Arthur Griffiths

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Arthur Griffiths is a former owner of the Vancouver Canucks and General Motors Place and is responsible for putting the Vancouver 2010 Olympic bid together. On May 20, 2008, he announced plans to run for the Liberal nomination for the Vancouver-West End provincial riding.^[1]

1 Hockey Family
2 Education
3 GM Place
4 2010 Olympics
5 Personal life
6 References

[edit] Hockey Family

Griffiths' is the son of Emily and Frank Griffiths. Taken from his Legends of Hockey official biography, "One of the most successful businessmen in the Pacific Northwest, Frank Griffiths brought plenty of hockey excitement to the Vancouver area. His passion for the game was rivalled only by his commitment to community endeavours. Griffiths earned the respect of his peers and was a highly visible member of the NHL administration." "Griffiths was lauded by many for being a generous and efficient owner who preferred to divert attention or credit towards his hockey team. He was elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1993."^[2]

The Griffiths' family, including Arthur, were inducted into the British Columbia Hockey Hall of Fame in 1995 under the builder category. The induction noted "In addition to his duties as owner of the team, Arthur Griffiths was also actively involved at the league level as a member of the NHL's Marketing / Public Relations Committee."^[3]

[edit] Education

Griffiths graduated from BCIT in 1980 and soon joined his father in managing the Canucks.

[edit] GM Place

It was Griffiths who led the initiative to build GM Place. The original arena of the Canucks, the Pacific Coliseum, was owned by the Pacific National Exhibition, and there were issues regarding revenue from the luxury suites. As a result, Griffiths financed the building of GM Place in 1995. In order to keep up revenue, he also brought about the formation of the NBA's Vancouver Grizzlies.^[4]

[edit] 2010 Olympics

The first proposal of getting the 2010 Winter Olympics to Vancouver was made by Arthur Griffiths in February 1998.^[5] He would help it to become the Canadian bid for the Olympics, seeing it through to being awarded in 2003.^[6]