Canucks COO Trent Carroll during the live sports hiatus is "constantly engaged to seek solutions to keep the brand visible and viable" while dealing with issues stemming from the coronavirus pandemic, according to Ben Kuzma of the Vancouver PROVINCE. Those issues include voluntary 20% "wage cuts across the board for full-time Canucks Sports and Entertainment employees," and the "refund policy for single-game ticket purchases and lost revenues on the corporate side." A pay cut is not ideal, but "personal and hopefully short-term sacrifice combined with the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy to cover a percentage of staff salaries serves as the salve." The Canucks "did their homework to understand the subsidy, how it could be applied and how ownership could also pitch in to avoid layoffs." Carroll said, "It has been phenomenal -- everyone is on board." He added, "We're engaging with season-ticket holders and a big one right now is community leadership with 1,000 lunches a day to The Salvation Army. Our 50-50 program just raised $250,000 in the jackpot (split) of $500,000 from Saturday’s replay (Game 5, 2011 Western Conference Final) and it goes to the COVID-19 relief programs." More Carroll: "People just want to support. Sports have always played this role of a distraction and escape, but this is different. There are no games being played, so we're trying to maintain a level of fan engagement through new ideas" (Vancouver PROVINCE, 4/15).
