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The Legacy

Forty years at the centre of Canadian sport.

Before Kismet was a firm it was a record. An NHL franchise owned. An NBA franchise founded. An arena built, and an Olympic and Paralympic movement set in motion. This is the story the next chapter stands on.

'80

The Family Business

Arthur Griffiths starts in the family business, working for the Vancouver Canucks at the Pacific Coliseum. He learns the game the way owners rarely do: from the ground up.

'85

The Youngest Governor

Arthur becomes the youngest governor in the NHL and rises to Chairman and Chief Executive of the club, a seat at the league table earned before his thirtieth birthday.

'86

The Helm

Arthur takes the helm of the family's Vancouver Canucks, running the business day to day. The era is defined by ambition for a city that had waited long enough.

'93

The Owner

Arthur buys the team from his family, taking ownership of the Vancouver Canucks in his own right. His first season as owner ends with the unforgettable run to the 1994 Stanley Cup Final.

'94

The Grizzlies

The NBA awards Vancouver an expansion franchise. Arthur founds the Vancouver Grizzlies, bringing professional basketball to Western Canada and putting Vancouver on the map of the premier league in world basketball.

'95

The Arena

General Motors Place opens its doors, privately financed and privately built. Three decades later it stands as Rogers Arena, home of the Canucks and still the heart of downtown Vancouver. The same year, the Griffiths family is inducted into the BC Hockey Hall of Fame.

'10

The Games

Arthur chairs the bid society for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, the first act of the movement that brought the Games to British Columbia and remade the city's place in world sport.

'16

The Hall of Fame

Arthur is inducted into the BC Sports Hall of Fame and receives the W.A.C. Bennett Award, given for a significant and lasting contribution to sport in British Columbia.

Now

Kismet

The next chapter. A global ownership house that pairs that record with institutional capital and discipline, pursuing the NHL, NBA and NFL, the great football leagues of the world and cricket through the IPL.

"An arena, a franchise, an Olympic bid. Each one began with an owner willing to build what the city could not yet see."

Arthur Griffiths, Co-Founder & Managing Partner
The Record, On Film
Four decades of Canadian sport, in Arthur's own words
The Archive

Proof you can look at.

Arthur Griffiths at the launch of the Vancouver Grizzlies
1994 · The NBA comes to CanadaThe Grizzlies arrive. Arthur at the franchise unveiling.
Arthur Griffiths points to the design of the new downtown arena, GM Place
The New Downtown ArenaArthur presents the GM Place design.
The Olympic cauldron is lit at the Vancouver 2010 opening ceremony
Vancouver 2010The cauldron is lit. Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games.

Grizzlies and arena stills courtesy of the BC Sports Hall of Fame.

The Record

What stewardship looks like in numbers.

NHL
Owner, Vancouver Canucks
NBA
Founder, Vancouver Grizzlies
1995
GM Place Built and Opened
30+
Years the City Has Filled It
Why It Matters

Leagues remember who built well.

Franchise ownership is a permission business. Leagues do not simply take the highest bid. They choose stewards, and they remember who built well. An arena delivered on time and filled for thirty years counts for more at a league table than any term sheet.

That is what Kismet brings to every conversation. Not only capital, but a record that leagues, selling families and partners can verify by walking into a building in downtown Vancouver on any game night.

Meet the Partners