Billionaire Luc Poirier Reveals Concrete Offer To Revive The Quebec Nordiques Was Refused By The NHL

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Tom Banks
October 29, 2024 (3:16 PM)

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The Quebec Nordiques return has been a major topic of discussion in recent years, and now it appears Gary Bettman turned down a massive offer to bring them back.

For years now, fans in Canada have been calling for the NHL to return to Quebec since they were relocated just under 30 years ago, and recently, reports have revealed that the return almost became a reality. Now, billionaire Luc Poirier, who was behind the move to bring the NHL back to Quebec City has opened up on the reports, revealing that he indeed did make concrete offers to Gary Bettman for that return.

«Someone called me and said, 'I could see you buying the Coyotes. They're in deficit.' They were losing $28 to $32 million annually. He said, 'Look, if you're interested, I can help with the transaction.' At first, I wasn't sure, but I found a bank to support me, and a Quebec billionaire joined me.

I got all the details, the last three years of financial statements. So, I spoke with the owners. I got the information. They were waiting for an offer or something from me. We were working with Bill Daly, Gary Bettman's right-hand man, but my goal in buying the Coyotes was first and foremost to move them to Quebec. Otherwise, I considered moving them to Southern California, around San Diego.»

While Poirier reveals his major goal was to bring the Arizona Coyotes back to Quebec, he also considered moving them to San Diego, but unsurprisingly, Gary Bettman wanted to keep the league in Arizona, as he did before they were ultimately moved to Utah this past summer. When asked why the league wanted to continue pursuing the NHL's presence in Arizona, this was their response;

«I can understand them. They told me it's the eighth-largest GDP market in America. Montreal is very, very, very far behind in terms of wealth. The NHL has always believed in the Arizona market.»

It makes sense that the NHL would want to keep the league in Arizona, but ultimately it became a failure of an experiment, and instead of giving Quebec and Poirier the chance, they moved to Salt Lake City instead. It's unclear if the NHL will ever return to Quebec City, despite the fanbase and the arena that's already in place, but if they turned down Poirier not once but twice, it's hard to see that ever becoming a reality.