Pierre Karl Péladeau’s comments last week that the National Hockey League doesn’t seem enthusiastic about the rebirth of the Nordiques will have surprised no one. The Nordiques, like the Expos, we have to forget about that once and for all. We’ll never see her again. It’s boring, but that’s how it is.
The Canadian remains the last remnant of major professional sports leagues in Quebec. Its status as an institution makes it an immutable company. At least that’s what we might think. Because when we see all the money being spent in professional sports, we wonder who in Quebec will have the means to buy the Canadian when the Molson family reaps the big profits that selling the team will bring them.
Let’s remember the question of the return of the Expos.
Money wasn’t a problem at first.
The billion necessary to buy a team and build a new stadium is available, claimed the spokesman for the group of interested investors, Stephen Bronfman. Eventually, the project was returned to the shared custody of the Tampa Rays.
More in the parade
For some we have been deceived again, but that is not the case.
Quebec is no longer able to compete in professional sports and that is a shame for the amateurs.
It doesn’t just take a lot of money to keep a major league sports franchise running. Political support is also needed.
However, with the exception of the Videotron Center, our governments become wary when they hear taxpayers screaming that they will lose their voice if they invest a penny of their taxes in sports infrastructure that serves well-paid athletes.
It has been ten years since the organizers of the National Bank International Tennis Tournaments asked for government support to roof the IGA Stadium. There is a chance the enclosure will sink before that happens.
However, the tournament is a great window for Montreal and Quebec. It brings tourists and stimulates the economy, but no.
