[SOLR]

Originally Posted by Ismellofhockey

Perhaps but artists don't usually make $1M a year... You subsidize culture because it needs the money, NHL hockey is a very profitable buisiness if run properly and so shouldn't have to rely on government funding.

I wasnt talking about the artists and I don't disagree about culture investment either, the problem comes from the balance in which the investments are done here in Quebec City. The government rarely/ever listen to the population and over-invest in culture to further the international port-folio of the city. (All museums, little to no budget for the artists.) To make it even worst, most of the investments are for projects that a minuscule proportion of the population ever use, it's not like a science museum or something we could be proud off, it's more and more arts galleries. At the end of the day, we love arts, but we just want more balance and more investments in projects that could benefit the actual population of this city.

Originally Posted by Ismellofhockey

There are also many things wrong in this post:
- "the lack of foresight of the PQ dreamers": What? I'm not sure what that means especially since Pariseau and Landry attempted to purchase the team from Aubut but he refused apparently stating that he wouldn't let the separatists save the team if he couldn't.

I won't go into details, but thats not what happened at all. Aubut declined a basic business coup like 100% of owner would have, it didnt made any sense. He also never made this thing a politic debate, the PQ did.

Originally Posted by Ismellofhockey

- I have no recollection of the government stepping in to save the Habs and I doubt Gillett received any subsidy of any kind. They may have bought shares of the team but that's not the same thing, and they may have facilitated his loan but again that's not the same thing.

Yes it's the same, lower-than-market interests is a form of subsidy. Plus Gillett wasn't buying without those extra loans, I call that stepping in to save the habs.

Originally Posted by Ismellofhockey

- Comparisons between Ottawa and Quebec are tenuous at best: Ottawa has almost twice the population of Quebec and more people within a 1 hour drive than Quebec. The TV market may not be as strong but the fan base isn't the same. Comparing revenues between the 2 teams while they existed together is even worse: Ottawa was playing out of a 10 000 seat arena with a joke ownership group, not to mention the worse on-ice product the league had to offer.

1.5m in a 1hr drive from Quebec, about 1.8m for Ottawa, thats pretty close to me. Quebec TV market is bigger considering the difference in market realities. Joke ownership group? This wasn't the case for Aubut and co? Ok I'll concede the on-ice product and arena size, still on a conceptual basis 2 nearly identical markets.