Quote:
Originally Posted by le_sean
The thing with the merchandise market is that yes maybe not a lot of people are Phoenix fans, but they still appeal to the entire state of Arizona. Same with the two Florida teams. Florida has just over 18 million people, Arizona about 6.5 million. Not to mention surrounding states which don't have hockey but might have fans.
Quebec is a province of over 7 million, but over half of them are Habs fans. And who outside of Quebec would actually cheer for this new team? It's the potential market that scares me. I'm sure the actual Quebec fans will be hardcore fans, but it won't go beyond that group, whereas in the States it's that potential growth of market that attracts businessmen.
I'm sure it would work, but as a business I'm sure you can find larger revenue elsewhere.
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Well, I know alot of people (ex-Nords fan) that follow the Habs because if they didn't they wouldn't be able to follow hockey regularly. I'm sure those people would go back to the Nords if they ever come back. Probably that alot of people who don't follow the NHL anymore because the Nords left would come back. Probably that people that have picked Colorado as their team after the Nords departure would come back. With the right marketing probably that most of Eastern Quebec would be Nords fans. I don't really see the market has being a problem. The problem is the same it was 15 years ago, corporate support. With good corporate support a team in Quebec City would do just fine. Without it, forget about it.
If Aubut is involved and a guy like Balsillie shows interest, I have faith it could work. But the biggest problem is the NHL boards of gouvernor and Gary Bettman. Will the Habs ever allow the Nords to return? With all the effort Boivin and co. put to gather all the province around the Habs I doubt they would want Quebec City to have their team back. On the other side, probably that having another team in Canada would increase the revenues which would increase the cap which would make the players happy but small markets owner really pissed off. So let's say it is a REALLY complicated problem.