Gary Bettman to meet with Quebec premier to discuss potential Nordiques return

[MaxVerstappen33]

On 11/20/2021 at 9:58 PM, ABNuck said:

Probably just a friendly "keeping the door open" conversation.

 

1/ The NHL gains "ZERO" by putting a team in Quebec. The Canadian TV rights contract is small compared to the US one...and it isn't like Quebec hockey viewers aren't already supporting as much as they can / are willing to...putting a team in Quebec isn't going to suddenly increase the value of the Canadian TV revenue stream more than an additional US market would...and...

 

2/ Having said that, Houston is primed for a transfer from Phoenix. 4th largest TV audience in the US. NHL ready arena (17,800 seat Toyota Center). Deeper connections to the Central Division and natural rivalry with Dallas.

1)The exact same BS was said about Winnipeg right up until they got a team. How rich are the TV rights for the Arizona Coyotes ?

 

2) The Quebec Videotron center is 18,259 seats

Edited November 26, 2021 by MaxVerstappen33

[MaxVerstappen33]

On 11/23/2021 at 6:30 PM, StanleyCupOneDay said:

 

 

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- We just saw a move of the Atlanta Thrashers to a less hockey crazy Canadian market then Quebec in the Winnipeg Jets that was extremely successful.

 

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Atlanta is the 9th biggest metro area in the US. And hockey still failed there. So many US cities get tossed around as potential places for a team and they pretend that Atlanta didn't happen. Atlanta is such a prototypical Bettman place for a team that I'm surprised he hasn't tried again.

 

Why and how did Atlanta fail ? If I was going to guess a place where NHL would fail , it wouldn't be Atlanta. It actually failed twice. There was the Atlanta Flames that failed in 1980 Bettman actually chose to give up Atlanta instead of the Coyotes. They were both in trouble

Edited November 26, 2021 by MaxVerstappen33

[Ballisticsports.]

On 11/20/2021 at 4:05 PM, IBatch said:

Wow.  I hope this time they actually make it work.  Massive fan of the Nords/Habs rivalry .... and would love to see this re-ignited!

Do I recall Quebec being told if they build a new arena, they would have a good chance?

[mll]

35 minutes ago, MaxVerstappen33 said:

1)The exact same BS was said about Winnipeg right up until they got a team. How rich are the TV rights for the Arizona Coyotes ?

 

2) The Quebec Videotron center is 18,259 seats

The deals with ESPN and TNT are national deals negotiated based on the markets they cover at the country level - not individual markets. They can’t just remove one of the US’ largest market and not face consequent penalties.  Arizona has their own local deal like any other team but ESPN and TNT are league wide deals.

 

Adding Quebec is going to take revenue away from Montreal so that needs to also be factored in.  Canada is hockey crazy and has less room to gain new fans as hockey is already widely popular.  The US has bigger room for growth.  Meruelo wants to target the mostly untapped Hispanic market and even had his 1st official presser in both english and spanish. 

[MaxVerstappen33]

8 minutes ago, mll said:

  The US has bigger room for growth.

That's what the corporate bean counters think yeah. Atlanta is the 9th biggest metro area in the US and NHL hockey failed twice.

 

Quote

 Canada is hockey crazy

Right. Hockey isn't a fringe sport in Canada. To Americans, hockey is lacrosse on ice. A fringe sport. Do we still have that lacrosse team in Vancouver ? I dunno.  Canada is hockey crazy and the NHL should take full advantage of it.

[IBatch]

13 hours ago, ba;;isticsports said:

Do I recall Quebec being told if they build a new arena, they would have a good chance?

Yes...it was done with the support of the province ... and Bettman comes out with sound bites that seemed to be indirectly bashing the ownership group or the market or something.    Quebec City really doesn't have that many people ... but they are hockey mad, and not competing for sports dollars the way larger US markets are.    If it can survive in WNP, it should be just fine Quebec City.     I just couldn't stand a bigger league though, a team would have to be moved. 

 

Edit:  As long as that team isn't our Canucks ...ARI makes complete sense ... so does either Florida or CAR, two of the top teams in the league that rely on Canadian snow birds and gimmicks 

Edited November 26, 2021 by IBatch

[IBatch]

7 hours ago, mll said:

The deals with ESPN and TNT are national deals negotiated based on the markets they cover at the country level - not individual markets. They can’t just remove one of the US’ largest market and not face consequent penalties.  Arizona has their own local deal like any other team but ESPN and TNT are league wide deals.

 

Adding Quebec is going to take revenue away from Montreal so that needs to also be factored in.  Canada is hockey crazy and has less room to gain new fans as hockey is already widely popular.  The US has bigger room for growth.  Meruelo wants to target the mostly untapped Hispanic market and even had his 1st official presser in both english and spanish. 

It won't really take gate money from MTL, and can say any Hab fan you'd ask would love to get the Nords back...  There is no easy way to get to MTL and Quebec, especially in the winter, it's as far away as Ottawa is to TO.    Molson/MTL/Habs is a brand that won't ever lose  revenue, any significant revenue.    Merch ... well cant comment on that maybe a tiny bit...but if the two clubs meet in the playoffs...those tickets could sell for insane money.    Even to this day you won't see many Habs uniforms walking around Quebec city, but still see a lot of Nords stuff.    For sure there is room for both, there was before but salary disclosure and a rising US dollar killed them, same with WNP and even Vancouver was on the chopping block with help from a US ownership group.   

[ABNuck]

21 hours ago, MaxVerstappen33 said:

1)The exact same BS was said about Winnipeg right up until they got a team. How rich are the TV rights for the Arizona Coyotes ?

 

2) The Quebec Videotron center is 18,259 seats

It's not how rich the TV rights are in Arizona, it's how much richer they are in Houston vs. Quebec City.

Good point about the arena sizes, but in reality, both are suitable. So what tips the decision to one city over the other? I say it's still the value of the TV contract. When Atlanta moved to Winnipeg, there wasn't a 2 Billion dollar TV contract, in the US, on the table...now there is...it changes the conversation. Post COVID (meaning very soon after COVID) revenues are critical...if this was to occur 5 years from now, then I think QC has a better shot. But right now, in the realm of athletic sponsorship funds, I think the NHL would be better to look for those TV rights $$$...and there's just more of them $$$ in Houston than there are in QC.

 

In all reality, chances are one of two things will happen:

1/ A deal gets done before next season and this was all smoke and mirror posturing by each side or;

2/ There is a temporary location set up until a more permanent solution can be meted out ie/ Tucson arena...it holds 6800 fans, which is about all that the Yotes have anyways (they've averaged 12,000 fans per game and I'd bet at least a 1/3 of those are empty corporate seats).

[mll]

19 hours ago, IBatch said:

Yes...it was done with the support of the province ... and Bettman comes out with sound bites that seemed to be indirectly bashing the ownership group or the market or something.    Quebec City really doesn't have that many people ... but they are hockey mad, and not competing for sports dollars the way larger US markets are.    If it can survive in WNP, it should be just fine Quebec City.     I just couldn't stand a bigger league though, a team would have to be moved. 

 

Edit:  As long as that team isn't our Canucks ...ARI makes complete sense ... so does either Florida or CAR, two of the top teams in the league that rely on Canadian snow birds and gimmicks 

Since when does the league take political sides?   The group building the arena belongs to an owner that is strongly in favour of Quebec's independence and was even active politically before he withdrew for personal reasons.  Marek and Friedman were just talking about how the NHL doesn't like to do their business in the open and prefer discretion.

 

When a national network negotiates a deal they look at the territories covered.  They want presence in the largest market - Carolina, Florida and Phoenix are huge.  Take them out and there are penalties that are going to impact the revenue of the league.  The league looks at revenue generation overall. 

 

Edited November 27, 2021 by mll

[aznmonk]

On 11/20/2021 at 11:18 AM, nux_win said:

It's sad that the NHL is still trying to force hockey into non-hockey markets when hockey-mad Quebec city deserves a team but doesn't have one.  I would love to see the return of Les Nordiques.  Hockey in the desert just doesn't make as much sense (and probably not as much money either).  GCG!

Yeah I heard the nucks moving to Quebec. And hire Mario trambly as the new head coach

[ShawnAntoski]

On 11/25/2021 at 9:09 PM, MaxVerstappen33 said:

Atlanta is the 9th biggest metro area in the US. And hockey still failed there. So many US cities get tossed around as potential places for a team and they pretend that Atlanta didn't happen. Atlanta is such a prototypical Bettman place for a team that I'm surprised he hasn't tried again.

 

Why and how did Atlanta fail ? If I was going to guess a place where NHL would fail , it wouldn't be Atlanta. It actually failed twice. There was the Atlanta Flames that failed in 1980 Bettman actually chose to give up Atlanta instead of the Coyotes. They were both in trouble

Bettman, just looking for the right politician to make it work.