If you’ve ever laughed at a perfectly timed Snapchat-filter face on the jumbotron, felt goosebumps during Al Murdoch’s booming roll call, or found yourself cheering to a hype video, you’ve experienced the magic of the Canucks Game Entertainment team.
Now, that magic is officially award-winning.
The Canucks’ Game Entertainment staff has been honoured with a Bronze Clio Sports Award for Best Overall Game Day - a global recognition celebrating the best and boldest in sports creativity.
The Clio Awards have been around since 1959, initially to honour excellence in advertising; they’ve expanded to different facets of the creative industry. Clio Sports was founded in 2014 and honors the best in sports advertising and marketing around the world.
The award celebrates the elements that make Rogers Arena a fun place to be. This is a big moment for the people who make game nights feel bigger, louder, and more memorable than ever.
The 2024 video submission opens with a montage of playoff imagery, a nod to Roger Neilson’s towel-power legacy, and then dives into a whirlwind of moments: a drumline, a string quartet, community night visuals created by local designers. Player features light up the jumbotron, bench interviews with Rinkside Reporter Olivia McDonald, and in-arena hosts Kat Stefankiewicz and Ronil Desai keep the crowd engaged all game.
There are even subtle things: those blink-and-you'll-miss-them easter eggs in opening videos.
For Director of Game Entertainment, Jason Steensma, the secret to keeping fans engaged is constant reinvention.
“The show is always fresh. Game to game we’ve got new stuff happening,” Steensma said. “Every night is somebody’s first time they've ever been to a game, so we’ve got to entertain them.”
To keep things fresh, the team is always brainstorming and gets inspiration from pop culture, trends, movies, and music, with music being one of the most important aspects of their show. Steensma credits the Clio win to the Canucks’ creative ecosystem and the talent surrounding the team.
“We have a network of amazingly creative people and industry leaders from our PA announcer to our lighting designer who are high-end industry people. The opening films are all Mike Pohorly, and we live in Hollywood north, so, there's a lot of really talented people in Vancouver that help out with that.”
The game entertainment team thrives under pressure, and they push themselves to help give fans memories and create the kind of in-arena highs that make 18,000 people feel like one.
Manager of Game Entertainment Steven van Vooght says there’s no feeling like working the game nights and seeing the ideas and hard work come to fruition.
“When we’re all clicking in a meeting, and the creative juices are flowing, we riff off each other’s ideas until it turns into an idea we can use in game,” van Vooght said.
“It’s a lot of work but it can be very rewarding. The fans let you know right away if they liked the idea or not which can be instantly gratifying.”
The full-time game entertainment team in addition to Steensma and van Vooght includes Senior Producer, Harrison Argent; Assistant Manager, Jadranka Dugandzic; Content Producer, Ryan Mitchell; Digital Display Specialist, Marvin Ren; Editor, Jenna Hoult; Coordinator, Katrina Wittenberg; and Intern, Laura Dunn.
On game days there are roughly 60 people working as part of game entertainment including the hype team, ice team, audio, lighting, and camera operators.
The Canucks’ game entertainment team strives to keep the energy high and keep fans cheering for goals, laughing at the jumbotron, or vibing to a perfectly timed song.
Other Notables:
The Canucks’ game entertainment team are two-time runners up for Game Presentation of the Year at the NHL’s Stanley Awards. They have also placed in the top three for three years in a row at the Information Display and Entertainment Association (IDEA), which are industry-wide awards encompassing every sports league around the world.
