It should come as no surprise that if there is one thing that we love around here, at Synergy Marketing Consultants, it’s our great promotional products. However, if there are two things that we love around here, it’s our great promo products…and hockey! In recent weeks, we have blogged (or more accurately ‘boohooed’) about the woes of our beloved Toronto Maple Leafs.
Yes, it certainly appears, at this point, as if Torontonians will be experiencing yet another hockey season without a playoff run. With six games left to play in the season and the Leafs sitting in 13th spot in the Eastern Conference (only the top 8 make it to the playoffs) the season is pretty much done. At this rate, Quebec City’s team will be making it into the playoffs before the Leafs do.
What’s that you say? Quebec City doesn’t have an NHL team? Well it is true that the city has been without NHL hockey since the Nordiques left to become the Colorado Avalanche back in 1995. But recent reports are indicating that the city may be on the verge of welcoming the NHL back to the city by 2015.
According to a QMI Agency report published yesterday, Quebec City along with Quebecor Media are planning to build an NHL-calibre arena that will seat about 18,000 people. Upwards of $400 million is planned to be thrown towards the project. It is proposed that the new arena will be located on the site of the old Quebec City Hippodrome.
With the Winnipeg Jets about to wrap up their first NHL season since 1996, hopes are high that Canada will welcome back yet another long lost hockey franchise. But is the NHL looking to expand? Not according to the league’s commissioner, Gary Bettman. The league, which is currently home to 30 teams, is apparently as big as it is going to get.
Said Bettman: “We aren’t talking expansion because we are not planning an expansion. We are comfortable with 30 teams…We don’t like moving teams and, currently, there are no teams available. Maybe one day the circumstances will allow for one but for now, there is nothing available.”
According to QMI, the mere fact that Quebec City is building an NHL-calibre arena makes the city next in line if a current team becomes available for relocation. It just happened in Winnipeg, so it is possible it could happen again for Quebec City. Leafs fans, however, are wishing an NHL-calibre hockey team would return back to Toronto!
