NHL Anti-Thread: Bad Business Decision Aggregator

[The_Admiral]

Ow can dey skate when da hice ear is in derrible shape?

[Corvus]

I know two cities that have never been tried that would love NHL hockey.

Actually one was tried 85 years ago.

Hamilton and Halifax.

Halifax is far too small population wise and doesn't have a suitable arena. And do we need another time zone in the NHL?

[troy_3223]

I don't think the Canucks have the rights to Seattle. They sort of squat on the American Pacific Northwest by airing a limited slate of Canucks games on one of the RSNs, but I'm not sure it's a full-fledged claim of the region, nor does the region fully claim the Canucks.

As far as I can tell, the Canucks' reach goes about as far south as Mount Vernon, which is also about as far south as most Vancouverites go on weekends to outlet shop. Once you start getting into actual Seattle suburbs, there might be a lot of Canucks merch for sale or at least up in the windows, but they're still pandering to the tourists.

If you let me know where in the suburbs around Seattle there is any Canucks merchandise for sale, I will let my wife know where she can finish her Christmas shopping.

[DarkJourney]

Quebec arena report handed to prosecutor?s office

The Canadian Press

QUEBEC - A report into Quebec City's contract for a new hockey arena has been transferred to the provincial prosecutor's office following months of controversy surrounding the deal.

The report by the province's lobbying commissioner, released Wednesday, said some organizations failed to register as lobbyists while they were negotiating a deal to name and operate the future arena.

That municipal contract was eventually awarded to the Quebecor media empire, which is now working to bring an NHL team back to the provincial capital 16 years after it lost the Nordiques.

The report released Wednesday said several organizations broke the law by not registering as lobbyists, or by registering too late.

"The lobbyists' registry is the vehicle for ensuring transparency, as set out in the law. It is its bedrock," the report said.

Some of those organizations ? including Quebecor itself, along with virtual gaming company Aurifossor and insurance company Deux Rives ? cannot be charged because the one-year statute of limitations has passed.

The report said Quebecor broke the law by registering too late. It said Quebecor president Pierre Karl Peladeau broke the provincial Lobbying Transpency and Ethics Act by failing to add vice-president Jean-Francois Pruneau to the registry. The company has received a warning.

Two other companies are accused of breaking the rules more recently and could face penalties: Bell Canada and Evenko, a company tied to the Montreal Canadiens and which was represented in the talks by former Habs president Pierre Boivin.

The Crown must now decide whether to seek penalties from them, including fines of up to $25,000.

The arena project was dogged this spring by accusations that it flouted municipal contracting guidelines.

When some opponents threatened to launch a court case against it, provincial politicians stepped in with a law designed to protect the deal from any legal challenge.

But that legislation proved divisive within the opposition Parti Quebecois, which saw some of its best-known members quit in protest against what they described as a legal abomination.

After the agreement in principle with Quebecor was announced earlier this year, the province's lobbying commissioner opened a formal investigation in June.

Quebec City Mayor Regis Labeaume said at the time that five other suitors, in addition to Quebecor, had expressed an interest in the contract to operate the $400 million arena.

The media organization issued a release Wednesday saying it had taken note of conclusion that it should have registered sooner.

But it said it had always been transparent, with good intentions, throughout the process.

The company said it had been clear from the start about its intention to bring a team to Quebec City, and that it registered as a lobbyist once a formal process was underway.

"Quebecor Media points out that no negotiations took place and no proposals were made before the registration on the registry on Aug. 10, 2010," the company statement said.

"Quebecor Media believes it therefore always acted responsibly and in good faith on this file, and that the negotiations ? took place between September 2010 and February 2011."

[rvrdgsfn]

Well if the players had their choice, Quebec would be it.

http://www.thehockeynews.com/articles/35359-Player-Poll-Quebec-City-should-be-NHLs-next-stop.html

According to THN?s latest player poll - which appeared in the most recent issue - Quebec City is the clear choice as deserving of a franchise. Out of 90 players polled, 33 (or 36.7 percent) picked the capital of La Belle Province; Winnipeg was next with 18 votes (20 percent), followed by Las Vegas (12 votes/13.3 percent), Hamilton (11 votes/12.2 percent) and Seattle (five votes/5.6 percent).

Other cities receiving votes were Toronto, Houston and Kansas City (all of which received two votes each) and Stockholm, Prague, Halifax, N.S., Saskatoon, Sask., and the Kitchener-Waterloo region of Ontario (which each garnered one vote.)

[Kevin W.]

I'd be interested to see how the results are now 14 months later.

[Raymie]

I think Vegas would be just as bad as Phoenix, if not worse (smaller market size and an even more boom-and-bust economy).

[zpqmaowl]

Typing this from a hotel in Phoenix. Family road trip here = me going to a Coyotes game. I'll take pictures of emptiness and post them here.

[The_Admiral]

I don't think Matt Hulsizer has bought the Blues yet.

Hey, Matt Hulsizer! You want to get into the NHL, right? I don't know that Missouri is willing or able to give you free money, but, well, apparently Arizona isn't either, so why don't you take that $70 million you were pretending to put into the Coyotes and actually put them into the Blues. It's a short trip to St. Louis from Chicago, and the Blues actually have the potential to turn a profit.

[Sodboy13]

If the Blues get sent to Quebec to keep this farce alive, I'm going down to Glendale with a sledgehammer and turning the Jobberdome into a parking lot my damn self.

[The_Admiral]

The Blues will be in Quebec, the Blue Jackets will be in Kitchener, the Panthers will be in Markham, the Islanders will be in Halifax (still vaguely seafaring!), and the Stars will be somewhere in the Northwest Territories, but the Coyotes are just waiting for Jerry Reinsdorf to buy them next Thursday.

[IceCap]

...the Blue Jackets will be in Kitchener...

Sweet! But can we get them with a receipt?

[RedSox44]

If the Blues get sent to Quebec to keep this farce alive, I'm going down to Glendale with a sledgehammer and turning the Jobberdome into a parking lot my damn self.

I'd be joining you.

[zpqmaowl]

This was posted from a parking lot next to jobing.com arena.

[Raymie]

We might soon know about the two bids for the Yotes. Glendale's city council plans to look at them next month:

http://www.azcentral.com/members/Blog/westsideinsider/151478

[zpqmaowl]

Reported attendance: 12,650

Bench side:

Penalty box side:

Coyotes shoot twice side:

I was on the Blues shoot twice side (if it wasn't obvious from the pictures), and there were a little less fans than the Coyotes side.

Jobing.com is the best arena I've been in for a hockey game, (others are HP, Honda, and STAPLES), and it will be sad to see it eventually go.

[Evil Doctor]

We might soon know about the two bids for the Yotes. Glendale's city council plans to look at them next month:

http://www.azcentral.com/members/Blog/westsideinsider/151478

Funny how Glendale's concept for 'progess' looks so much like standing still. I will say the same thing that I said two years ago when it was said that Jerry Reinsdorf was seeking to buy the franchise...

...if there was a deal to be made, it would have been made already...

The reality is that this franchise is already mentally packing up the moving vans and picking out floral patterns for the new place...

[wildwing64]

That actually looks like a decent crowd for a Coyotes game. Relatively speaking.

[The_Admiral]

I don't think the organization itself is going to do all that much moving. The sad side of this whole thing is that while Shane Doan bitches his ass off about having to make millions of dollars someplace else, we may lose sight of the fact that there are scores of comparatively mundane white-collar employees who are going to be out of work at the end of the season. All those sales reps, accountants, ticket agents, and other front office types probably won't be needed in French Canada.

I don't think we're going to see quite what we saw with True North and the Thrashers, where everything but the player contracts were left behind and replaced with the organization of the Manitoba Moose. Quebecor doesn't have that sort of shadow government in place. Still, the matter of the language barrier means they'll be building an organization of their own, from the people in their offices down to the chairs they're in.

All of these behind-the-scenes breaks in continuity will be good stuff to chew on when we try to reconcile the fact that the Winnipeg Jets are the Quebec Nordiques, going through the same ridiculous "never forget where you didn't really come from" song and dance that we had to go through last summer.

Travis Hughes, Ryan Lambert, other retards

You guys think you have the Jets back! WELL YA DON'T! You have the Thrashers! Your best player is Ilya Kovalchuk! Not Dale Hawerchuk! Wrong chuk! Go on! LIKE IT!

Winnipeg

okay, internet, if you say so

Travis Hughes, Ryan Lambert, other retards

And now you guys think you have the Nords back! YOU DON'T EITHER! You have the Jets! Remember how excited you felt when you signed Bobby Hull at Portage and Main?

Quebec City

non

Winnipeg

I do

Travis Hughes, Ryan Lambert, other retards

F-CK YOU NO ONE ASKED WHAT YOU THINK

[RedSox44]

I don't think the organization itself is going to do all that much moving. The sad side of this whole thing is that while Shane Doan bitches his ass off about having to make millions of dollars someplace else, we may lose sight of the fact that there are scores of comparatively mundane white-collar employees who are going to be out of work at the end of the season. All those sales reps, accountants, ticket agents, and other front office types probably won't be needed in French Canada.

I don't think we're going to see quite what we saw with True North and the Thrashers, where everything but the player contracts were left behind and replaced with the organization of the Manitoba Moose. Quebecor doesn't have that sort of shadow government in place. Still, the matter of the language barrier means they'll be building an organization of their own, from the people in their offices down to the chairs they're in.

All of these behind-the-scenes breaks in continuity will be good stuff to chew on when we try to reconcile the fact that the Winnipeg Jets are the Quebec Nordiques, going through the same ridiculous "never forget where you didn't really come from" song and dance that we had to go through last summer.

Travis Hughes, Ryan Lambert, other retards

You guys think you have the Jets back! WELL YA DON'T! You have the Thrashers! Your best player is Ilya Kovalchuk! Not Dale Hawerchuk! Wrong chuk! Go on! LIKE IT!

Winnipeg

okay, internet, if you say so

Travis Hughes, Ryan Lambert, other retards

And now you guys think you have the Nords back! YOU DON'T EITHER! You have the Jets! Remember how excited you felt when you signed Bobby Hull at Portage and Main?

Quebec City

non

Winnipeg

I do

Travis Hughes, Ryan Lambert, other retards

F-CK YOU NO ONE ASKED WHAT YOU THINK

If you don't mind my asking, who are Travis Hughes and Ryan Lambert? Hockey bloggers that I don't care about?