Kings subsidized games in Quebec | Nearly 8,000 seats unoccupied

A week before the Los Angeles Kings’ preseason games at the Videotron Centre, where the Legault government will pick up the bill to cover the anticipated deficit, more than 20% of the tickets on sale have not been sold – which is surprising in the sports marketing niche.

For the matches on October 3 and 5, there are therefore approximately 8,000 seats that are still unoccupied, according to data compiled by The Press.

“It’s surprising,” says Drew Dorweiler, managing director of the valuation practice – particularly professional franchises – at IJW & Co. “There are fervent fans in Quebec who have been waiting a long time for the return of the National Hockey League (NHL). We should have had full houses by now.”

Of the two games that will be played by the Los Angeles Kings, it is the one involving the Boston Bruins that is doing better at the ticket office. At last count, there were just under 3,000 tickets available, or nearly 15% of the capacity of the 18,259-seat arena.

Conversely, the visit of the Florida Panthers – the reigning Stanley Cup champions – drew less crowds, as nearly 30% of the seats (about 4,944) had not been sold at the time of writing.

The visit by the Kings, who are homeless until the start of the season due to renovations to their arena in the heart of Los Angeles, has been controversial since it was announced in November 2023.

The reason: the Legault government agreed to put 5 to 7 million on the table in the form of a subsidy to cover the excess expenses of the Californian club, which raked in profits of 108 million US in 2023 according to the specialist magazine. Forbes.

Already checks

Quebec has already paid $5 million to the promoter, Gestev, a subsidiary of Quebecor, to finance the event. This strategy contrasts with places like Halifax, Wichita (Kansas) and Independence (Missouri), which have already hosted the Bettman circuit before the start of the regular season without paying a cent.

Before entering the league last June, Salt Lake City (Utah) had been able to reach an agreement with the Kings for unsubsidized preseason games.

The Legault government defended its decision by saying it was a message sent to the NHL to remind it that the Quebec market exists. For Professor André Richelieu of ESG UQAM, who specializes in sports marketing and management, it’s a waste of time.

“After having subsidized the construction of the arena, we have decided to finance professional teams so that they deign to play preparatory games there,” he said. “The public is right to turn its back and could do so more.”

Since the start of the NHL preseason, games in American Hockey League markets like Abbotsford, B.C., and Ontario, Calif., have been virtually sold out. Those two arenas, home to the Vancouver Canucks and Los Angeles Kings, are smaller, with capacities of about 10,000.

But on Wednesday, the Panthers were playing the Tampa Bay Lightning in Orlando, in the arena that is home to the NBA’s Orlando Magic. By the time the game started, all the tickets in the lower section of the arena were sold out. The few thousand seats available were in the upper section of the 17,353-seat arena. The arena is located about halfway between the homes of the two Florida clubs.

Anticipated loss

Given the way things are going at the Videotron Centre, can we still hope that the two Kings games will result in profits?

“We will have to wait until the event has passed,” says the office of Finance Minister Eric Girard. It is assured that “in any case,” the subsidy “will not be able” to go beyond the promised 7 million.

According to the contract concluded between Minister Girard and the sports and entertainment division of Quebecor, that The Press was able to consult under the Act respecting access to documents held by public bodies and the protection of personal informationrestrictions have been placed on what can be counted as revenue.

Thus, all the revenues that will be generated by what revolves around the Videotron Centre boxes will not be included in the calculation aimed at determining what will have to be mopped up by the Legault government.

The final payment of $2 million will be made once a “preliminary report accounting for the event’s expenses” has been submitted to Mr. Girard. In exchange, if the losses are less than the maximum amount of the grant, the difference will have to be reimbursed by Quebecor.

– With the collaboration of William Leclerc, The Press