New Information Reveals NHL Turned Down Canadian City For Expansion Franchise
It was recently revealed that Quebec billionaire Luc Poirier who is one of the largest land developers in the province attempted to land an NHL franchise in Quebec City to which he was turned down.
It was reported that he had a presentation assembled and was willing to pay the $380 million that both Bill Daly and commissioner Gary Bettman were looking for to move the troubled Arizona Coyotes to Quebec City. The capital of Quebec is home to the Videotron Center which was built and then opened in 2015.
Unfortunately, both men in charge of the NHL had other ideas as Ryan Smith of the Smith Entertainment Group who are owners of the Utah Jazz of the NBA had been contacted by Bettman and worked out a deal between the NHL, Smith and outgoing Coyotes owner Alex Murello to secure the fastest purchase and complex agreement in NHL history to see the Coyotes move to Salt Lake City in the Delta Center.
Several years earlier, the Quebec City area was also involved in trying to secure an NHL expansion team which would have cost Poirier $800 million dollars as turned out to be the Seattle Kraken. The local bid from Quebec in my opinion met the criteria as they had an NHL ready building, a fan base willing to buy season tickets on moments notice and general overall love for the game of hockey. This too was also declined, and the franchise was awarded to the Emerald City.
The arena is designed to have 18,000 seats for hockey which is right on par with what the NHL requires. It is home to the Quebec Remparts who are part of the QMJHL. That team always sells out its games and the arena has even hosted recently two NHL preseason games between Los Angeles Kings against the Bruins and the Florida Panthers. Both games were at near capacity and clearly shows that the city is starving for NHL hockey.
It said to say that Quebec City will likely try again if expansion or a relocation were to occur. But at this time, it appears that it's unlikely they will be awarded a team if Bettman and Daly oversee the NHL.
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