(Montreal) The Quebec government is due to officially meet with the National Hockey League in January, but one wonders what influence it can have on the will of the NHL and the concession owners to welcome the return of the Nordiques to the Old Capital. .
One thing is certain, the nostalgic supporters of the fleurdelisé do not hold their breath, they who have already known their share of disappointments. Several of them are also wondering if the whole affair is just a public relations operation in view of the provincial elections which will take place this year.
Prime Minister François Legault himself started the daydreaming machine in November by affirming his interest in the eventual return of professional hockey to Quebec City and by granting a specific mandate to Finance Minister Eric Girard to lead the file.
“If Ottawa and Winnipeg are able to have a team, we should be able to have one in Quebec,” said Mr. Legault at the time, saying that he was looking for investors ready to raise a billion dollars to do so. the acquisition of a franchise.
The Nordiques left Quebec after the 1994-1995 season to become the Colorado Avalanche and win the Stanley Cup in their first season in Denver.
Nordiques fans were optimistic about the possibility of returning their team to the NHL a decade ago. But in the opinion of columnist and radio host in Quebec Vince Cauchon, who co-founded the Nordic movement Nation, the new approach seems to have been received rather coldly.
“We were looking for the fire behind the smoke, but this is a rare case of smoke without fire,” he summarized in a recent interview. According to him, if the government was looking for a political coup to rally voters, it has instead given a sword in the water. The reaction has been negligible at best and negative at worst, says the host.
NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman has confirmed that a meeting is on his agenda in January with “someone high up” in Quebec, but pretended not to know the content of the agenda and early on to lower expectations. He simply recalled that no team was looking to move and that there was no expansion project in the cards of the circuit.
A spokesperson for the Minister of Finance, Eric Girard, who will be the emissary of Quebec at this meeting, refused to comment, stressing only that his boss has been working on this file since last summer.
About a decade ago, the possibility of the NHL’s return to Quebec made fans salivate as several American dealerships struggled. Nostalgic people well identified with the colors of the Nordiques came in large numbers to the arenas of American teams to make their message heard. They even mobilized for a large rally on the Plains of Abraham in October 2010.
But according to Vincent Cauchon, hopes for expansion have faltered. The NHL hosted a team in Las Vegas in 2016, but rejected Quebec’s bid. The idea was not even mentioned when the league formalized the granting of another new concession to a group from Seattle in 2018.
As for the moves, rumors surrounding the Hurricanes leaving North Carolina and Coyotes leaving Arizona never materialized.
“Heartbroken,” Vince Cauchon believes that hockey lovers in his city will believe in the return of the NHL when they see their team on the ice and not before.
As for the former Nordiques left winger, Alain Côté, he is delighted to see the Legault government trying to make things happen, but he has serious doubts that the NHL is opening its arms wide to Quebec.
The retired hockey player, who now owns auto parts stores, mentions that Quebec City has a modern amphitheater with the Videotron Center and that many things have changed since the departure of the Nordiques.
According to Alain Côté, the new arena, the salary cap and the mobilization of loyal supporters are all factors that play in favor of Quebec’s candidacy.
He believes, however, that the NHL is not interested in the Old Capital market, now considered part of the Montreal Canadiens market.
It is not known who could lead a group of investors with deep pockets to buy a concession and gain the support of the 32 other groups of owners in the league. The most recent unsuccessful step had been taken by Quebecor, whose Videotron branch manages the amphitheater of the same name.
A specialist in sports economics at Concordia University, Moshe Lander, points out that billionaires are few in number in Quebec. Seattle and Las Vegas paid more than $ 600 million in expansion fees in addition to investing in new billion dollar arenas. The other issue to consider, according to this expert, is long-term sustainability.
“It’s the kind of thing the NHL is interested in. If you want a toy, you want to make sure that what makes a dealership grow is that the next person in line is going to want to pay more than the last, ”he analyzes.
“It’s not just a current problem, it’s a lifelong problem,” Lander adds.
Another nostalgic supporter of the Nordics, François Émond, who runs a furniture store in Alma, expresses himself wholeheartedly with the Legault government’s approach.
From his point of view, the government is doing the right thing by showing leadership without committing financially to the adventure. Mr. Émond remembers the buses that regularly left Saguenay – Lac-Saint-Jean to go to the old Colisée de Québec.
He understands the many scalded supporters over time, but continues to believe that just talking about it is still a positive sign.