Per Friedman: Coyotes players told team moving to Utah starting next season (Mod warning post #50)

[Empoleon8771]

QC had been ready since forever. They have an NHL caliber arena ready. It's not about Canada vs. The states for me, it's about overlooking a city having shown readiness for a decade with a history in the NHL.

Quebec City is the same size as Winnipeg while QC would have to contend with the Habs for fans. That's why Quebec City continues to get overlooked for teams.

It's the same reason that Hartford is never going to get another NHL team. Hartford can't contend with the Bruins and Rangers.

 

[Transplanted Caper]

How do they possibly rebrand a team and get set up in a brand new city between now and the start of next season? Will they just play as the Yotes for next year then reveal the actual SLC team for 2025-26?

It's only public, now. Much like WPG, Smith and SLC were on stand-by and ready to go. They didn't call him this week to get the ball rolling, Things were no doubt in place for months.

 

[lakeshirts37]

QC had been ready since forever. They have an NHL caliber arena ready. It's not about Canada vs. The states for me, it's about overlooking a city having shown readiness for a decade with a history in the NHL.

Enough with QC - its literally never happening.

 

[Empoleon8771]

Tell me you know nothing about QC or why the city doesn't have a team without telling me you nothing.

"Located in the league’s smallest market — the Quebec metropolitan area now has about 800,000 people — the Nordiques struggled financially for years and left for Denver in 1995."

Quebec Still Longs for Its Lost Hockey Team, a Nationalist Symbol

Ever since the Quebec Nordiques decamped in 1995, leaving a hole in the Francophone city, vote-seeking officials have vowed to bring them back. But younger voters may be starting to forget the team.

www.nytimes.com

QC doesn't have a team because it wasn't making money in the 90s and the NHL doesn't view it as a legitimate market due to its size and battling with fans for Montreal.

 

[NotASheep]

Players told it is a done deal as per friedman

 

[BB79]

I'm guessing this is where they'd play in SLC?



Compared to the Mullett-



Maverik was built in the late 90s for the 2002 Winter Olympics and holds around 12,600 from what I've read. I'm guessing they would build something new and play there in the interm.

 

[GAGLine]

Call them the monsters after the North Shore Monster

 

[robertocarlos]

There will be an NHL team in Mexico City before there's an NHL team in Quebec City. Probably the Mexico City Jets.

 

[NotASheep]

The uta

I'm guessing this is where they'd play in SLC?



Compared to the Mullett-



Maverik was built in the late 90s for the 2002 Winter Olympics and holds around 12,600 from what I've read. I'm guessing they would build something new and play there in the interm.

14250 for hockey

 

[Megustaelhockey]

Should have been Quebec City

Why? Hockey is not Canada's birthright.

Teams have to make money. The end.

 

[Tawnos]

No one bad mouthing SLC, Utah, a potential fanbase, etc has likely ever been to the state let alone knows anything about it besides "Utah = Mormons" which is essentially just religious bigotry anyways. The amount of factually incorrect information I read about this state across the internet is wild. It's why I understand if a players initial reaction to moving here is negative, because I had these uninformed opinions before moving here a few years ago.

I'm not saying it's a perfect place by any means and I'm shocked by how much I've felt the need to defend it because I complain about little stuff all the time living here. With that said, for everything I miss about being in the SF Bay Area, there is something I love more about being here.

Come visit before you talk shit. Or don't and keep the cost of living down.


Hey look another person who doesn't know anything about the metro area. It's ~2m+ people within 30-45 minutes of Delta center. Next

By the end of this saga I'm going to end up throwing away 25+ years of Sharks fandom to support SLC just to spite everyone who said Utah sucks and it will never work. Dear lord

Again, I was saying Saskatoon has less than 500k. I’ve been the main person in this thread pointing out the real number in the metro. Like I said earlier, it’s 2.7 million within 50 miles of the city limits (what the NHL defines as the team’s territory)

 

[SjMilhouse]

I'm guessing this is where they'd play in SLC?



Compared to the Mullett-



Maverik was built in the late 90s for the 2002 Winter Olympics and holds around 12,600 from what I've read. I'm guessing they would build something new and play there in the interm.

Reports were Smith plans to have them play in Delta Center and make enhancements/updates to make it more hockey friendly ahead of a new arena...which with this move I assume will happen sooner than planned.

 

[LPHabsFan]

"Located in the league’s smallest market — the Quebec metropolitan area now has about 800,000 people — the Nordiques struggled financially for years and left for Denver in 1995."

Quebec Still Longs for Its Lost Hockey Team, a Nationalist Symbol

Ever since the Quebec Nordiques decamped in 1995, leaving a hole in the Francophone city, vote-seeking officials have vowed to bring them back. But younger voters may be starting to forget the team.

www.nytimes.com

QC doesn't have a team because it wasn't making money in the 90s and the NHL doesn't view it as a legitimate market due to its size and battling with fans for Montreal.

You talk about the size of the market and yet since then, you had 1 team (will be two teams now) with market sizes multiple times bigger fail and fail spectacularly. Along with that, saying that the market is only 800k completely ignores what makes the market workable. Similar to the idea about competing with Habs fans and it already being a "hockey saturated market".

That's on the business side. On the personal side, it's much more complicated.

 

[lakeshirts37]

Does SLC keep the team as the Coyotes, or will they rename the franchise?

They need to get rid of the Coyotes stink

 

[MessierII]

Why? Hockey is not Canada's birthright.

Teams have to make money. The end.

lol no they don’t. If they did Phoenix would have moved about 15 years ago.

 

[Gravity]

Quebec City is the same size as Winnipeg while QC would have to contend with the Habs for fans. That's why Quebec City continues to get overlooked for teams.

It's the same reason that Hartford is never going to get another NHL team. Hartford can't contend with the Bruins and Rangers.

Difference is outside of Montreal, lots of people in QC hate the Habs. Easiest example to illustrate this is Patrice Bergeron.

They can be ready all they want but a colder city smaller than Winnipeg where nobody who isn't francophone is gonna want to play, where the canadian dollar is 70 cents, the economy is in shambles with no end in sight, is not a viable option long term. It's a beautiful city. It's not an NHL city.

They lasted in the NHL the first time around for 16 years. The language barrier is far from being as strong as you describe as many people there are bilingual. I agree with you that the economy isn't great at the moment but this shouldn't be a long term deterrent for an NHL franchise provided there's an owner with deep pockets willing to forego short term economic losses for longer term profits.

 

[Empoleon8771]

You talk about the size of the market and yet since then, you had 1 team (will be two teams now) with market sizes multiple times bigger fail and fail spectacularly. Along with that, saying that the market is only 800k completely ignores what makes the market workable. Similar to the idea about competing with Habs fans and it already being a "hockey saturated market".

That's on the business side. On the personal side, it's much more complicated.

Okay? That doesn't change the fact that the NHL isn't going back to Quebec City because it's not a viable market due to its size.

You can put tinfoil hats on and say it's some sort of grand conspiracy, but the reality is that Quebec City is just not a good NHL market and the NHL realizes that.

They lasted in the NHL the first time around for 16 years. The language barrier is far from being as strong as you describe as many people there are bilingual. I agree with you that the economy isn't great at the moment but this shouldn't be a long term deterrent for an NHL franchise provided there's an owner with deep pockets willing to forego short term economic losses for longer term profits.

Any owner that would agree to do this rather than get an expansion team in somewhere like Houston would be an absolute buffoon.

 

[BB79]

Should have been Quebec City

I'd love to see the old Adams division complete with the Whalers and Nords again but I doubt it's ever going to happen. Quebec also has to deal with being Montreal's little brother, plus the Canadian to USD exchange rate, which helped kill them in the first place, is pretty abysmal yet again

 

[Spring in Fialta]

Okay? That doesn't change the fact that the NHL isn't going back to Quebec City because it's not a viable market due to its size.

You can put tinfoil hats on and say it's some sort of grand conspiracy, but the reality is that Quebec City is just not a good NHL market and the NHL realizes that.



Any owner that would agree to do this rather than get an expansion team in somewhere like Houston would be an absolute buffoon.

QC is too small for a team but the idea that it would compete with Montreal for fans is dumb and something you pulled out of your ass.

 

[Leonardo87]

Folks,

Please do not troll or flame Arizona fans. Show some respect.

Thank you.

 

[Ted Hoffman]

The entire "Quebec City should have an NHL team" thread probably merits its own thread.

Or, try adding to this one, already in progress.

 

[Megustaelhockey]

Folks,

Please do not troll or flame Arizona fans. Show some respect.

Thank you.

Anyone who does this really needs to take a long look in the mirror.

 

[biturbo19]

Quebec City is the same size as Winnipeg while QC would have to contend with the Habs for fans. That's why Quebec City continues to get overlooked for teams.

It's the same reason that Hartford is never going to get another NHL team. Hartford can't contend with the Bruins and Rangers.

Yeah. This is the thing people don't get about Quebec. It's stupid that they're ready and waiting and would absolutely support a team, but can't have one. But it's a business thing. The reality is...Quebec City is a puny TV market and it's a market that is already saturated with hockey fans served by the Canadiens and the existing TV deal with Rogers and the rights sold off to TSN/TVA/RDS or whatever. There's just not very much more to bleed from that market in additional revenue terms or advertising.


Salt Lake City/Utah is a relatively "untapped" market. It might have some crossover with Denver/Colorado, but there's a lot more left to expand their viewer base in Utah with a team. It's also likely to still hang onto other parts of that Southwest demographic that haven't already been swallowed up by Vegas/Dallas.

 

[Oscar Lindberg]

why do people not like Ryan Smith? I know nothing about him outside of him owning the Jazz. And it doesn’t seem like he’s that rich tbh

2.2 billion is pocket change these days

 

[Chainshot]

Condolences to Coyote fans.