On November 26, 2013, there was euphoria in the world of hockey: Rogers had just acquired all the Canadian rights to the National Hockey League.
Hockey was entering the major leagues. Imagine, for just 12 seasons, we paid $5.2 billion in rights. A fortune! But few fans realized that the era of hockey that we watched for free on television had indeed come to an end. From being a national sport, hockey was becoming a venal sport. A matter of money.
TVA Sports also entered the big leagues, becoming the official French-speaking broadcaster of the NHL. The only downside was that RDS kept the Canadian’s weekday games, leaving TVA Sports only those on Saturday evening. Never mind, there would also be the Nordics!
In Quebec, it was a party. All the elite attended the first shovelfuls of earth for the construction of an 18,250-seat multi-sport amphitheater, more modern and better equipped than the Bell Center. Mayor Régis Labeaume was exultant. Finally, the capital would relive the good years of the Nordics.
BETTMAN WOULD FLEX WELL
Gary Bettman may have the head of a pickaxe, but he could not resist these thousands of citizens crowding full of hope on the Plains of Abraham to demand the return of their team. Not to mention a number of important pilgrims commuting between Quebec and New York in the hope of convincing Bettman. Even the big boss of Quebecor, who we are not used to resisting, was among them.
Laughing in his beard at all the salamalecs to which he was subjected, Mr. Bettman stuck to his positions. Did he not have the short end of the stick? He didn’t let go. In Quebec, hockey fans ended up putting up with the Remparts and, in Montreal, we have until now been content with a last place team that we are constantly rebuilding without ever finding the right combination.
ROGERS’ TWIST
Meanwhile, TVA Sports is eating its shirt and hopes to survive until the end of the cursed contract signed with Rogers. At Rogers, however, we found a trick to relieve ourselves of part of our obligations. Once again, it is to the detriment of hockey fans.
Last week, the Toronto giant sold all its rights to 26 Monday night hockey games to Amazon Prime. Starting next season, to watch Monday games, you will need to subscribe to Amazon Prime. Will TVA Sports also sell the rights it holds over certain of these parts to Amazon? Amazon would still have to find its account there, which is not easy.
Hockey has become unaffordable when you watch it at the Bell Center and it will soon be so on television. We will have to pay more and more money to see hockey, a national sport that the Americans, led by Gary Bettman, have ended up taking away from us.
