Quebec City arena to receive provincial funds

The plan to bring the NHL back to Quebec City made an important stride yesterday when Quebec Premier Jean Charest confirmed the province is ready to fund up to 45 per cent of the cost to build a new arena in Quebec City.

Quebec City Mayor Regis Labeaume had already confirmed $50 million towards the construction project and Charest is now calling on the federal government, and Prime Minister Stephen Harper, to get involved in the project, which is reported to cost around $400 million.

The decision leaned on a study prepared by the firm Ernst & Young, which concluded that a new arena would be profitable in the area. The study had been ordered by Équipe Québec, the group behind the provincial capital’s 2022 Winter Olympic bid.

Following a meeting with Mayor Régis Labeaume, Charest said a new arena would be “sustainable and profitable.”

“It doesn’t make any sense that the provincial capital doesn’t have a multi-functional arena, no matter what the scenario is,” said Charest. “Whether there are Olympic Games, or not, whether there is a National Hockey League team, or not, Quebec City should have an arena.”

But, without an NHL team, the new arena would be unable to generate sufficient revenue to respect its financial obligations and pay for its own maintenance, said Équipe Québec president Claude Rousseau.

The best-case scenario, where the arena would be used 127 days a year (35% of the year) and would not house an NHL team, the Ernst & Young study said the facility would likely generate revenue of about $7.8-million a year.

The cost of operating the arena would be about $6.8 million, plus $4.5 million in annual repairs and renovations.

Quebec City has been without an NHL team since the Nordiques left for Colorado in 1995. The Avalanche won the Stanley Cup the following year.

During the World Summit of hockey in Toronto, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman has said a new arena would be essential for the league to consider a return to Quebec City.

Also as you may recall, about two weeks ago, Gilles Duceppe urged Ottawa to help pay for the new $400-million arena so Quebec City could lure back an NHL team.

And how could Stephen Harper, a known hockey fan, say no, when an election is looming next spring and he needs all the seats he can get? And the region around Quebec City has always been kind to the Conservative Party.

So when Mr. Harper was in Montreal to conclude a big contract to maintain CF-18 fighters and what does the journalist ask him about? The arena in Quebec. And what does he answer?

“I hope that we’ll see the Nordiques return,” Harper said in French. “We have discussed this with (Quebec Mayor Regis Labeaume) and we will continue those discussions.”

Former Nordique Peter Stastny, now a politician in Slovakia, has shown his support and his confident the NHL will come back to Quebec City. Jacques Demers, the Nordiques’ first head coach has also shown his support to the return on an NHL franchise. Demers, who’s now a senator in Ottawa won a Stanley Cup in 1993 with the Montreal Canadiens.

In conclusion, the pressure has now shifted on Prime Minister Harper to help finance the construction of a new arena in Quebec City, then when all is said and done, anything is possible regarding the return of an NHL franchise in the area.

Source: CBC Montreal