NHL Update: Quebec City to get a new hockey arena
Quebec City has come a lot closer to a return to the good old days. A return to the days when Quebec had its own NHL team, the Quebec Nordiques (Northmen in French) as it becomes more and more likely that a new Ice Hockey arena might be constructed in the city. Jean Charest government has pledged to support 45% of $200 million cost of the Arena.
That pledge comes without any guarantees that the construction would in fact culminate in the return of an NHL franchise to Quebec or the city would win the bid to host the 2022 winter Olympics. Still his government wants the arena.
Quebec City and the Federal government are expected to contribute the remaining sum of money. Quebec City has already said that it would provide $50 million for the project. If both Quebec City and the provincial government meet their pledges, it would leave the federal government to generate just $170 million for the project. A recently completed feasibility study is the basis for the Charest government’s backing of the project. The study recommends that the arena be built completely by public funding. According to the study, a multipurpose amphitheatre would be financially viable with or without an NHL team.
Given the results of the feasibility report, Charest proposed that the administration should move ahead with the project. “Let’s get on with it. If it helps get a hockey team, so be it. If it helps us obtain the Winter Olympics, so be it.” He went on to say that, it wasn’t normal for a city like Quebec City, second largest in Canada, to not have a multipurpose amphitheatre. He acknowledged that the federal government would have reservations about the project but insisted that it was a great project for the region.
The cost of Financing and maintenance of the arena could run into the $40 million per year range. Without a regular tenant, many question the wisdom of making such an investment despite the assertion of the feasibility study. Ironically, the Quebec Nordiques (now known as the Colorado Avalanche) moved out of the city because of those costs and the unwillingness of using public funds to build an arena in 1995.
That was then. Now Claude Rousseau, president of Equipe Quebec, who is spearheading the city’s Olympic bid, said that the costs involved make the venture unprofitable for private businesses but in the long run, he maintained that the arena would return $500 to $600 million to the exchequer.
The actual sum may not be particularly daunting for the federal government but the political challenges certainly are. The Harper Government in Ottawa has been focussing on cost cutting measure and that agenda is in direct conflict with funding a project worth hundreds of millions of dollars. The Harper government must walk the tight rope between spending and sacrificing its political ambitions in Quebec.
Stephen Harper himself is an avid NHL fan and fully backs a return of the league to Quebec but privately. “We've been clear that professional sports teams including the NHL, of which we're all big fans, won't be receiving federal government dollars,” said the President of the Treasury Board, Stockwell Day.
Opening up the public funds for Quebec would do political wonders for Harper in Quebec but would come with a political cost in other provinces. The federal government has recently put down a proposal to fund a new arena in Edmonton. The political opposition would use the contrast to the fullest against the Harper government.
On the question of federal funding, Charest said that it wasn’t out of character for the federal government to build sports and cultural complexes and that there was no reason why Quebec City should be left out.
Charest might be right but an ice hockey stadium is still going to be a difficult sell for the province. Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto and Vancouver have all privately funded NHL stadiums. Opponents of the project insist that federal funding is not necessary for the arena and Quebec City is more than able to come up with the funding privately. The proponents of the project including the Harper government would go to great lengths to make sure the arena does not get painted as a strictly sports/NHL venue.
As for an NHL return to Quebec, without a modern ice hockey arena the NHL won’t consider a Quebec City return. NHL Commissioner confirmed as much adding that with the ‘right ownership group’ and a new arena, Quebec City could support a franchise. Even if the funding can be found for the arena, it would be quite a while before the countless Quebec City hockey fans would have a team to root for.
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