The Phoenix Coyotes situation is a mess. An absolute mess. The NHL has been trying to unload the team since it took control of the Coyotes in a bankruptcy court. The city of Glendale, Arizona is simply running out of money and has to lay off many its municipal workers because of an NHL team. So, why doesn’t Gary Bettman just cut his losses and allow an owner to buy the team and move out? Somewhere where people love hockey and the team doesn’t have to play second, or even third, fiddle.
Somewhere like Quebec City. Quebec City is more than capable of supporting an NHL team and its about time the league looks into bringing the Nordiques back. The Nordiques faithful have put on rallies in Quebec City and even in New Jersey, so, it appears as if the fans really want a team back. But why did they leave in the first place? Let’s go back to 1995.
The Problem With the Nordiques
The mid 90s were a rough time for Canadian teams due to the weak Canadian dollar and the Edmonton Oilers, Calgary Flames, and Winnipeg Jets were in danger of moving. The Nordiques were no different. Canadian teams revenues are earned in Canadian dollars, but player salaries were paid in US dollars, this caused problems for quite a few Canadian teams.
Another problem facing the Nordiques was the cultural difference between Quebec City and the rest of the league. Quebec City is a mostly francophone city and its public address announcements were only given in French, unlike in Montreal were both French and English were spoken. There was a lack of English language media in the city causing marketability problems with the Nordiques and many non-French Canadians did not want to play in Quebec City, such as Eric Lindros.
Nordiques ownership asked for a bailout from the Quebec provincial government, but was denied. Quebec premier at the time Jacques Parizeau countered with a proposal of his own, but it simply wasn’t enough to keep the Nordiques in town. Ownership had no other choice but to sell to a group from Denver, Colorado and, thus, the Colorado Avalanche was born.
Flash forward 18 years later and Quebec City is still without an NHL franchise while cities like Phoenix and Miami have one, but struggle mightily.
Why? Money, money, money.
The Problem With the Phoenix Coyotes?
Gary Bettman knows that the Phoenix and Miami media markets garner more revenue than say a Quebec City or even a Calgary or Edmonton. The Phoenix Coyotes are struggling and the city of Glendale, Arizona, where Jobing.com Arena is located, had to eat some money just to keep the team in town.
Glendale has considered putting up its city hall and police station as collateral to help quell the $41 million debt brought on by the Coyotes. I’m a big hockey fan, but having a city hall and a police station is so much more important than the NHL. The city of Glendale needs to realize this and just let the team go for the future of the city.
Bettman never fought this hard when the Winnipeg Jets were preparing to leave for Phoenix because he saw dollar signs. Bettman over the past few years has been fighting hard for both the Atlanta Thrashers and the Phoenix Coyotes. The Thrashers attendance and money woes were simply too much for Bettman and he finally relented and let the team move to Winnipeg, the former home of the Coyotes. The Coyotes had a potential owner in RIM CEO Jim Balsillie, but only if he could move the team to Hamilton, Ontario. Bettman refused to sell to Balsillie and, so, the deal was off.
Clearly, Phoenix isn’t going to work out for the NHL, so, even with its past troubles, Quebec City is the best possible option.
Why Quebec City?
The problems that caused the Nordiques to leave in the first place can or already is resolved. The Canadian dollar is much stronger now than it was in the mid 90s and the Canadian teams that were once in danger of moving in the 90s are pretty much safe now.
While there still is a lack of English language media in Quebec City, I believe that, this time around, the Nordiques would be able to overcome this problem. Something as simple as having public address announcements in both French and English could help market the team better and help get some free agents to sign with Quebec. Seems crazy that a small move like that would do so much, but it really would.
A new arena has broken ground to replace the antiquated Colisée de Quebec. The Quebecor Arena broke ground in September of last year and is expected to be completed in 2015. The new Quebecor Arena is being built in hopes of bringing an NHL franchise to Quebec City and showing Gary Bettman that the city is completely serious about this.
The fans are rabid. The Nordiques fans have set up rallies in Quebec City by painting the town blue and hijacked a Devils-Bruins game in 2011 to show the NHL they want a team back. If Quebec City gets an NHL team back, attendance wouldn’t be an issue with a new arena and could even beat the Coyotes, who average 13,927 fans per game this season, only the New York Islanders bring in less fans.
Quebec City is constantly at the top of player’s polls for the city most deserving of an NHL team. Winnipeg was further down on the list, but was able to get a team back, so, why not Quebec City? Why not now?
Why Quebec City Wouldn’t Work
However, some problems still loom for Quebec City. Quebec City was the smallest NHL market before they left and would still be the smallest market once, or if, they came back. They were also the second smallest North American market, only to the Green Bay Packers. That they really can’t help.
Although Green Bay is smaller, they are the only NFL team in the state of Wisconsin, so, fans all over the state help make the team survive. Meanwhile, the Quebec Nordiques would always play second fiddle to the Montreal Canadiens in the province of Quebec. Also, Quebec City is too far away from Montreal to tap into their fanbase.
Even though Phoenix is struggling, the Phoenix media market will always be stronger than the Quebec City market. The NHL and channels like the NBC Sports Network wouldn’t garner much revenue from a small media market like Quebec City, so, markets like Phoenix and Miami get the NHL more money. I understand why Bettman is fighting so hard to keep the these teams in their market, but only to a certain extent.
Hopefully we’ll know soon about the Coyotes future and whether they will high tale it out of the desert. If they do, they should consider the Great White North and Quebec City. Hopefully we’ll see the baby blue, igloo and fleur-de-lis adorned jerseys take the ice once again.
Vive les Nordiques!
Mark Wallace Graham has been a writer for TheHockeyWriters.com since March 2013. Growing up in New England, Boston Bruins hockey was in my blood. Follow me on Twitter, @MarkWGraham
Actually, Quebec is a bigger market then Winnipeg. Winnipeg and Quebec Metro area are pretty much the same (around 700,000), although Nordiques gathers support in eastern Quebec,Saguenay Lac-St-Jean, Trois-Rivieres area, Beauce…Once you add up all those regions (2hrs drive around the area except the regions near MTL which is Habs all the way), you easily get to 2 millions (+100 000 Beauce, +300 000 Saguenay, +250 000 Mauricie, Centre-du-Québec +200,000, +200 000 Bas-St-Laurent), which is almost double the population of whole Manitoba.
Considering the way stronger economy of the city compared to early ’90s, a market that is bigger then 20 years ago and the CAD in a better position then it was, there is no cons for the return of the Nordiques, except maybe the corporate presence but it’s not that bad.
While Phoenix is a bigger market than Quebec City, a new team in Quebec is likely to be far more profitable. You’ll have an avid fanbase and will be able to charge higher ticket prices. It would be the same boost as swapping Atlanta for Winnipeg. Plus, with the Canadian dollar at par, the Canadian franchises represent one/third of the NHL’s revenues. That’s a huge number, and that makes this decision easy. The Phoenix market might be more glamorous, but as a true hockey city, Quebec City has the fans and corporate support to make this work.
Time to pull the plug on that Phoenix abomination, and BRING BACK THE QUEBEC NORDIQUES!!! Only Gary Bettman doesn’t seem to realize that doing so would make too much sense, and do nothing but good for the league! Hope it happens soon!
The province of Quebec has fans that like both teams (HABS and former Nordiques) The writer knows nothing of Quebec’s passion for hockey, Mtl to Que is only a 2.5 hour drive, the Quebec arena will be filled by Habs hockey fans that cannot buy season tickets in MTL….If Habs fans take flights to other destinations in North America to cheer their team, they will become Nordiques fans if they can get season tickets…
Also, Quebec City is too far away from Montreal to tap into their fanbase.
Miami doesn’t have a hockey team. The city of Sunrise does which is an hour north of Miami, with no traffic. It’s more Ft. Lauderdale than Miami. Do your geographical research.
mortgaging the city’s assets is not new in AZ where the capitol bldg was leased. That the coyotes draw even 12,000 -13,000 a game considering the uncertainty around the team is amazing. Glendale should have accepted or supported the Balsisle (sp?) bid in bankruptcy instead of siding with the NHL and Bettman.
@Goerge Yes, the attendance has gone up but you neglect to mention that most of the tickets sold are done at a ridiculously low price. You can find tickets for 4$ on StubHub.com
Also, when the last budget came out, when Jamison was still the savior, what the city had to pay Jamison to “manage”the yotes, the arena would have to be full capacity on every game, the yotes would not only have to make the playoffs but also win the Stanley cup or at least be the finalist each and every year for 20 years and even then, the city of Glendale would be losing money.
So unless you can tell me honestly (also prove it!) that buying/managing the yotes is an intelligent, responsible and PROFITABLE thing to do, your eggs are cooked.
Thank you and have a nice day :)
Yeah, but electronic delivery alone is around $10 or something. And to have it delivered in any other way still inflates the actual cost of a stubhub ticket.
Exactly what numbers are you basing your second statement on? Making blanket statements is simple with no supporting documentation, people do it all the time.
StubHub seats are already sold. Can you find cheap tickets for other arenas on StubHub? For tonight’s game there are a total of 276 tickets available, the cheapest is $25. That’s the least expensive FACE VALUE ticket available any time during the year.
For the next Senators game, there are MORE tickets (394) available and the cheapest ticket is $14.99. Oilers game tomorrow? MORE tickets (321) and cheapest ticket is $15.
The StubHub argument is ludicrous unless you also accept that Canadian teams are dumping tickets to fill their barns. Those are facts, not general statements with no support.
How long will it take Quebec to NOT lose money on their $400M arena if Quebecor is paying them $5M per year? Who pays the utilities, by the way, do we know?
When you speak about inventing number, you’re talking about the $5M per year you created all by yourself?
You blame people for errors you also commit…
I am aware the actual published number for Quebecor’s “rent” is a bit over $3M, but early on there was mention of $5M. Is that the number that’s created all by myself? If so, what is the correct number and where is it cited? I’d be happy to correct errors. So, a link?
Glendale “laying off workers” is incorrect. Budget decisions are currently in the works, the people “laid off” are positions left unfilled. If you were familiar with the actual process instead of the summaries from hockey blogs, you’d be aware that Glendale has budget issues that have NOTHING to do with hockey. For example, spend three minutes doing some Google research on “Camelback Ranch” before stating a “fact” that Glendale’s problems are hockey related.
Every other thing you mention related to “paying for the Coyotes” is also incorrect. There has been no public discussion of what plans are being considered for Glendale to deal with the arena they own and have to service the debt on even if it’s empty. Do you know what that debt service amount is? I doubt it. Are you aware that debt has been refinanced since the blog posts you quote as your research were written? Probably not.
You mention one of the problems the Nordiques had was the cultural difference between Quebec City and the rest of the league. Has that changed?
While the commitment of the city and provincial government is obvious based on their $400M expenditure and the passage of Bill 204, the commitment of the NHL is still very much up in the air based on public statements from the Commissioner.
As far as attendance goes, yes it’s nearly the worst in the NHL. Yet there has been a six percent increase this season despite ongoing ownership uncertainty and despite a complete lack of interest from the NHL spending promotion money. Any UNBIASED assessment of the ownership of the Coyotes would clearly point to mishandling of the team, using them as a loss leader and a cash cow for real estate and flight charter businesses.
Wait for expansion, if there is any.