(Quebec) The minister responsible for the return of the Nordiques “suggested” to the Montreal Canadiens that they play one or more games of their regular season in the Videotron Center in Quebec.
Eric Girard even spoke about it to the commissioner of the National Hockey League, Gary Bettman, during a meeting in New York last Tuesday.
“What I told Mr. Bettman was that I had suggested to the Montreal Canadiens that they were coming to play one or more regular season games in Quebec. If the Canadian agreed to come and play games in Quebec, I would like the NHL to support this initiative,” Mr. Girard explained to journalists Wednesday at the national assembly.
Eric Girard did not specify Mr. Bettman’s reaction, nor that of the Canadian.
The Minister of Finance also detailed on Wednesday the plan he put together to orchestrate the return of the defunct team to the capital.
“What we have always said is that there is an amphitheater here built to have major league hockey,” he said. There are going to be exhibition games, then we would like to have regular season matches, then we would like to have a women’s hockey world championship, a junior hockey world championship…”
“And to have a National League team, it takes a private promoter interested in paying a high price, because the Canadian dollar is weak and the values of the concessions continue to increase,” added the minister. The last transaction in Ottawa was for one billion US dollars, or 1.4 billion Canadian dollars. »
The mayor of Quebec threw a cold shower on the minister’s ardor last week following his visit to the commissioner. “I told you, I don’t think the NHL is back in Quebec,” said Bruno Marchand.
“It has nothing to do with Mr. Girard. It has to do with the NHL authorities who are economically cultivating an American market for reasons of profitability,” added the mayor, for whom “we are not in the current interests for them, currently.”
With Tommy Chouinard, The Press