The NHL announced this week that the league is expanding to is Seattle. This comes after Las Vegas officially joined the hockey league with their Golden Knights in 2017.
While many celebrated the announcement, many Canadians were unhappy — especially those living in Quebec.
Quebec City has long demanded that its NHL team, the Nordiques, be resurrected after it was relocated to Denver in 1995 and turned into the Colorado Avalanche.
But it seems the wait is not over and fans are not pleased.
For the love of God, what about Quebec City????????????????
— Peter Ray (@WPeterRay) December 4, 2018
Quebec City watching the Seattle NHL press conference pic.twitter.com/2vgRU3MQaz
— Scott MacIntosh (@scottmacintosh4) December 4, 2018
I mean, good for Seattle. But the fact that #quebec is still without the #nordiques is a travesty for sports. https://t.co/pDi8KZLUgJ
— David King (@davekingweather) December 4, 2018
Many decried the NHL and its commissioner for snubbing Quebec and its passionate hockey fanbase.
Betman never cared about us in Quebec. Now we paid 400 Millions for an empty arena brand new while Florida Carolina or Phoenix draw less fans than our junior team. #Nordiques
— Mandeville1694 (@2Mandeville1694) December 4, 2018
No offense to Seattle, but Quebec deserves to have a team. I guess since Quebec City wouldn't be adding to the NHL's "footprint" on the map, they don't count.
— Marianne Green (@MarianneGreen2) December 4, 2018
Quebec deserves a hockey team and everyone knows it, but Bettman hates us. Our junior team (Remparts) has a better attendance than most teams in the NHL.
— William Tremblay (@WTremblay827) December 4, 2018
Quebec City bid for an expansion team a few years ago, but lost to Las Vegas — the NHL wanted to have an equal number of teams in the Eastern and Western conferences and also cited the low Canadian dollar as reasons why the bid did not succeed, CBC Sports reported.
The Centre Videotron was built in 2015 to replace Quebec City's old hockey arena — and it can seat over 18,000 people — but only hosts the Quebec Remparts, a junior hockey team, according to Sportsnet. The number of active NHL players born in the state of Washington is just five. The province of Quebec? It has 50. Hockey is in their blood. It is actively courting an expansion team.
The choice to give a team to Seattle instead of Quebec is just another disappointment in a long series.
Bettman says the NHL is not looking at further expansion at this point. 32 teams for the foreseeable future
— Pierre LeBrun (@PierreVLeBrun) December 4, 2018
The NHL's commissioner, Gary Bettman, has also said he doesn't foresee the league expanding further any time soon, so Quebec City's dreams will remain dashed at least for the near future.
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