The Out of Town Thread CVIII - Free Agency Edition

[DenverHabsFan]

Well it also costs a crap load to own a hockey team and it's not like there's a bunch of folks that can just commit to bringing an expansion team..

If Québecor can make it happen..it would be great to have the diques back.

I just came back from my annual trip to Qc and got to see the new arena up close. It's hard not to be skeptical about the whole thing:

- Between public and private money, you're talking about $900M for a relatively small city. Hard to imagine they'll be able to sell out beyond the initial excitement.

- The architecture of the building is boring as hell. From a distance, it looks like someone installed a smoke detector in the middle of the lower plateau.

- Having lived near the old arena during my youth, I can't imagine how bad it will be to try to exit the new stadium after a game. The road infrastructure is terrible and there is no room to make the major roads wider. I could see that being a factor that would eventually discourage attendance. There is no comparison with here in Denver. We have about 2-3M people if you count the suburbs and there are about 8-10 lanes to get out of the arena. Even on busy nights, the arena empties and the traffic is gone in less than 15 minutes.

Regardless, it would be nice to have the rivalry back to weed out some of our faux fans.

 

[SergeConstantin74]

Who cares about what it looks like from the outside? It looks great at the front with the big entrance. The Bell Center doesn't have the best look from the outside either. I've seen the inside of the Centre Videotron and it's really great.

 

[DenverHabsFan]

Who cares about what it looks like from the outside? It looks great at the front with the big entrance. The Bell Center doesn't have the best look from the outside either. I've seen the inside of the Centre Videotron and it's really great.

It's actually the most common thing I heard from family, other local residents and on the radio and the reason is simple: Montreal has an elaborate skyline and the Bell Center would not stand out anyway. In Qc, the Centre Videotron sits on a relatively flat plateau with no other towering buildings around. They had a chance to make an architectural statement and redefine the skyline and blew it. But yes, I agree the facilities inside are fantastic, though.

 

[SergeConstantin74]

It's actually the most common thing I heard from family, other local residents and on the radio and the reason is simple: Montreal has an elaborate skyline and the Bell Center would not stand out anyway. In Qc, the Centre Videotron sits on a relatively flat plateau with no other towering buildings around. They had a chance to make an architectural statement and redefine the skyline and blew it. But yes, I agree the facilities inside are fantastic, though.

At the same it, they didn't want to spend more and they did a good job with that. They had to make choices based upon that so they spent the money inside rather than outside.

I just think that there is too much emphasis on its look rather than on its potential for Quebec City.

Like I said, I like the look at the front entrance with the big "Place des fans".

 

[FlyingKostitsyn]

I just came back from my annual trip to Qc and got to see the new arena up close. It's hard not to be skeptical about the whole thing:

- Between public and private money, you're talking about $900M for a relatively small city. Hard to imagine they'll be able to sell out beyond the initial excitement.

- The architecture of the building is boring as hell. From a distance, it looks like someone installed a smoke detector in the middle of the lower plateau.

- Having lived near the old arena during my youth, I can't imagine how bad it will be to try to exit the new stadium after a game. The road infrastructure is terrible and there is no room to make the major roads wider. I could see that being a factor that would eventually discourage attendance. There is no comparison with here in Denver. We have about 2-3M people if you count the suburbs and there are about 8-10 lanes to get out of the arena. Even on busy nights, the arena empties and the traffic is gone in less than 15 minutes.

People are going to scatter in several directions tho, I'm not really that worried about traffic. Traffic is a non-issue in Quebec city anyways, despite what people from the city say. ''OH I was stuck at least 15 minutes on Henry IV! I was going 20kmh can you imagine!?''. Big deal in Montreal they get stuck like 2 hours without moving.
Sooo I doubt there is going to be a problem, especially in that area. People can go west to take Laurentienne HWY, north for the HWY 40, east for Dufferin ect. Sure the blds to get there are not wide but it really helps that the arena is in a central location and not outside the city with everyone going back the same way.

As for the arena's looks, I think its a fine building. Not too extravagant, not too boring. Its still going to be one of the best looking in the league, I mean its an arena, pretty difficult not to give it a smoke detector look without it being a huge rectangular box. Its also going to help bringing value to that area, all the new towers are being built in Ste-Foy (including the 60-story tall phallic symbol) so at least Limoilou gets something.

 

[Adriatic]

I find it looks pretty nice, reminds me of some european soccer stadiums from the outside. The inside looks stunning by the way. You have to remember they didn't have an unlimited budget for this. To have a state of the art arena and at the same time be able to make an architectural statement as some suggested takes a lot of money. Look at Bell Center, looks absolutely horrible from the outside. If it wasn't for the Habs logo you would have trouble guessing it was an arena.

 

[Monctonscout]

I think it would be dumb to name them the Nordiques, that franchise already failed and is in Colorado.

Get a new name and find a new identity. I also thought it was dumb in Winnipeg...the Jets are in Phoenix!

 

[Weber Fan]

I think it would be dumb to name them the Nordiques, that franchise already failed and is in Colorado.

Get a new name and find a new identity. I also thought it was dumb in Winnipeg...the Jets are in Phoenix!

100% sure it will be the Nordiques...

 

[macavoy]

100% sure it will be the Nordiques...

If I was the Avalanche, I would charge them $50m if they wanted the rights to the name the Nordiques. Didn't the league own the Yotes when Atlanta moved to the Peg?

 

[DAChampion]

I think it would be dumb to name them the Nordiques, that franchise already failed and is in Colorado.

Get a new name and find a new identity. I also thought it was dumb in Winnipeg...the Jets are in Phoenix!

Don't be pedantic, the Jets are not in Phoenix.

 

[Rapala]

Brand Power Baby.

The LV Slots hahahaha

 

[Team_Spirit]

Did you see that ? Only 3,500 people watch the Panthers on TV.

http://www.tvasports.ca/2015/07/16/panthers--des-cotes-decoute-anemiques

 

[DenverHabsFan]

Did you see that ? Only 3,500 people watch the Panthers on TV.

http://www.tvasports.ca/2015/07/16/panthers--des-cotes-decoute-anemiques

Wow, I would think that's fewer people than the number who watched "Défi mini-putt" with Serge Vleminckz.

 

[LaP]

Wow, I would think that's fewer people than the number who watched "Défi mini-putt" with Serge Vleminckz.

Yeah but you can't really compare legends like Carl Carmoni and Serge Vleminckz to the Panthers.

I think it's amazing that the Panthers can even be remotely close to a legend like Carmoni.

 

[SergeConstantin74]

If I was the Avalanche, I would charge them $50m if they wanted the rights to the name the Nordiques. Didn't the league own the Yotes when Atlanta moved to the Peg?

The Avalanche doesn't own the name, it's the NHL.

The NHL was also owning the Jets name.

 

[MTL-rules]

I just came back from my annual trip to Qc and got to see the new arena up close. It's hard not to be skeptical about the whole thing:

- Between public and private money, you're talking about $900M for a relatively small city. Hard to imagine they'll be able to sell out beyond the initial excitement.

- The architecture of the building is boring as hell. From a distance, it looks like someone installed a smoke detector in the middle of the lower plateau.

- Having lived near the old arena during my youth, I can't imagine how bad it will be to try to exit the new stadium after a game. The road infrastructure is terrible and there is no room to make the major roads wider. I could see that being a factor that would eventually discourage attendance. There is no comparison with here in Denver. We have about 2-3M people if you count the suburbs and there are about 8-10 lanes to get out of the arena. Even on busy nights, the arena empties and the traffic is gone in less than 15 minutes.

Regardless, it would be nice to have the rivalry back to weed out some of our faux fans.

They will sell out... no doubt there. There is already 10-15 000 people if not more each Rouge et Or and Rempart games...

As for the 900 millions... for Quebecor, the 400 millions the tax payers dished out is a none factor, we are the idiots, espacially the provencial government who won't see much of it, perhaps in players taxes.

As for the 500 millions, it doesn't matter much for Quebecor. For them it's the operationnal costs. Since they are a TV network, they can even afford to lose a bit of money with the Nordiques, as long as they can improve their ratings and ad money.

The 500 millions is a lot to start with, and they'll probably get some help from the Caisse de dépot, but as long as the value of the franchise rises, it doesn't matter, it's actually very good for them.

All in all, having a tv network being the owner is pretty much a garanteed economical success... it would be dumb from the league to reject their submission... but we've seen a lot of stupidity from Bettman over the years.

 

[DenverHabsFan]

They will sell out... no doubt there. There is already 10-15 000 people if not more each Rouge et Or and Rempart games...

Yeah but don't forget those games are cheap. Qc has a much, much smaller population than Mtl. The Habs have an unlimited supply of people willing to pay $200 a ticket to watch them grind all night.

I lived in Qc during the peak of the rivalry when the Nords had a really exciting team and yet their marketing department had to work 24/7 on promoting games and giving away tickets.

Granted, there is more money in the area now but it will be interesting to see how expensive the tickets will be and how much the market can bear.

 

[SergeConstantin74]

Yeah but don't forget those games are cheap. Qc has a much, much smaller population than Mtl. The Habs have an unlimited supply of people willing to pay $200 a ticket to watch them grind all night.

I lived in Qc during the peak of the rivalry when the Nords had a really exciting team and yet their marketing department had to work 24/7 on promoting games and giving away tickets.

Granted, there is more money in the area now but it will be interesting to see how expensive the tickets will be and how much the market can bear.

It's not like only people from Quebec will go to games.

 

[Ezpz]

The Avalanche doesn't own the name, it's the NHL.

The NHL was also owning the Jets name.

Pretty sure the Avs own it. Only reason NHL owned the Jets name was because they owned Phoenix.

 

[LaP]

At the same it, they didn't want to spend more and they did a good job with that. They had to make choices based upon that so they spent the money inside rather than outside.

I just think that there is too much emphasis on its look rather than on its potential for Quebec City.

Like I said, I like the look at the front entrance with the big "Place des fans".

Honestly it doesn't look bad.

I pass next to it every work day and it looks okay. In winter i would say it looks even good. In summer it looks a little bit odd and out of place but that's something they will be able to improve with lightning.

It cloud look better but it could be a lot worse.

 

[SergeConstantin74]

Pretty sure the Avs own it. Only reason NHL owned the Jets name was because they owned Phoenix.

No they don't.

The team owns the history, NHL owns the name and logo.

 

[SergeConstantin74]

 

[the]

Yeah but don't forget those games are cheap. Qc has a much, much smaller population than Mtl. The Habs have an unlimited supply of people willing to pay $200 a ticket to watch them grind all night.

I lived in Qc during the peak of the rivalry when the Nords had a really exciting team and yet their marketing department had to work 24/7 on promoting games and giving away tickets.

Granted, there is more money in the area now but it will be interesting to see how expensive the tickets will be and how much the market can bear.

Tickets are hard to find and too expensive around here. If it takes a 2 and half hour drive to get dirt cheap tickets to see some NHL hockey then I believe going to Quebec city is a nice alternative for Montrealers.

 

[LaP]

It's not like only people from Quebec will go to games.

The main obstacle for Quebec City is the lack of a bridge or tunnel between Québec and Lévis. Instead of taking you 10-15 minutes to go from Lévis to Québec it takes something like 30-40 minutes (can be more if there's lot of traffic).

If you go watch a game with kids that a big difference specially since there's lot of traffic when the game ends. For people living in Lévis it's not that bad but for people farther like Lac-Etchemin or Montmagny and all the villages in between this is a killer.

 

[loudi94]

I still can't believe how many free agents are out there. Hard to think that there wasn't some discussion amongst Gms to move towards youth.