Recently, our Prime Minister was criticized for bringing up the issue of the Nordics, which we thought was dead and buried. According to many, this is a very “bad priority”. I take issue with this view of things. I rather suggest to François Legault to continue in this direction and, better still, to push it to its ultimate limit. Let him not just make it a priority. May his government do whatever is necessary to bring the defunct team back to the Old Capital. All. But on one condition: forget the third link.
In fact, what I am proposing to François Legault is a transaction of the kind that true sports fans like him like: a major transaction.
Mr. Legault, give up the 10 billion and more that will cost your famous “ecological” tunnel which nobody, except the CAQ, the mayor of Lévis and a few die-hards of the tank and the urban sprawl, does not seem to want and invest what you want in a hockey club. You can even buy it and spend the biggest NHL payroll on it at our expense. And if you’re still not happy with my trade offer, I’m ready to double down. You can also bring the Expos back to Montreal …
Let’s talk about our calculator without looking too much at the expense: a billion for the hockey club, another for the baseball club and a billion more for a new baseball stadium. These are pretty generous numbers, especially when you consider that the Bronfman Group stadium project does not exceed 500 million and that it does not plan to acquire a new baseball franchise. But despite this extravagance, we are still only 3 billion, or 7 billion less than for the third link. This leaves us a very large margin of maneuver to cover the operating expenses of our two new professional teams.
Of course, this transaction will never take place. And that is a pity, because I am convinced that, if it is presented to serious analysts, economists for example, the latter are in favor of it. Yes, of course, they would not fail to point out that professional sport does not really generate real economic benefits and that Quebec has other budgetary priorities. But at least we would please sports fans in Quebec’s two largest cities without ruining Quebec’s finances for a generation, as with the third link. And professional sports clubs have this advantage: if that doesn’t work, you can always sell them and move them. Not the tunnels …