History of a dream: Rgis Labeaume's unending quest for NHL hockey

RgisLabeaumejust had his dream crushed, but the Quebec City mayor didn't seem to notice.

• NHL approves Las Vegas expansion team

Labeaumehas spent close to a decade doggedly trying to acquire an NHL franchise for his city. It is theidefixeof his tenure at city hall.

In pursuing this dream,he has managed get an 18,000-seat arena built, find a corporate backer willing to pay the NHL's half-billion dollar expansion fee and win re-election by landslide margins.

But after all the lobbyingand the money and the construction, the NHL said no, announcing last week that Las Vegas would be the site of its newest team.

Labeaume'sreaction was, well, typicalLabeaume.

"I'm convinced we'll have a club," he said Friday.

'It's pointless'

Quebec City has been rich in nostalgia for the Nordiques ever sinceles Bleuspacked up and left for Colorado in 1995.

But hockey fans in the city seemed resigned to the fact the closest thing they would have to a home team was their one-time rivals,the Montreal Canadiens.

In 2007, though, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman hinted that the league found the prospect of returning to Canada "intriguing." That set Quebec City abuzz.

• Homer Simpson rooting for the NHL to return to Quebec City

Bettmanmade it clearthe city needed to meet two conditions to be taken seriously; replace theColise, the rickety 50-year-old barn theNordiquescalled home;and find a potentialowner with deep pockets.

It was a tall order forLabeaume, who had just been elected as the city's mayor in 2007. Building an arena was hard enough, but finding a financial backer? That was something else entirely.

Quebec City, after all, is a government town. The big money is in Montreal.

"It's pointless, people get excited for no reason,"Labeaumesaid at the time.

Enter Pladeau

When George Gillett put the Canadiens up for sale in 2009, he fielded offers from several different groups before accepting a reported $500-million bid from the Molson family.

• Gillett agrees to sell Canadiens to Molson family

Among those who lost out wasQuebecorMedia, headed at the time by Pierre KarlPladeau.

Pladeau was furious at having lost the bidding war. According to the magazine L'actualit, Labeaume quickly placed another idea in Pladeau's head: bringing the NHL back to Quebec City.

Labeaumewas facing re-election that year, and promising a return of the Nordiques was the kind of populist move that has become a staple ofLabeaume's political career.

In the fall of 2009, just months before the election, he announced plans to build a $400-million, 18,000-seat arena. He was unambiguous about the purpose of the project.

"The population of Quebec City wants an NHL hockey club,"Labeaumesaid.

Build it and they will come. Right?

Initially the arena was slated to cost $400 million. Labeaume wanted the federal and provincial governments to pay $175 million each, while the city would pick up the rest.

• Videotron Centre opens its doors in Quebec City

The feds balked at financing a professional sports arena. In the end, the Quebec government ponied up $200 million, leaving Quebec City on the hook for $170 million.

And this without any guarantee that the city would get the teamLabeaume wanted so badly.

"We don't want people building a building on our account expecting that there is going to be a franchise," Bettman said in 2011.

But Labeaume forged ahead.The Videotron Centre Quebec City sold the operating rights without tenderto Quebecor opened in 2015.

It lost$1.4 million in its first quarter of operation.

• Quebec City to pay $730K for Videotron Centre shortfall

Thenext thing

WhileLabeaumeworked to secure a new arena,Quebecorchanneled its desire to own theCanadiensinto efforts to bring back theNordiques.

The media giant made a$10 million deposit with the NHLlast year, the league'sprice to formally consider its expansion application.

Besides the application fee, a successful franchise would have to pay a$500-million US expansion fee. That couldbe as much as $750 million in Canadian funds, depending on exchange rates.

But despite Quebecor's willingness to foot the billand despite the gleaming new arena, the NHL opted to "defer" a decision on expanding to Quebec City.

That means if the city still wants a team sooner rather than later, Quebecor will have to buy an existing team and move it to Quebec City something the NHL is not keen on doing.

Even before last week's announcement, Quebec City residents seemed to be losing hope of seeing the Nordiques play again.

• Despite likely setback, Nordiques fans optimistic about club's eventual return

A poll conducted this winter suggested only 49 per cent of residents felt the team's return was imminent. That number was 65 per cent one year earlier.

ButLabeaumeappeared unfazed by theNHL'sdecision to head south, rather than north.

"I'm not the type who gets depressed for three months,"Labeaumesaid. "I'm already on to the next thing."

He is up for re-election next year.