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Last Year's Rank: 91
Title Track: 80
Ownership: 49
Coaching: 49
Players: 56
Fan Relations: 41
Affordability: 119
Stadium Experience: 75
Bang for the Buck: 90

The wait for that first Stanley Cup continues in B.C., and third-year coach Alain Vigneault is no longer viewed as the answer. "He's the Herm Edwards of the NHL: ultraconservative, not enough imagination," wrote one blogger, disappointed by the team's offense. Watching Vigneault keep it close to the vest is far from cheap. At $88.22, the team has the league's fifth-highest per-game costs. Even with a season-ticket waiting list of more than 4,000 fans, a string of more than 250 sellouts and a team headed to the playoffs, the Canucks found a way to dampen fan spirit in March by tacking on a 2% average rise on most ticket prices. "We're not isolated from the economic issue," says Canucks COO Victor de Bonis, "but the product is very good." Pretty smug talk for a guy whose club has made the postseason just twice in the past four seasons and hasn't been in the Finals since 1994. At least a decision he made in June 2006 will avoid what could have been a potential PR disaster: The hockey comp at the 2010 Olympics will be held at the 18,000-plus-seat GM Place, and Canucks fans were in danger of losing choice rink-side seats because the ice surface was to be expanded to conform to international dimensions. Those plans were eventually scrapped, which means Olympians, for the first time, must adapt to tighter NHL quarters. And Vancouver fans, for now, must get used to slimmer wallets while waiting for their Cup.