There has been talk in the media about an expansion franchise in Halifax but I think Quebec City will be a better choice. I don't think there are enough CFL fans inAtlantic Canadato support a team there. I do know that football has become very popular in Quebec and a team in the province's capital will create anew rivalry for the Als. I say let's get an expansion franchise in Quebec City.
Not going to happen as Laval controls football there. Been discussed here so often over the years. There is no ownership group either that have come forward as they know it's a no go.
And yesterday Bettman told them they may never get an NHL club
What's 400 million when you owe 280 Billion dollars anyway.
LMAO
Probably be a team there except that PEPs stadium is a no go for the CFL . Potential owners wanted to expand stadium for the CFL and the university said no way Jose . Now they placed a building on the one side so there is no chance using PEPS unless they place a deck over top of it . They already expanded with an upper deck with government funding to the other side years ago .
After Atlantic Canada gets going maybe somebody with deep pockets from Quebec City will attempt another discussion into fitting a team at PEPS with a nice donation to the University to get the stadium suited to CFL standards . They might also have to have Alouettes permission but I doubt they will stop a team coming to QC as they will benefit with the provincial rival .
Need about 10,000 seats more with some suites .
Would be a great rival for Montreal and help with growing viewers in Quebec
for TV sponsors .
They will never get an nhl team as long as the arena is controlled by a separatist.
If it was controlled by a nationalist, I'm sure they would have had a team along side the golden-knights.
One Quebec team already can't sell 25,000 seats and has folded once or twice.
Let's give the Maritimes a stab at it.
3 pillars are needed to make a viable place to put a team.
- Market
- Venue
- Ownership
Quebec City only has the first box checked. Largest metro in the country without a team. A bit bigger than Winnipeg with a larger outlying area to draw from.
Box 2 is missing. Peps being too small even to expand and owned controlled by Laval who see the CFL as a competitor to the Rouge et Or program
Box 3 is missing. But without a stadium there's no chance. Palideau wouldn't get involved as long as RDS has exclusively. Even then a big maybe.
Yup, for the CFL to go into PEPs would be as bad a reflection on the CFL as the MLB going into the Big Owe in Montreal. Desperate looking. Not good.
Mind you, the NHL went into the Corral in Calgary with about 7500 seats I think way back when so who knows. But then Bettman wasn't around at that time.
No stadium, no owner, but most importantly no way (as of now) the Als are willing to give up their terratorial broadcast rights ( the thing that most people don’t realize makes the Als big money)
On the positive side, the market is big enough, has a football culture and the rivalry potential is a good as anything in the league
Those are the same thing. I think you mean federalist.
QC does not deserve a team period.
Anyone that forks over hard earned taxpayers nearly one half billion to pursue a team that they may never get is criminal.
Bettman loves it, now they can use QC as fodder to tell an NHL city build a better arena or else we'll move 'em to QC, just like Hamilton has been used for years albeit now FOC in Hamilton is too old and aged to be able to be used any more by Bettman and the NHL. QC has filled the void.
Gary Bettman turns up heat on Ottawa, Calgary to get arenas built
Very true. QC has just equipped Bettman with excellent negotiation firepower.
I think you nailed it here MG.
I say no.
Outside Montreal , there is not much CFL interest in Q.
They had a pre-season game in 2015 with Montreal - Ottawa.
4,000 went to the 12,000 seat stadium.
From the reports I read , many free tickets were given away and the 4,000 may have even been an inflation.
TOTAL AGREE WITH YOU! QC AND HALIFAX ARE A NO GO. NO FACILITY NO CFL FANS, NO MONEY!!
WHY DO WE BRING THEM UP Again & AGAIN. WOULD A TEAM IN THESE CITIES BE A DRAW IN OTHER CFL CITIES?? NO!! And lets not think 20,000 fans which is unsustainable. Think in 10 years 30,000 per game. Is this possible after 5 -10 years in basement. Better off with one division and 8 strong teams.
OR changes things up big time as NFL developmental league.
Same reason why some still think they might be their own country one day. Quebecers just keep bringing both fantasies up like they're real.
It's a better off season topic than right in the playoffs, but I reluctantly agree that QC would be a better place than the Atlantic Provinces.
In theory the Maritimes would be ideal, so that every Province would have a natural geographical rooting interest.
But alas. Quebec City is much larger. And football is popular there, with the emergence of Laval.
Ottawa would have to go with BC as their Labour Day rival if QC started up a team. Not ideal, again, as the Maritimes and BC could have the whole East Coast/West Coast thing going, maintaining Ottawa-Montreal. But again, it makes more sense realistically.
But yet nobody is actually trying to do it there. Maybe QC is hoping another Olympics is gonna roll in and build everything for them and then figure out too late that they got raped.
The stadium would be a garbage pro sports facility. You cannot simply plunk down 20 suites on top of the current structure and add another 10,000 general seats and think that is good enough. And that ignores the reality of the stadium being hemmed in one side by a building.
They would have to build a new stadium from the ground up and actually have an interested ownership group. We will see what happens over the next 5 or so years with the Halifax development. If it follows a similar timeline and development plan as Ottawa's Lansdowne development, it might provide some impetus for a local Quebec City ownership group to follow.