After a well-traveled professional hockey career that included two NHL seasons, Jim McTaggart spent five years working for Orca Bay Sports and Entertainment in British Columbia. It owned and operated several professional sports franchises, including the Canucks.
Vancouver had never won a Stanley Cup. But the franchise did reach three finals, losing in 1982, ’94 and 2011. Along the way, the closest big-time hockey team to Seattle picked up a larger and international fan base addendum. Emerald City residents had no other driveable option. And it fell to McTaggart to develop that market for the hockey team up north, starting in 1995.
His task began relative to expectations, the bar in play so low that minimal seems kind. Upon inspection, he found Canucks coverage in the greater-Seattle area pretty much nonexistent. His team tried some initiatives to bolster interest. They found a local broadcast partner, which carried the first over-the-air broadcast of an NHL game. As in, one, one game. Afterward, the NHL said no. The league, its officials reasoned to Orca executives, wanted to protect the Seattle market for the future, however distant or improbable that prospect seemed.
