Quebecor Ready to Bring NHL Nordiques Back to Quebec City
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Frank Doyle
Now that the NHL is seriously looking into expansion, a Quebec City company has committed to bring back the Nordiques.
You’re never going to get a straight answer from National Hockey League commissioner Gary Bettman, but on Wednesday he finally opened the door to league expansion to a number of markets, including Quebec City, the former home of the Nordiques, as well as Seattle and Las Vegas.
Before the 2015 NHL Awards, Bettman met with the media to discuss the NHL’s plan on expansion, but wouldn’t go as far as confirming expansion was a done deal.
“The fact we are going through this process doesn’t mean we are going to expand,” Bettman said. “All it means is we’re going to stop just listening to expressions of interest and take a good, hard look at what they actually mean and represent.”
Bettman also said any city interested in joining the NHL would need to supply an expansion fee of at least $500 million. Las Vegas is obviously the front-runner with a new arena being built and 12,000 committed season ticket holders already, though most figure the league would accept two new clubs at a time to keep the two conferences balanced.
That’s good news for Quebec City. Any cities interested in applying for NHL expansion must do so July 6-August 10 and it seems logical the league would give a second Quebec franchise a long look.
The new Videotron Centre will reportedly house 18,259 fans and Quebecor, an integrated communications company, issued a statement confirming its intent to apply for NHL expansion shortly after Bettman’s presser.
“Quebecor has consistently stated that its objective is to establish an NHL franchise in Quebec City and it intends to make every effort to achieve that goal,” the statement said. “Out of respect for NHL authorities and the process that has been established, Quebecor will maintain its policy of discretion as it proceeds.”
The NHL has stated expansion won’t take place until at least the 2017-18 season.