“The economic context of 1995, we are no longer in this state of affairs at all. In 2024, we are completely elsewhere. We are in a very good economic position and I prefer that we put our cards on the table because Quebec is no longer the same at all,” defended the mayor on Tuesday, before his entry into the municipal council.
Last week, two NHL preparatory games were played at the Videotron Center. Not enough to make Commissioner Gary Bettman flinch, who still does not see any interest in the capital market for possible expansion.
NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman spoke to the media on Monday, before the game between the Canadian and the Penguins in Montreal. (Graham Hughes/The Canadian Press)
“Unfortunately, the Nordiques had to leave because they didn’t have a proper arena, and there was no plan to build one, and no one wanted to own the team. It’s always difficult to put the toothpaste back in the tube,” he told the media on Monday, on the sidelines of a Penguins-Canadian clash.
His statement was perhaps not explicit on the economic situation of Quebec, but bringing back the arguments from 30 years ago implies that the commissioner has not really looked at the evolution of the city since all these years, extrapolates the mayor.
“Astonished” by the justifications put forward to explain the lack of desire to bring back a team, Bruno Marchand defends that his city is “not at all the same demographic, financial and economic reality”.
“Quebec has changed and is a very different economic market from 30 years ago.”
— Bruno Marchand, mayor of Quebec
“The Nordiques left in 1995 and there were reasons for that, we all agree,” he agrees. But on the question of head offices, the balance between private and public, the unemployment rate and the number of inhabitants — 200,000 more people since 1995 and 227,000 more people to come in the next 25 years — Quebec is now “elsewhere,” argues Mr. Marchand.
Not the first criterion
Asked if he judges that Mr. Bettman is not at all informed about the state of the market, the mayor of Quebec responds that “it is not in his first criteria to look at”.
The mayor of Quebec, Bruno Marchand, affirms that the City would support an owner interested in an NHL franchise, “in due course”, if the situation arose. (Jocelyn Riendeau/Archives Le Soleil)
“I don’t think he’s very well informed, because that’s not what the National League looks at when it chooses expansion.”
Among the main criteria, Bruno Marchand admits that we first need a private actor “who is capable of paying”. “For that to happen, it takes owners, he’s right. It comes from the owners, and currently, Bettman says that there is not that.”
In addition, television rights, important for the NHL, would not necessarily be attractive in the here market. “How does the arrival of a new concession promote an expanded market and lead to higher television rights? In Quebec, the market is covered by the Canadian. When it comes to TV rights, that’s not necessarily what brings the most money,” Mayor Marchand also recognizes.
