Sports: Hockey: Mass outpouring by fans for a new franchise in Quebec City, intent on bringing back les Nordiques

Montreal Gazette, Montreal's leading English-language newspaper, yesterday published Marianne White's sportsnews article (Oct2,2k10) about popular support in la belle province for the return of les Nordiques, Quebec City's former heroes of the ice rink.  Somehow the team was swept from the city's grasp and ended up derelict in Colorado.  The people -- that is, the fans -- want the team back; but to get it after 15 years, they need a new coliseum, an uptodate hockey stadium, something qu+t pricey these days. Trouble is, the Fed gov is being dunned for the balance, after the province and the city do their bit.  Trouble is, the Feds have no business using any part of the Fed budget to make payouts from the dominion's general revenues for stadia, certainly not in these financially difficult t+ms of meltdown.  Sorry, mes chers Quebecois, but try raising the money yourselves.  I'll kick in $10 out of my penury; but don't tax me.

The city of Quebec certainly should have its own new stadium. You're a northern city like Edmonton and you need a hockey team to compete on a continent-wide basis for raising the spirits of your wonderful fan base thru the long Winters.  But it's not the job of the Fed gov to give $175 million to one city, as the Prime Minister said, because then he'd have to dole out similar amounts across the country.  We can't afford it.  Period.  Of course, Quebec's political culture is bedevilled with fans of another sport -- political blackmail.  Don't connect, please, hockey with taxing the have-nots across the land to meet your own needs, as real as they may be.

-- Sportikos

Ahead of a weekend rally that is expected to draw some 50,000 people to the Plains of Abraham, the federal government came under pressure again Thursday to pump $175 million into a new NHL-calibre arena in Quebec City as the mayor announced construction for the project would start in 2011.

Photograph by: J'ai ma place/Mallette, ABCP Architecture

QUEBEC — Tens of thousands of Quebec Nordiques fan gathered on the Plains of Abraham on Saturday to push for a return of their beloved team and the construction of an NHL-sized hockey rink.

The event was the culmination of a widespread public movement in the region aimed at bringing the National Hockey League back 15 years after the Nordiques were sold and became the Colorado Avalanche.

Wearing blue shirts to commemorate the former team’s jersey, hockey fans came out in droves to express their love for the Nordiques.

"I’ve never been able to watch a full hockey game ever since the Nordiques left, it’s too painful," said Quebec City resident Gilles Boulanger.

He was holding a sign mocking the infamous Maclean’s magazine cover with the "most corrupt province in Canada" replaced by “the most hockey province in Canada" with Bonhomme Carnaval sporting a Nordiques jersey.

A number of former Nordiques players — including the famed Stastny brothers and Michel Goulet — were taking part in the demonstration, dubbed the “Blue March.”

A dozen provincial and federal politicians were also in attendance, including Bloc Quebecois leader Gilles Duceppe, Parti Quebecois leader Pauline Marois, Conservative minister Josee Verner and Quebec City Mayor Regis Labeaume.

The Stastny brothers — who formed one of the NHL’s most feared trios in the 1980s — were reunited Saturday for the first time in decades.

Peter Stastny said Quebec City is closer than ever to seeing an NHL team come back, adding that Saturday’s rally would definitely send a strong message to politicians and the league.

"Quebec City has what most cities don’t: extraordinary support from the fans, the excitement, the atmosphere," he said.

Stastny’s comments seem to be in line with what some NHL players think. An informal poll conducted this week by The Hockey News Magazine asked 90 players where the league should put a team via either relocation or expansion.

Quebec City came in first with 33 votes, followed by Winnipeg with 18, Las Vegas with 12, Hamilton with 11 and Seattle with five. Toronto received two votes, while Halifax, Saskatoon and the Kitchener-Waterloo region each garnered one vote.

NHL commissioner Gary Bettman has made it clear the first step toward bringing a team back to Quebec City is building a new state-of-the-art hockey rink to replace the outdated arena, the Colisee, which was built in 1949.

Quebec Premier Jean Charest’s government has already said it will pay 45 per cent of the construction costs of the projected $400-million arena, while the city is ready to fork out $50 million.

A feasibility study for an 18,000-seat stadium showed it would be profitable, and both Charest and Quebec City’s mayor have since been lobbying the federal government to come up with the remaining $175 million needed to build such a venue.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper has refused to commit financing and stressed the federal government would have to act in fairness with other provinces if it chose to contribute. 

Copyright © Postmedia News

When I realized I had taken a handful of positions (Derrida has a book of that name / title) in my politically-economically charged comment introductory to this blog-entry (top), an entry which includes a political position on the question of the Fed govt's priorities in l+t of the economic situation, and priorities in state expenditures during this next financial period; when I realized all this, I sat down by Grand Central Station and Wept.  I howled gigglishly at my own presumption, until I noticed the tears falling on hand, my pant-leg, the chair, the floor.  Do foregive!

-- Politicarp

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