October 05, 2010

Quebec rallies for NHL, but arena fund gap remains

As promised, about 60,000 Quebecois turned out for a "Blue March" on Saturday calling for a new NHL team for the city, to replace the decade-and-a-half-gone Nordiques. "The images that will be sent all across Canada, all across America, are the living proof that the Nordiques are back," said former Nordiques coach Michel Bergeron, to cheers.

Given that the NHL has said there won't be a new Nordiques without a new arena, though, they won't be back until that hurdle is cleared — which means finding $180 million in funding to go along with the $220 million promised by Quebec City and Quebec province. And that's still slow going:

The sale of seat licences, or rights to buy seats in the arena, had raised $12 million as of mid-September. And the figures in an analysis commissioned by the project's promoters suggest that a 20-year contract for naming rights would bring in another $10 million.

Even Parti Quebecois leader Pauline Marois, one of the politicians who joined Saturday's parade, said the private sector needs to do more. And it's well short of the mostly private investment suggested by Harper's "first and foremost" remark.

But even the promoters' analysis shows that the arena wouldn't be profitable, so significant private investment in it is unlikely.

And polls show that, in the rest of Quebec as well as of Canada, public opinion strongly opposes subsidies for NHL teams.

So basically, we have a standoff, where everyone wants a new team, but nobody's eager to pay the NHL's $400 million ransom. We'll see if the NHL's price comes down as some of its less successful teams get more desperate for a new home, but I wouldn't hold your breath.