Jean Bédard emphasizes one point from the outset. “Our investment is not about money. It’s a labor of love and a passion for hockey,” he said on the phone. Like his partners Patrick Roy and Jacques Tanguay, Bédard has ice hockey in his blood.
• Also read: Patrick Roy and Jacques Tanguay invest in a professional ice hockey team in France
The man is initially known as the president and CEO of the Grandio group, which runs La Cage, a sports brewery based in Quebec for 40 years and of which he has been the owner since 2021.
Bédard has been involved in the world of sports for a long time. He was a boxing promoter as CEO of Cage aux Sports, which owned a majority stake in InterBoxe some twenty years ago. For 17 years he was president of the Gaulois de Saint-Hyacinthe, a position now held by Bruno Gervais.
Last June, La Cage opened its first store outside of Quebec in Bordeaux, France. Bédard wasted no time in building relationships with local sports promoters. He asked two friends to contact the Boxers de Bordeaux shareholders group, members of the Magnus League, and enter into a business partnership.
The electricity flowed immediately.
“I then spoke to Jacques about it [Tanguay] and Patrick [Roy]with whom I play golf, and they jumped in straight away,” says Bédard from Paris, where it was 8 p.m. on Thursday evening.
Impressed with the format
Bédard had had a hard day. Leaving Montreal on Wednesday, he arrived in Paris to learn that his flight to Bordeaux had been canceled due to a few centimeters of snow. He was forced to hold the press conference via video conference.
It's the same when it snows with our cousins.
“We're going to have fun,” Bédard said of the new adventure that awaited him.
“I was impressed by what I saw when I attended a game. The team plays in a stadium with a capacity of 3,500 seats. It's super organized! The teams operate on similar budgets to the QMJHL [autour d’un million].”
The Magnus League consists of around a dozen teams spread across the cities of Rouen, Angers, Grenoble, Marseille, Cergy-Pontoise, Amiens, Chamonix, Nice, Gap, Briançon, Anglet and Bordeaux. These are very good places for foreign players who want to continue their career after junior training or later in their sporting life.
“It’s better than playing in remote corners of the United States,” argues Bédard.
“Each team can field 10 players from outside the country. Enabling local players to play in Bordeaux is one of our group's goals. It could also be with other teams in the league.”
The boxers already have five players from Quebec in training. Looking diagonally through the ranks of the other French teams, we discover that Nikita Scherbak, the Canadian's first pick in the 2014 draft, plays in Angers.
A natural one
The arrival of the Bédard-Roy-Tanguay trio to the Bordeaux boxers is also part of the continuity of relations between Quebecers and Bordeaux residents. The cities of Bordeaux and Quebec have been sister cities for almost 62 years. In addition, a cooperation program has linked the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region and Quebec for 25 years.
Boxers general manager Stéphan Tartari played three seasons with the Harfangs de Beauport, the former Quebec team in the QMJHL. His partner is from Quebec.
The Quebec players will not be the only ones to benefit from the partnership between the new Quebec investors and the local owners of the Boxers de Bordeaux. Your teammates will also benefit.
“The only arena in the city is closed in summer due to the great heat that prevails in the region,” explained Bédard.
“The players on our team will have the opportunity to train in Quebec during the summer season. French ice hockey is in turmoil. The World Cup [printanier] will take place in France for the first time in 2028.”
In addition, the candidacy of the French Alps is so far the only one adopted by the International Olympic Committee for the presentation of the 2030 Winter Games.
Could we see Patrick Roy behind the Blues bench?