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Ottawa Senators owner wants to play regular season games in Quebec City

I Hate Philadelphia said:
Writing is now officially on the wall for relocation.

Anyone who remembers what happened after the Montreal Expos started playing regular season games in Puerto Rico has already seen this story play out.

How's the construction on that new downtown Ottawa arena coming?
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Enjoy missing the playoffs this year, and starting your rebuild.
 
Team president Cyril Leeder, who's been with the franchise since Day 1 (except for the brief period after getting fired by Melnyk), did some damage control on the radio and said the Sens TV region extends all the way to the Maritimes so they're trying to cater to as much non-Montreal territory as possible. Sure, I get it, but I'd imagine a team in Ottawa of all places would probably be one of the last ones someone from Quebec City would cheer for.
 
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The Panther said:
Ottawa strikes me as a difficult city from a N.A. pro-sports' perspective.

It's not tiny enough to be really 'small market', but it's much too small to be a safe territory for the NHL. 80% of the fanbase grew up as Leafs or Canadiens' fans and a lot of French-speakers in the region are from Hull and/or grew up Montreal fans. It's a really conservative (i.e., government staffed), fairly dull, milquetoast city, with nothing 'sexy' to attract big-name athletes. Plus it has Canadian winters, though not as bad as in Winnipeg or Edmonton (and arguably Montreal and Calgary).

That said, it's a Canadian market, so you'd think it would be easier. But hockey is expensive.

Everyone misses Quebec City in the NHL! Why not change the Sens to be 1/2 based in Ottawa and 1/2 based in Quebec City? In Ottawa, they'll be called the St. Lawrence Senators and in Quebec City they'll be called les sénateurs de st. Laurent.
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I suggested this same concept with Buffalo / Hamilton call em the Niagara Sabres
 
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I think it's a good idea to play a game there a couple times to try and increase the Sens popularity in the region. Andlauer clearly wants to be Quebec's team for those who dislike the Habs, a role held by Tampa, Boston, Colorado. He's made a lot of overtures to Gatineau.

Is Thomas Chabot the best current player from the Québec City region?

There are some sensitive fans. The team should have thought out better how they presented the idea of Quebec. Andlauer probably was unknowing, but Mendes should have said "wait a minute guys" to the idea of Sparty in the split jersey.
 
All teams will be playing neutral site games in a year or 2 anyways, once the 84 game schedule is back in a year or 2. Both sides have already discussed this, and pre season will be shortened to 4 games.

Here is some neutral sites they played in the last time league had 84 games.

Shootmaster_44

Thread 'Neutral Site Games'

Does anyone have a list of games, dates and scores from the neutral site regular season games the NHL had during those few years in the early 90's?
 
Other than the L.A. Kings in the first three Gretzky seasons (1988-89 to 1990-91) and the Montreal Canadiens for most of their history, I'm not sure any NHL franchise has ever had better uniforms than les nordiques. The blue 'road' jerseys were great, but man they looked beautiful on home-ice in white:
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MV5BZDYwNTljOTEtNDkyMC00OWMxLWI0YzMtMDU0YWVkOGZkOTk1XkEyXkFqcGc@._V1_.jpg
 
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The owner is clearly just getting fans comfortable with the idea of Quebec City before he starts pitching relocation due to poor ticket sales/low average ticket cost. Ottawa has the cheapest tickets in Canada and moving the team 5 hours could lead to better attendance and double (or more) the ticket prices.

As a business centered individual, you'd be crazy not to explore it if the league lets you do that. The main question at that point will be if Bettman lets him - maybe Andlauer always playing the victim with Bettman is to lobby him to allow him to relocate it if he plans to through the constant guilt tripping.
 
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Divine said:
The owner is clearly just getting fans comfortable with the idea of Quebec City before he starts pitching relocation due to poor ticket sales/low average ticket cost. Ottawa has the cheapest tickets in Canada and moving the team 2 hours could lead to better attendance and double (or more) the ticket prices.

As a business centered individual, you'd be crazy not to explore it if the league lets you do that. The main question at that point will be if Bettman lets him - maybe Andlauer always playing the victim with Bettman is to lobby him to allow him to relocate it if he plans to.
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...Montreal is two hours away; they're not moving there...Quebec City is a bit further... :thumbu:
 
Divine said:
Clearly you don't consider this if you have enough paying customers. You're taking away home games from all your season ticket holders.
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Every team will be doing it in a year or 2, when the season is 84 games long in a year or 2, just like they did in the past.

Leafs played 3 games in Hamilton last time.
 
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I'm probably missing something important, but I don't see the big deal? There's a diaspora of fans of various Canadian (and for that matter American) teams in different parts of Canada, including Quebec and Atlantic Canada.

It would seem like a great opportunity for fans in smaller economy markets to get out and see a game without the burden of expense or travel. Would probably engender further loyalty in those markets, too.
 
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