A big , BIG day in Quebec city today for both the province's capital and the NHL
As some of you NHL fans may know, Quebec city is in the running to get back their NHL team, Les Nordiques, which they lost in 1995 (if I am correct) when they moved to colorado.
The subject is the most discussed topic in the NHL right now, and although there were already many reasons to believe a return of the canadian franchise is doable and likely to happen, the city and its mayor keep pushing and pushing to make things happen
The Mayor recently got Quebec's Prime minister to promise a 45% investment on his part, and while the federal didn't yet answer to such participation, a few days later they went out to say they are leaning towards financing the project, and the canadian law states that they should put in 45% or more of this money...
The persisting problem though is that Stephen Harper is still hesitating to approve the federal imput, and the major reason is he would lose a lot of the support he gets from voters in the western part of the country ... on the other hand, Pier-Karl Peladeau, a billionaire and owner of Quebecor Media (the biggest media corp in the province) wants to finance and purchase the team, but doesn't want to put money in a stadium.
Both sides are in a tight battle actually and it's a question of time before one of the two men flinches and writes a check to the city of Quebec
The Mayor went to the bank this week and started dealing to get his hands on 25 million dollars to finance the building of a new arena, which is the number one thing standing between Quebec and the NHL: their old Pepsi Colluseum isn't adequate to host an NHL franchise anymore
Today, Quebec showed its true color and pashion for the sport of hockey, when 60-70 thousand people gathered on the Abraham Plains to attend the Marche Bleue: an event that was created month ago to show Bettman we are ready for an NHL team.
Not only were there fans, but ex coach Michel Bergeron, players such as the three Stastny brothers, Michel Goulet, etc. etc.
here are two videos, and although they are in french, they give you a look-see of what happened today !
http://www.rds.ca/zv2/index.html?video=44892
http://www.rds.ca/zv2/index.html?video=44891
http://www.radio-canada.ca/audio-vi...2010/RDI2/TelejournalSurRdi201010021700_1.asx