October 20, 2009

Quebec floats $400m arena, all with public money

Quebec City Mayor Régis Labeaume says he wants to build a $400 million arena to lure the NHL back to his city for the first time since the Nordiques left for Denver in 1995. He doesn't want to pay for building it, mind you — Labeaume has offered to kick in $50 million, but is expecting the provincial and federal governments to pay for the rest, saying they've spent similar sums building sports facilities for other cities. (Nothing's leaping to mind that was of that scale, but maybe Labeaume has a lenient notion of similar.)

"The current Colisee is a relic from another era," said Labeaume. "The time has come to offer our population a modern arena... A modern nordic city needs a modern arena." (I know, I know — presumably it made more sense in French.) Ex-Nordiques owner Marcel Aubut chimed in that NHL commissioner Gary Bettman told him that a new arena to replace the 59-year-old Colisee was the only way to get the league to return.

No one involved, including Bettman, gave any indication of where a new team would come from &mdash though there are several NHL teams thought to be interested in relocating — but Labeaume said construction wasn't contingent on having an actual team to play there. Here we go again...