Hockey fans in Quebec City could attend a few Ottawa Senators games next season, an idea reportedly floated by National League (NHL) commissioner Gary Bettman.
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According to what was reported on Wednesday morning the daily The Press, discussions have been initiated on this subject by Quebecor, the Quebec government, the league and the Senators. Five games of the Ottawa squad could therefore be played at the Videotron Centre.
The same source specified that the big boss of the circuit had evoked such a scenario during his meeting with the Minister of Finance, Eric Girard, last January.
In addition, the assistant commissioner of the NHL, Bill Daly, confirmed the information to the Quebec newspaper, without however certifying that the steps will be crowned with success. “Interest has been expressed and discussions are very preliminary. No final agreement at this time,” he said.
It was the same story on the side of Minister Girard, who briefly met the media in the morning.
“As for the rumors that have been conveyed this morning, I will not be able to comment on them. […] There has been interest expressed on both sides, but at this stage, it is preliminary.
Show the potential of Quebec
One of the objectives of this possible initiative would be to show that Quebec constitutes a viable market for the NHL. A financial package for the presentation of the Senators’ parties is already in preparation, according to “La Presse”. The Federal Capital franchise will demand compensation to cede games not shown at its home, the Canadian Tire Centre.
Also, even if the holding of NHL season duels has excellent probabilities of attracting large crowds, the Legault government could be called upon to absorb financial losses, if there are any.
However, among the obstacles in the way of the people leading the file, there is the death of the owner of the Senators, Eugene Melnyk, who died Monday. An announcement relating to the project is likely to be poorly received by the Ottawa community, in addition to representing in the eyes of some a sign of an upcoming move.
Mondial junior?
Asked about the news by the daily Ottawa Sun, the president of business operations of the Senators, Anthony LeBlanc, mentioned that the idea of organizing games for his team at the Videotron Center came from representatives of the Legault government, but that the whole thing did not go further. It is rather another subject that was in the notebooks.
“Have we held discussions with the Government of Quebec and Quebecor? Yes, we just talked about the possibility of hosting [conjointement] the 2023 World Junior Hockey Championship,” LeBlanc replied on Wednesday. I had talks with the Minister of Finance [Eric Girard]. I spoke with people from Quebecor […] and of course we have spoken with Ottawa Tourism and the Province of Ontario. The mandate to organize the Mondial [à la place de la Russie] happened on Monday, but we knew it was coming.”
“We have started preliminary talks in the past two weeks regarding a suitable sister city,” he added. We immediately thought of Gatineau and Quebec, and then these conversations took place.
Eric Girard corroborated the statements of the leader in the press scrum. “I can say that we are working concretely with Quebecor and the Senators to bring the World Junior Hockey Championship to Quebec and Ottawa,” he said after offering his condolences to Melnyk’s family.
Idea launched as a joke?
Furthermore, the Ottawa Sun specified that according to LeBlanc, it was Minister Girard who had proposed the idea of presenting “Sens” matches in neutral territory. The exchanges went no further.
“In these, the idea was launched. […] It surfaced, but it was never really discussed,” he said. The scenario according to which we will play in Quebec is a falsehood.
“I spoke to Eric Girard and he said, ‘we would like to host NHL games. He joked, “I’ll get the Toronto Maple Leafs if they want to play there.” Here, it’s jumping to conclusions too quickly. The real discussions we’ve had is whether we’re going to proceed with submitting a bid for the World Juniors.”
The Videotron Center notably hosts meetings of the Remparts de Québec, the QMJHL, as well as numerous shows and sporting events.