Quebec Taxpayers Spent Hundreds Of Millions On Arena

[UCFWayne]

http://deadspin.com/quebec-taxpayers-spent-hundreds-of-millions-on-an-nhl-r-1782674922

Canada saw all the various American cities doing the same exact thing and decided they needed to get in on the action as well.

 

[Bob the Citronaut]

At least it sort of looks cool.

 

[UCFWayne]

Looks like they are getting a Bryan Adams concert in July and a Celine Dion concert in August. That should probably make up for them not getting a NHL team.*

 

[ProAttitude]

I am looking forward to spending three weeks in Canada this summer. We are spending a lot less than we imagined for adventure, aye.

 

[jetsaholic]

That's because hockey sucks.

 

[UCFKnight85]

I got to Quebec City for business a lot; it's a beautiful city and has tons and tons of history. The Citadel was once one of the most important fortifications in the region and switched hands between the French and British 6 times.

It's also a flawed place, full of people who think they shouldn't speak any English, fly the Quebec flag instead of the Canadian flag everywhere, and want nothing to do with how "international" Montreal has become.

Also, people outside Quebec don't want to play there. Remember Eric Lindros flat out refusing to play for Quebec despite them drafting him?

 

[fabknight]

It's also a flawed place, full of people who think they shouldn't speak any English, fly the Quebec flag instead of the Canadian flag everywhere, and want nothing to do with how "international" Montreal has become.

That's just like Southern Heritage and the Stars and Bars.

 

[brahmanknight]

Also, people outside Quebec don't want to play there. Remember Eric Lindros flat out refusing to play for Quebec despite them drafting him?

Oh shit I forgot all about that!

As for the arena without a team, hey, what can I tell ya?

It worked for St. Pete ( built for baseball but temp home for the Lightning ), New Orleans, and Oklahoma City. I guess you could include Mile High Stadium, which went from primarily baseball, to primarily football.

Then there is the Alamodome, which focused on football but was also better than the Spurs old arena for about a decade.

 

[jetsaholic]

They should've built a soccer stadium instead. Soccer is the new black. Hockey is so 2001.

 

[UCFKnight85]

Oh shit I forgot all about that!

As for the arena without a team, hey, what can I tell ya?

It worked for St. Pete ( built for baseball but temp home for the Lightning ), New Orleans, and Oklahoma City. I guess you could include Mile High Stadium, which went from primarily baseball, to primarily football.

Then there is the Alamodome, which focused on football but was also better than the Spurs old arena for about a decade.

And all of those markets have relatively big TV markets around them. Quebec may draw well but there is no real TV market to capture and TV drives everything these days. People not immediately inside the city cheer for Montreal and virtually no one outside of Quebec would cheer for or watch them.

The drive from Montreal to Quebec has very little along the way. Going north of Quebec is basically no man's land.

 

[UCFBS]

I love how people complain about big business, when you have stories like this that basically showcase how government is the enabler in the first place. Make business survive on free market economies alone ... and things change radically.