The NHL is coming closer to Quebec City - Page 82

suburbanite · #**1621** Posted **Dec 2, 2021, 6:45 PM**

One tweet from a reporter who's source is "banking guy".

Multiple others have come out and refuted the claim so far, including Coyotes ownership. Take that with a grain of salt though as Bettman and the Thrashers were in front of the media saying the team wasn't moving 48 hours before they were sold to True North.

These are the opportunities that an ownership group in Quebec City need to be ready for though. Everything needs to be in order and ready to sign a cheque at a moments notice to give Bettman less opportunity to weasel his way out of it.

WhipperSnapper · #**1622** Posted **Dec 2, 2021, 7:25 PM**

MLB attempted to contract in the 1990s. Minnesota filed a lawsuit and MLB lost ending the quest. It's probably would be in the best interest of the NHL to consider the same with the Coyotes.

esquire · #**1623** Posted **Dec 2, 2021, 7:28 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by suburbanite

One tweet from a reporter who's source is "banking guy".

Multiple others have come out and refuted the claim so far, including Coyotes ownership. Take that with a grain of salt though as Bettman and the Thrashers were in front of the media saying the team wasn't moving 48 hours before they were sold to True North.

Well of course, the NHL and the team will deny everything until the moment it becomes official.

thenoflyzone · #**1624** Posted **Dec 2, 2021, 8:24 PM**

What's the news on Fertitta? How hard is he pushing the NHL to bring a team to Houston?

JHikka · #**1625** Posted **Dec 2, 2021, 8:59 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by thenoflyzone

What's the news on Fertitta? How hard is he pushing the NHL to bring a team to Houston?

I'm pretty sure he's on record saying he didn't want to spend a crazy amount on a team and it seems unlikely the league would let the Coyotes be sold for whatever Fertitta would be willing to spend on the team. Toyota Center is only real option for a team to play out of in the next four-five years in that market.

If there's anything to this rumour at all it just feels like more theatrics and bargaining re: Glendale, but who knows at this stage.

Wigs · #**1626** Posted **Dec 2, 2021, 9:11 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by davee930

The fact that Quebec doesn't have a hockey team just shows how fucked up this country really is

Not the country but the NHL.
Maybe time to get rid of Bettman and get a Canadian in charge

Bring back the Nordiques already!

JHikka · #**1627** Posted **Dec 2, 2021, 9:31 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wigs

Not the country but the NHL.
Maybe time to get rid of Bettman and get a Canadian in charge

Bring back the Nordiques already!

I've got bad news for you if you think a Canadian commissioner is going to make much of a difference. As I pointed out on the last page the NHL has been a majority American-team league since the 1920s. It happened prior to Bettman and it'll happen after Bettman. Vancouver was passed over in the '67 expansion for two California teams, after all. Want to know why? Because Montreal and Toronto didn't want to split CBC revenues.

The WHA merger was a bit more cloudy, but Montreal, Vancouver, and Toronto voted against three Canadian WHA clubs entering the NHL in 1979, the Canadian teams voting against Quebec joining the league and further splitting HNIC revenues, particularly Montreal. It should be noted that the NHL preferred Hartford over Houston in the merger despite Houston being a stronger franchise because they were hesitant of adding more southern teams.

I don't really think there's anything preventing a new WHA-type of league setting up again if Canadians are that upset with the NHL, but good luck getting that off the ground in the 2020s in Canada.

JustForTheHalibut · #**1628** Posted **Dec 2, 2021, 10:43 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

Why wouldn't London (and other larger centres, like Halifax) be listed, along with smaller Saskatoon)?

Not that London is large enough to support a team....although we do have extremely fanatic support for the local London Knights hockey team

Saskatoon looks like it's the only city of the 3 above that has an NHL sized arena, well 15,200 seat, for some time so there's that.
The article even suggests that the sports crazed province could be high on support if the Roughriders in Regina is an example of the kind of support they'd probably get there.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Acajack

An old study but still interesting:

https://munkschool.utoronto.ca/mowat...of_the_nhl.pdf

I'd like to see another NHL team in BC. Pacific Coliseum use to be home to the Canucks and could still be used as such if simply up graded to current NHL standards.

ScreamingViking · #**1629** Posted **Dec 2, 2021, 11:58 PM**

Wasn't Saskatoon at one time pushing to be home to an NHL team?

Djeffery · #**1630** Posted **Dec 3, 2021, 12:16 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by ScreamingViking

Wasn't Saskatoon at one time pushing to be home to an NHL team?

At one time in a "gee wouldn't it be nice" kind of way, I think. I don't know how serious that talk was at any given time, and I would really love to see the financial gymnastics required to make the case that Saskatoon would be a better choice than Quebec City.

thewave46 · #**1631** Posted **Dec 3, 2021, 12:27 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by ScreamingViking

Wasn't Saskatoon at one time pushing to be home to an NHL team?

In the same sense of Zambia having a Space Program, sure.

By anyone with an ounce of business sense? No.

ericmacm · #**1632** Posted **Dec 3, 2021, 2:01 AM**

It's also worth noting that there may be something else stirring under the surface related to the Coyotes and the Tempe Arena plans. An anonymous paralegal on Reddit posted a lengthy breakdown of what may or may not be happening behind the scenes. There are two funding mechanisms that the Coyotes are planning on using to make the arena deal work - $200M in Tempe municipal bonds and a tax credit called the "Government Property Lease Excise Tax" (GPLET). Apparently, a couple of legal cases involving the Goldwater Institute, where parties that attempted to use these funding mechanisms were successfully sued a few years ago by the Goldwater Institute on the grounds of being unconstitutional, and ultimately was supported by the Supreme Court. This seems to have set a precedent in Arizona for how public funding can or cannot be used in these kinds of projects.

Now, these funding mechanisms can obviously be changed in the formal proposal to be 100% privately funded, but this appears unlikely since the Coyotes plan on using the funds to remediate the site and don't want to pay for the cleanup themselves. Further on in the post, it appears that other developers that originally applied for RFP information are getting ready for the solicitation process to open up again for the site.

Regardless of how legitimate this is or not, it doesn't sound good for the Coyotes with all of the other rumours flying around. Houston has always made the most sense as a relocation destination (Quebec isn't even the strongest market candidate for a team in Canada, that honour goes to Hamilton/GTA by the numbers), but we can still hope at least.

MolsonExport · #**1633** Posted **Dec 3, 2021, 3:04 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by thewave46

In the same sense of Zambia having a Space Program, sure.

By anyone with an ounce of business sense? No.

esquire · #**1634** Posted **Dec 3, 2021, 3:52 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by thewave46

In the same sense of Zambia having a Space Program, sure.

By anyone with an ounce of business sense? No.

It wasn't some crazy hare-brained scheme. Hunter had the highest bid for the Blues when they were on the market, but the NHL board of governors rejected it. He was one of the founders of the WHL and the Oilers, so it's not as though he didn't have any experience in the field.

The arena that was built in Saskatoon as a result of this was fully NHL-calibre for its era. Even now it could theoretically accommodate a NHL team given that it's of a similar size as Canada Life Centre in Winnipeg. That said, I think the ship has long since sailed on Saskatoon.

HomeInMyShoes · #**1635** Posted **Dec 3, 2021, 4:09 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by esquire

It wasn't some crazy hare-brained scheme. Hunter had the highest bid for the Blues when they were on the market, but the NHL board of governors rejected it. He was one of the founders of the WHL and the Oilers, so it's not as though he didn't have any experience in the field.

The arena that was built in Saskatoon as a result of this was fully NHL-calibre for its era. Even now it could theoretically accommodate a NHL team given that it's of a similar size as Canada Life Centre in Winnipeg. That said, I think the ship has long since sailed on Saskatoon.

This. He even had commitments for 18,000 season tickets. In 1983 that was impressive.

JustForTheHalibut · #**1636** Posted **Dec 3, 2021, 6:36 PM**

hmm that is impressive, I didn't know that the Blues sale to Bill Hunter in Saskatoon was vetoed by the NHL board of governors at the eleventh hour and the Blues became one of the first and only league owned teams until later when another purchaser was found to keep the team in St Louis.

https://althistory.fandom.com/wiki/1...toon_Blues_NHL

Speaking of more than meets the eye, as far as Zambia Space program goes, if world's richest man Elon Musk were to get Zambian citizenship along with his Canadian, American and South African, would a private space agency in Zambia count as a Space program there?