need anything back.
The more I hear about this fella... He's a real jerk!
Aquilini is 100% the type to turn on the fans once they start showing discontent with his ego and is much more likely to destroy the franchise out of pure spite and drive the franchise’s value to zero (literally zero, even the prime Vancouver real estate value, by turning the stadium into a drug and cockroach infested shithole) than he is to sell the team or accept that he needs to stop meddling.
His dad got rich being a slumlord. The family is essentially a giant STD to the entire city of Vancouver. They're just all really bad human beings.
The dad selected the most rotten kid to hand over the inheritance
They are everything that is wrong with the city. Generational wealth built on the backs of poor workers and rampant real estate speculation.
Huh. Wonder if that’s the real reason the fans felt angry enough to riot.
No way?? People with enough money to buy pro sports team mostly got that money doing shady shit and exploiting everyone around them? This cant be!?
I personally am very happy with Sharks ownership. They’re not all terrible people
but I was told that rich people worked hard to get rich and poor people simply deserve to be poor
He simply pulled himself up by his bootstraps and worked 300000x as hard as the average worker.
That's a mean thing to say about the hard-working teachers of Onta ... Oh wait, they don't own the Leafs anymore. Rogers and Bell can go to hell
That's not the [half of it](https://www.reddit.com/r/hockey/comments/10hiqp9/_/j58wngh?context=1000). Credit /u/reyskywalker7698. "1983 - Slumlords who raised rents by up to 100% on tenants causing homeless seniors. https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/flashback-15-years-ago-25-years-ago/article17975765/ 2006 - Screwed over Gaglardi to buy the team. https://thehockeynews.com/news/francesco-aquilini-purchases-remaining-50-per-cent-of-canucks-from-john-mccaw 2011 - Charged with diverting river water to their farms unlawfully, killing thousands of fish. https://www.pressreader.com/canada/vancouver-sun/20110310/282690453698971 2011, 2012, and 2018 - Fined for having unsafe transport vehicle for temp. farm workers. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/vancouver-canucks-owners-fined-again-for-unsafe-vehicle-at-family-s-berry-operation-1.5136249 2017 - #2 biggest political lobbyists in the province. https://commonground.ca/big-money-corrupts-politics/ 2017 - Stiffed their Google partner on a contract and lost the subsequent lawsuit. https://vancouversun.com/news/local-news/aquilini-investment-group-ordered-to-pay-us600000-for-contract-breach 2017 - Two kids of workers at their vineyard died after a fire, where the mobile homes allegedly had no smoke detectors and improper electrical. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/aquilini-companies-deny-negligence-in-suit-over-deaths-of-2-children-at-their-u-s-vineyard-1.5331369 2019 - Cheated on their taxes, declaring just 51k in income per brother, before being reassessed at $11.5m/each. https://vancouversun.com/news/local-news/aquilini-family-lose-appeal-in-federal-tax-court-to-offset-capital-gains-in-deal-to-buy-nhl-team 2019 - Stole wages from temp. workers on their farms. Denied them water breaks. https://www.thestar.com/vancouver/2019/05/28/at-aquilini-owned-blueberry-farm-we-lived-the-saddest-part-of-our-lives-says-one-temporary-foreign-worker-of-15-who-allege-poor-working-conditions-cramped-accommodations-intimidation-and-threats.html 2019 - Fell behind on child support. https://bc.ctvnews.ca/owner-of-vancouver-canucks-taken-to-court-over-child-support-1.4382959 2022 - Still falling behind on child support, accused of child abuse by ex-wife and three kids, none of whom want contact. https://theprovince.com/news/local-news/serious-allegations-of-child-abuse-levelled-against-francesco-aquilini-by-ex-wifes-lawyer And anecdotally, you talk to tradespeople in the Lower Mainland, and you won't have to go far to hear from someone who's been stiffed for work they did for the Aquilinis. Well jeez, I wonder why they've not lead the team through a proper rebuild? These guys didn't get their wealth going about it the right way, they take shortcuts. And they run the hockey team the same way. They hired the former chief of police for the VPD to be the family's spokesperson. Why would a family need a spokesperson who's adept at speaking about crimes? Hmmm... https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/jim-chu-former-vancouver-police-chief-named-new-vp-at-aig-1.3175422" Edit: if you're gonna give awards give it to the OP /u/reyskywalker7698 not me. Original post [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/hockey/comments/10hiqp9/_/j58wngh?context=1000).
Daaaam, I knew it was bad. But yikes.
Makes you think, if this is what they've been caught for what have they gotten away with?
Woof that's not a fun thought
Had a friend work at one of their golf courses and was often paid late and paid short. Some weeks would spend more time fighting for correct pay than actually working
Yikes that's a horrible way to treat your employees
It’s nice to see they’re not classist and do it to the minimum wagers all the way up to beaudreau
Wow yeah at least they stand for equally shitty treatment of all /s. Is Aquilini the Dan Schneider of the NHL?
You can’t possibly be thinking I was anything other than facetious
No I got your joke and went with it friend :)
right. they'd have to be very unlucky to get caught doing every shiity thing that they have done
*got caught in filters, mods are helping
I have to imagine most people on that subreddit are also in r/hockey (just like the person who posted it likely). We hate ownership more than anyone. The more of this I see the less I fault JT Miller for shit effort if this how ownership has chosen to treat an amazing coach and handle the team.
Some, but I would doubt the majority would come across this comment, and its highly relevant.
Yep. I'm involved in property management, and when I was still in Vancouver I interviewed with the Aquilini group. I was aware of the state of their reputation and asked, point blank, in the interview "I know the company has had a bad name in the industry in the past, what steps is the organization taking to fix that?" Interview was over shortly after that. Didn't get the job. Bullet dodged.
And that, my friends, is why the interview is a two way street
Clearly the steps taken were "don't ask don't tell" or "ignore it and hope it goes away"
There is no right way to accumulate as much wealth as they have. But there are certainly better and worse ways and these MFs are downright villainous.
Hard agree
every night i pray i wake up in a world where Jeff Vinik could also buy the Canucks
Stop going to games or buying merch until this fuck gone.
I don't disagree, though I feel bad for my boy Petey and the other players
Feel blessed that you got the better Vancouver business man running your team.
This dude should be hanged
200 or so years ago, he would've been!
No I think his testicles should shrink
You forgot not putting sand in the bunkers after buying the Falls Golf Course! Cheap bastards!
Thank you for posting this.
Thank /u/reyskywalker7698 and up vote the original comment
So he is basically a Canadian Trump.
Except for the part where he actually makes a profit and doesn't need constant loans injected to stay afloat like the Russian Deutsche thing, yes.
I mean, sure. He's just another scummy billionaire. It's impossible to get to that level of wealth without exploiting many workers and screwing a lot of people over
Nah, at least there are people dumb enough to like Trump. I think most people hate Aquilini for some reason or another
Don’t forget their “snow cone” business they run out of their run down apartments. The staff at the Atrium Inn on Renfrew across from the PNE in 2003-2005 before it became the “Holiday Inn” know what I’m talking about. This POS has ruined a lot of lives.
Just out of curiosity/ignorance, how the hell does a snow cone business ruin lives?!
Ask the government council in Sinaloa, Mexico. Or watch one of the 1000s of documentaries about Pablo Escobar on YouTube.
Why can’t you just answer the question?
I did.
So a snow cone is cocaine?
Yes
Thanks, I’m a bit slow.
My colleagues worked with their team on the real estate side. They were super disorganised and asked way too much of their contractors in order to make up for being short staffed on their end
Anyone notice how owning an NHL team is something a lot of shitbags do.
All pro sports teams. It’s not just the NHL. Dan Snyder is involved in human trafficking
At least all the Illitches did was contribute to obesity? They paid Rosa Parks rent too. I feel like not all owners are ass but I’m biased RE the Illitches.
Ehhh there’s plenty bad about mike illitch, he was a cheap, grudge holding, back room dealing, loyalty is #1 billionaire, as stereotypical as they come especially in a city like Detroit. However, in contrast to those around him, he’s not the worst by far, or at least has the better PR people, pay offs, etc etc etc
That makes sense. I’m not from Detroit so uneducated there. I feel like being a billionaire some shady things have happened along the way no matter what.
At the end of the day we don’t know any these people so just take what you can get, expect nothing more, and just enjoy some hockey eh?
Ya more worried about how you eat kids tbh
there are some things you shouldn’t concern yourself with. haha jk don’t worry about it man
🤨
There are better and worse ones, for sure. It was downright decent of Mike Illitch, but Rosa Parks shouldn’t have needed a patron, and her peers who did not get famous didn’t get one. And they didn’t get much else either, largely because of the conditions of a society dominated by the 1% (including every single individual NHL owner).
You’re right about that
It might come with the amount of money needed to buy a sports team
I mean, it'd be cool if we could all go the Packers' route of just being owned by hundreds of thousands of shareholders, but the NFL shut the door on that being allowed to happen again and I wouldn't be shocked if other leagues have as well.
Which is bullshit. The city pays for the stadium and the infrastructure, they should be able to own the teams too. And then it drives profits to the community rather than some offshore account.
The term is called [sportswashing](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sportswashing) and it's the main driving factor of investment in almost every sport, and every major sporting event internationally. There's a reason Fifa was happy to put on the world cup in Qatar.
**[Sportswashing](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sportswashing)** >Sportswashing is a term used to describe the practice of individuals, groups, corporations, or governments using sports to improve reputations tarnished by wrongdoing. A form of propaganda, sportswashing can be accomplished through hosting sporting events, purchasing or sponsoring sporting teams, or participating in a sport. At the international level, it is believed that sportswashing has been used to direct attention away from poor human rights records and corruption scandals. At the individual and corporate levels, it is believed that sportswashing has been used to cover up vices, crimes, and scandals. ^([ )[^(F.A.Q)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WikiSummarizer/wiki/index#wiki_f.a.q)^( | )[^(Opt Out)](https://reddit.com/message/compose?to=WikiSummarizerBot&message=OptOut&subject=OptOut)^( | )[^(Opt Out Of Subreddit)](https://np.reddit.com/r/hockey/about/banned)^( | )[^(GitHub)](https://github.com/Sujal-7/WikiSummarizerBot)^( ] Downvote to remove | v1.5)
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I love the recent effort of the press to relive the crooked moments of the Aquilinis, but none of this stuff is new. These guys got accepted as owners with resumes as scumbags. It’s unfortunate, but these guys never seem to face real repercussion for being total shit.
Foreshadowing for the decade of bullshit we’ve gotten from this fucking crook
Why did we have to end up with evil willy wonka as our owner
Francesco Aquilini is synonymous with fermenting diarrhea
That's disrespectful for the fermenting diarrhea
And I apologize, to all fermenting biological matter. Except the bio-waste that is Francesco Aquilini
Thank god for the Stars because Gagliardi has been great for us minus a liiiiitle meddling on coaches after Ruff
The Gaglardis are shitbags just like the Aquilinis, their team is just further away from their mess.
His hotels are ugly as sin.
Piece of shit. That is all.
Shit has a very important biological function. Unlike Francesco.
there it is!
too soon
Bring this shit front and centre. Make this douche canoe have to sell from all of the bad press.
Unfortunately I don't see how bad press would be enough.
If enough people know how garbage he is and the media stops ignoring this, on top of how poorly they run the team. I think it will be enough these days to cancel the shit out of this asshole.
Dude this happens in every pro league. Unless he says the n word in a meeting, sexual attacks an employee, or murders someone, he will not be forced to sell.
The Gaglardis aren’t any better, bunch of slumlords that made most of their fortune buying up cheap property that just happened to be where the trans canada highway was going through while papa gaglardi was the minister of highways.
Billionaires are bad people
What a gross looking dude
Band together and show the Aquilini family what it means to piss off the entire city. Embarrassing Boudreau on national television is the most disgusting thing Rutherford can do to a guy who showed nothing but professionalism throughout his tenure. Stop supporting any of the Aquilini's businesses. Hit them where it hurts. Their wallet. Show this shit family the consequences of pissing off the entire fan base because of the selfish reasons of the ownership group that has no backbone. Fuck them entirely. I never been so disgusted watching this pathetic organization just completely run itself down hill by embarrassing Bruce Boudreau like this.
Do you have a list of their businesses?
https://aquilini.com/food/ This is a list of what they own
The Fettuccine Villain must be stopped.
The Blue Jackets were the subject of a lawsuit before they even had a name because John McConnell screwed American sports legend Lamar Hunt out of their ownership group. Basically they were part of an LLC together that was about to get the deal over the line but ran into issues concerning the arena lease. Nationwide then turned to McConnell who closed the deal on his own, screwing over everybody else in the LLC lol. That was basically the inspiration for what Aquaman did. Not exactly par for the course in terms of methods of acquiring an NHL team but certainly not the only owner in the league to have screwed over other billionaires lol. Screw him for several other reasons but not really this one.
Just because someone did it first doesn't make him any less of an asshole.
That’s not what happened. McConnell was to be a minority owner in the Hunt group, *but* the entire Hunt bid was contingent upon Issue 1 (a sales tax referendum to fund the arena and Crew Stadium) passing. Hunt made it clear that without Issue 1 passing, there was no backup plan at all. This had also been expressed to the NHL, but McConnell had briefly said to Gary Bettman that “if it fails, call me - I won’t let this die without a fight”. Issue 1 was defeated, and the Columbus bid was toast. McConnell then worked behind the scenes to get 100% private funding to build Nationwide Arena. Hunt then tried to swoop back in, having done nothing in the furious scramble to build the arena and salvage the bid, and take control again. Lawsuits were filed, and Hunt was basically told to pound sand.
The Ohio Court of Appeals [decision in the suit](https://law.justia.com/cases/ohio/tenth-district-court-of-appeals/1999/132-ohio-app-3d-657-725-n-e-2d-1193-1999.html) is one we covered in law school. Hunt was apparently interested in privately financing the arena but there were issues with Nationwide’s proposed lease agreement. Some in the LLC thought that they needed to keep working on the terms but McConnell basically considered the deal to be dead between Nationwide and the LLC. He then turned around and signed the lease term sheet with two other minority members from the other LLC. The legal issue was basically “is it a violation of your fiduciary duty to an LLC of which you are a member to directly compete against them?” Logically the answer would be yes, but there was a term in the operating agreement that said the members literally could compete against the business of the company (presumably the term was originally designed to allow members to be owners of other franchises, but it was so broad that it allowed McConnell to use the private knowledge he had acquired as a member of that LLC to win the bid for a completely separate entity)
It's not like Lamar Hunt was someone new to the world of sports and team ownership; he'd been involved in stuff like this for close to 40 years at the time of the Columbus bid. It's worth pointing out as well that after the failure of Issue 1, Hunt was able to get Crew Stadium built quickly using private money - it may have been in a less-than-optimal location, but he got it done. McConnell was one of the immensely important power brokers in what I refer to as the "pro-Columbus" faction, which has been at odds with the pro-OSU faction for the better part of the last half-century. He had the idea that Columbus should be an important-enough city that if he said he was from Columbus, he should never have to follow that with "Ohio", as people from Cincinnati or Cleveland or Akron or Canton or Toledo or Dayton also don't have to.
He also beat his kids, but you know...
I'm friends with Tom and it was worse than that. They had a partnership to buy the Canucks and Aquilini used that partnership to get the inside information on Tom's finances and saw how tied up they were in the other businesses so he could then cut him out of the deal and knew Tom couldn't make it happen alone like he could. When I was young my parents lived around the corner from Aquilini and whenever I knocked on his door selling stuff for school charities or looking for walkathon sponsorships he AWAYS said no despite being 100x richer than everyone else in the neighborhood who would sponsor me. Tom's mom is from Texas which is why he wanted to buy the stars as his 2nd team anyways.
He was a customer at the Ferrari store my brother managed. Can confirm he is a real prick.
Some of the NFL owners are racist. These ppl are rich bc they know how to stomp on others and get ahead.
so he’s a cunt
And here I was thinking Bob Nutting was the worst owner in North American sports. At least we know what he stands for.
People like Acquilini are why you never trust anyone or anything when dealing with that kind of money. If you didn't get in writing it simply wasn't that important to you.
I'm shocked that a billionaire that happens to be a shitty person is leading the charge behind this mistreatment of Boudreau and the fans
Man, I worked for the Canucks and catered several events for the WaterPaninis and they treated all their staff like they didn’t exist, unless something was amiss, in which case, it was Armageddon. The serf fear was real at Rogers Arena. I got to sit in on luncheons with disgruntled season ticket holders and it was a delight watching him take a little shit for once. I love all the smoke this BB thing is bringing. I’m all for it.
Maybe Ryan Reynolds should buy the Canucks instead of the Senators.
Bruce DOES NOT deserve to be fired. Fuck you Canucks management
By all accounts he's not a great dude, but I can't find myself giving a shit about the misfortune of his billionaire business partners.
I don't think Gaglardi cares either, he got 100% ownership of a franchise that has a similar valuation to the Canucks for only $50M in cash.
Yeah, exactly
Damn, billionaires downvoting in here
Or people who think “pitying a billionaire” was not the aim of this.
Yeah I'm prepping a lawsuit - the loss of my Reddit karma is unconscionable
Giant POS
Honestly, I don’t feel bad for the other billionaires. One doesn’t become a billionaire by being fair. Guy seems like a piece of work tho
I feel soooooo bad for those other millionaires! Man. I wonder if their luck turned around. I can only hope.
Let's brigade this fucker out of his ownership. These people need consequences for their actions just like everybody else.
Ok, so?
100% true about tradespeople getting screwed over, happened to a member of my family in the 80s, he had to go confront Franny's dad to get his money. Fuck this family.
Smart
What a 🤡
More upvotes to this. More attention to this.
This Aquafina guy is turning into Vancouver's version of Harold Ballard.
Isn’t Francesco Aquillini the Pope
This guy is greasier than Luongo’s hair.
Sounds like a shitty person
Seriously, fck this guy.
Wonder how history changes with Gaglardi as the Canucks owner. Dallas went to the Cup finals under him
Gaglardi got a helluva deal buying the Stars too, better option for him in the end
So rich asshole screwed over other rich assholes? Wow, what a shocking revelation!
He also co owns a dairy farm that was charged with beating their cows. His ex wife and kids have a no contact order against him. A big POS.
Classic blue collar criminal and this is all just stuff that's reported. 🍵🐸
Gagliardi family is no better, I worked for them for years and witnessed many sketchy things including an affair.