Nordiques Nation: NHL Hockey Team Fanclub Reborn, Nordiques Auctions Alive and Well!

A few days ago,  a local RadioX station started a new fan club: NordiquesNation.com. Their goal, which is not btw a radio stunt,   is to get old and new Nordiques Fans together again to demonstrate that they do want a NHL team back in Quebec City. Now, the "puck" is in their camp since RadioX just build the site to for the fans and later by the fans.

In only a few days, they already have 20,000+ fans from all over who sign up. I was not surprise since Quebec City is a hockey city and many long for the old days of the Montreal's Canadian and Quebec City's Nordiques rivality.

Even I, who is not into watching hockey, would watch those match. Like I mentioned, I'm not a hardcore hockey fan but I like to tease people that are Canadian's fan. :D when I had the chance. Even none hockey fans were "forced"  ;) to hear news about the team result's on the sport news cast.

The arena

The biggest hurdle is that Quebec City needs a new multifunction arena. That arena would allow many shows/events to take place in Quebec City but right now, the current arena is not up to date. This in turn, don't allow some major shows/events to take place  in Quebec City because of this.

Show me the money

Also, most Quebec City residents don't want to foot the whole bill. The diverse level of government did pledge(elections promises) to help since it could fall in the many infrastructure investment to combat the current world economy slowdown.

But most would agree that a private investor would be better. Add the cost of the team itself, and you are talking about 100s of millions of investment with 400 for the area alone. Like my readers know, I'm more business centric so I do agree that the government should be taken out of the picture for the most part.

Personally, I don't want a big private investor come here like a white shining knight and ask for financial help in a few years from now because of bad planning.  It's a risk but a risk that tax payers don't want to be responsible later on. It most be viable by itself.

For that, I'm not opposed that the investor add a casino in the future arena. That's were the government could help while not having to invest but just allowing it in a joint venture deal. They already permitted a Lottery for Quebec City so why not a casino too?

Taking care of gamblers

Of course, some will whine because of the casino part if the investor do add it. I'm not without empathy for people with gambling problems. But I do believe in personal responsibility.

Besides, I'm sure they would be more positives than negatives for the whole Quebec city. Heck, the investor could just give 1% of the profit(tax deduction anyway ;) )   to help  gamblers that do need help.

Auctions still alive and well

After 15 years, Nordiques  items  are still at auctions and available for fans/collectors like you can see below. Imagine having a new team  back. the auction would have to be separated into new and old Nordiques items. :D

Here a few Nordiques(old) items auctions taking place right now. Have fun! For Colorado fans(new home of the original Nordiques), you can select US auctions if you want. ;)

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Visit NordiquesNation.com

Résumé en français(short recap in French): Le principal contenu de ce texte en anglais est que les fans des Nordiques ont maintenant un site(Nordique Nation) de sorte que la colloboration de tous les différents acteurs sera meilleur pour avoir du support des fans.  Oui, la population de Québec est prête à avoir une nouvelle équipe de LNH.  Par contre, un nouvel aréna devra être fait mais les contribuable ne veulent pas payé pour ce projet. Je suggère un casino(avec de l'aide %1 pour les joueurs compulsifs) pour que le projet soit viable pour un investisseur potentiel. En passant, il y a beaucoup d'enchère pour les produits des Nordiques originals. ;)