News Article: Quebec City, Andlauer and the Sparticat Fiasco

[frightenedinmatenum2]

Hayes makes some good points towards the end. Garrioch says there were people within the org that said this was a bad idea, and based on the reaction, they’ll play the preseason games there next season but the chances of a regular season game have gone up in smoke.

Hopefully a lesson learned for Mr. Andlauer.

This is why I think it's a work.

Either we're dealing with an arrogant and out-of-touch owner, who doesn't understand the market and fails to listen to those who do - or they wanted to incite a specific reaction in the city while maintaining plausible deniability that they aren't actually trying to remind the NCC that Quebec wants a team. Because doing that openly would cause too much turbulence in the fanbase.

My assumption is that they got exactly what they wanted out of this. Relocation became a big topic, but most fans after going scorched earth on social media forgave the team and believed them when they said it was just a big oopsie.

If this was genuinely an innocent business deal that had nothing to do with politics and they were too stupid and out-of-touch to see how it would be perceived, then as a paying customer I certainly am concerned about what kind of product I can expect from them going forward because it's pretty clear that they don't understand a thing about the city or fanbase.

 

[Golden_Jet]

I was referencing how they justified this as reaching out to potential TV viewers as a bad business plan if Montreal is also in that territory. Because it's unlikely that they are going to convince fans to switch who have already chosen Montreal.

Nobody is trying to switch current fans, they are trying to catch some new fans, or possibly kids,

I brought up the original deal and said that someone should directly ask the team if that deal is still active,

Yes it is

and if it only covers the city limits -

What, but no

or if it is an exchange of the entire territory.

Yes

In short, are regional Canadiens games also shown in Quebec City,

Yes

or is it only the Senators.

No


It has been this way for a long time.
The Habs regional games are all shown in the Senators market (not blacked out), likewise
The Sens regional games are available in all of the Habs region.
Stylizer, I see has already gave the timeline, when it started.

I don’t see why many would complain about getting extra games, that you normally wouldn’t have. Those with the full Centre ice package, wouldn’t matter either way.

I’ll watch the habs game, if Sens aren’t playing.
Not sure the issue, with sharing regions,
as fans of hockey, come out ahead.

 

[Tnuoc Alucard]

No that would be wrong ,

Sportsnet shows National games, about 1/3 of schedule.

TSN shows regional games, about 2/3 of schedule,

Sportsnet does not have any Senators regional games, and haven’t for 11 years now.

Deep seek is wrong then…. Guess there’s o thing to worry about

 

[ATdaisuki]

I would also love to see the Sens play regular season games in Quebec City....against the Nordiques. Maybe we can get Colorado to sacrifice a home game and play them there.

 

[Golden_Jet]

Andlauer was asked and said that’s the vision, and something about how if they can play in Sweden they can play in Quebec.

Garrioch said last time the 5 games got out it killed the idea, and it seems like that’s likely to happen again.

I don’t really care if they play there personally but I also think it’s kind of dumb for regular season games. Maybe if you do stuff in pre-season for long enough and you feel like you’ve legit built a good Sens base it would make sense to throw them a bone. But I think saying it’s “the vision” is a little drastic.

Yep also said, would start with an exhibition or 2, and if that worked out, could lead to a regular season game in the future.

 

[Dan Patrick]

Can we get a mod in here to clean up the non-Lebreton talk. If people want to moan about the half jersey or pre vs reg season games in Quebec take it somewhere else

@AchtzehnBaby @Micklebot

 

[IpsoPostFacto]

I would also love to see the Sens play regular season games in Quebec City....against the Nordiques. Maybe we can get Colorado to sacrifice a home game and play them there.

Damn you. I was raging until the ellipses.

 

[Stylizer1]

Can we get a mod in here to clean up the non-Lebreton talk. If people want to moan about the half jersey or pre vs reg season games in Quebec take it somewhere else

@AchtzehnBaby @Micklebot

Seriously?

 

[JD1]

Interesting. I’m of the opinion that I would support the idea IF the games were the dregs of the schedule.

Nope. I am 100% out if that happens. Frankly it's embarrassing playing in multiple canadian cities to generate revenue. It was embarrassing seeing the jersey mash

I watched the whole thing. To me when he says that's the vision he is referring to the vision of preseason games. In the written sequence there it appears worse than it is. I can't remember if the Sweden part fell right after the vision part (as represented there) but he never sold the regular season games as 'the vision' in the presser. He was very clear that that is outside their control.

He certainly didn't discount the idea to the extent that he should have, and that much is clear by the reaction. But my opinion is he was just playing to the market he was speaking in front of, selling his product by dangling some hope.

He never should have brought it up. Regular season that is

 

[Golden_Jet]

Nope. I am 100% out if that happens. Frankly it's embarrassing playing in multiple canadian cities to generate revenue. It was embarrassing seeing the jersey mash

Agree on the jersey

He never should have brought it up. Regular season that is

In a couple of years there will be games in non NHL cities. by most teams. They did it before with the 84 game schedule, and that’s likely only a year or 2 away from happening again. 84 game likely in the new CBA, unless they bring it in next year. They’ve already had discussions on it with PA, pre season schedule would drop to 4 games.

So out of town games is coming again, just a matter of which year it starts.

 

[GCK]

Agree on the jersey

In a couple of years there will be games in non NHL cities. by most teams. They did it before with the 84 game schedule, and that’s likely only a year or 2 away from happening again. 84 game likely in the new CBA, unless they bring it in next year. They’ve already had discussions on it with PA, pre season schedule would drop to 4 games.

So out of town games is coming again, just a matter of which year it starts.

Exactly. Neutral sites are coming back.

 

[JD1]

Agree on the jersey

In a couple of years there will be games in non NHL cities. by most teams. They did it before with the 84 game schedule, and that’s likely only a year or 2 away from happening again. 84 game likely in the new CBA, unless they bring it in next year. They’ve already had discussions on it with PA, pre season schedule would drop to 4 games.

So out of town games is coming again, just a matter of which year it starts.

And if it is a league wide thing I won't have an issue with it.

 

[Golden_Jet]

And if it is a league wide thing I won't have an issue with it.

Yep when they did it for 2 years, 2 games were neutral sites. Here is a list of cities they went to last time.

Thread 'Neutral Site Games'

May 1, 2006

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?

• Shootmaster_44
• Replies: 14
• Forum: The History of Hockey

 

[AchtzehnBaby]

Can we get a mod in here to clean up the non-Lebreton talk. If people want to moan about the half jersey or pre vs reg season games in Quebec take it somewhere else

@AchtzehnBaby @Micklebot

I am just going to move it all into a general andlauerout thread

 

[AchtzehnBaby]

--

 

[PlayersLtd]

Nope. I am 100% out if that happens. Frankly it's embarrassing playing in multiple canadian cities to generate revenue. It was embarrassing seeing the jersey mash


He never should have brought it up. Regular season that is

He didn't bring it up, a reporter asked the question. He chuckled at the nature of the question and his immediate answer was that it's not even up to them. He never should have entertained it though, if that's what you mean then you are right.

 

[starling]

Sens Twitter is still a thing? I thought it was dead.

And holy shit so many insecure snowflakes out there. I never expected all that drama.

 

[frightenedinmatenum2]

I am just going to move it all into a general andlauerout thread

Who was the catfish?

 

[aragorn]

Who knows what really took place whether it was a ploy to get the Federal Gov to move faster to get a downtown arena which is impossible or maybe it was his plan all along to buy the team & move it to Quebec City to revive the Montreal - Quebec City rivalry? Andlauer is from the Montreal org afterall.

Given what this fan base has been through with Melnyk it was an incredible insensitive thoughtless & basically a really stupid thing to do & it's all the owners fault. I would be against any games in a city that is begging for an NHL franchise especially with the Sens who are a small market team that has almost lost this team before a few times including to Quebec City before. For Andlauer not to have known any of this is suspect, he has become untrustworthy. After 30 yrs of trying to turn Montreal fans into Sens fans it has yet to work, why aren't they trying to turn Leaf fans into Sens fans? Likely because it will be the same result. Why aren't they having exhibition games in Hamilton?

 

[JD1]

He didn't bring it up, a reporter asked the question. He chuckled at the nature of the question and his immediate answer was that it's not even up to them. He never should have entertained it though, if that's what you mean then you are right.

that's what i mean, he shouldn't have entertained that. He should have shut it down. Instantly

 

[Rand0m]

The whole pre-season game is fine, heck a special regular season game I could be onboard with, but the Sparty split jersey was just plain dumb.

Someone had to sit down, come up with a design idea, gather 2 oversized jerseys, cut them up and sow them back up together. And no one in the whole organization put a stop to this non-sense? They’re literally putting on the jersey of another NHL team as the Avs have used it as a 3rd not too long ago. What’s next, painting the Leafs logo at center ice for their next game at CTC?

I was born in Quebec City, grew up a Nordiques fan, then moved to the Ottawa area a few years before the Sens came back. I have ticket stubs from a few Senators-Nordiques games. I think after all these years, pandering to Nordiques fans is just a waste of time, no one is still a fan of the Nordiques since they haven’t existed for 3 decades. They just like the logo and the nostalgia related to it.

Guess Sens marketing is still as horrible as it always was.

 

[HoweHullOrr]

Poor SpartaCat. Will somebody please think of the mascots. Hands off Spartie & the Nordiques should get their own mascot.

On a more serious note, if they play a couple of exhibition games in Quebec, that’s one thing. If they reduce the number of regular home season games, I can see season ticket holders being upset (with justification).