By: Trent Leith / April 1, 2026 Welcome to Trent’s Train of Thought, a series that, instead of diving deep into one topic, touches on several. This edition has thoughts on the ownership problem.
Just before the game against the Seattle Kraken, Gemma Karstens-Smith reported that fans who show up to Rogers Arena with a bag on their head will be kicked out and maybe banned from Rogers Arena.
When I saw that, I immediately had a few thoughts, and then I realized, “Oh yeah, I have a blog where I can write these thoughts.”
Firstly, I think fans should be able to do whatever they like if they bought the ticket. Let people have their fun. As long as you aren’t aggressive or belligerent, go nuts. Francesco Aquilini obviously gets his feelings hurt easily, but he fails to remember that these people paid him to see these games and wear their silly little paper bag. It cost them money, in which he now owns.
Before the Canucks committed to starting a rebuild, I had decided that I would wear a paper bag to my next game. But then the Canucks decided to tear it down and start over. While the Canucks are still losing at an honestly impressive rate, the franchise now has a direction and one I agree with. I no longer feel the need to cover my face when seeing a game. I support the direction of the team. Down.
But that is just me; if people are tired of a decade of losing and want to show that, power to them.
Secondly, obviously, Franky takes this personally. My fear is that this ownership group could be spooked by fans protesting with bags on their head and pull out of the rebuild too early. And that is so dumb. If you want FA to make changes, all you need to do is show up at the arena and chant it. Remember how Benning was fired shortly after fans started calling for it mid-game?
I hope he is smart enough to know, we are fine with the direction the team is taking, we are ashamed of him.
Ownership Beggs us to Look Away
We’ve all heard about it now, Trevor Beggs of the Daily Hive lost his press pass for writing an unfavourable article about Aquilini’s vineyards’ ties to a labour company who was allegedly caught forging visas.
To make sure we as fans don’t see the article and to keep control of the narrative, the Canucks very publicly and loudly removed Beggs mid game.
That should keep things quiet.
Now that this press pass issue has become a national story, all eyes are reading about the vineyard and their relationship with forged visas. Other stories are also coming back into the limelight.
Look what happens when you Google “Francesco Aquilini” and hit the news tab on Google.
That’s a good look for the team, people hearing Aquilini’s name for the first time and seeing all this when they look him up.
It’s hard to root for a team owned by this guy. It’s hard knowing your extremely over priced beer is going to pay $16M in hush money for burning children alive. Allegedly.
With the Canucks in a rebuild, front office staff reportedly on their last legs, the best thing that could happen would also be a change in ownership soon.
I can’t blame Franky for how he runs the team. If I was worth billions, I too would buy a team and play the highest level fantasy hockey I could. But here’s the thing, I’m not convinced he wants to win more than he wants to make money.
If he was trying to win, sparing no expense to get the Canucks a championship, it would be at least bearable. Agree or disagree, at least the end goal was winning. But I am not convinced that is the case.
Every indication I see tells me the Aquilini’s see this team as a business first, a sports team second. Raising prices on everything they can get away with, lowering team spending, avoiding a practice facility, etc. etc.
So we have an owner who muzzles the reporting they don’t like, a long history of questionable business practices, and who doesn’t do what the Canucks need to do to win.
So add all that up and what do we have? Well, we have a reason for me to rethink my stance on wearing a paper bag on my head.