Sport

For ten years now hockey fans in the cities of Quebec and Winnipeg have not had chance to watch a hockey match involving a hockey team from either of the cities. However, now the same fans have a reason to smile since soon they will enjoy the excitement they bused to ten years ago. This good news for the city fans culminates from the decision by the National hockey league plan to bring back hockey franchise to the two cities. The move is expected to revive hockey excitement and enthusiasm as it were before hockey franchises left the two cities. 
   
However, all of this good news might not be realized any time sooner because the same problem which led the teams to move elsewhere still continue to hunt the respective cities. In Quebec City despite large passionate fan base, the city lacks a hockey arena ten years after the teams left due to the same problems. The author reveals that one of the main reasons why the owner of Quebec Nordiques sold the team was after the city and the province official to guarantee construction of public arena for the team. And from the look of thing, there are no signs of constructing any arena in Quebec City any time soon as there is no suggestion by the city or the province to spend hundred millions of Canadian dollars to do so. This is so because the costs of arena has shot up from a low of  70 million in 1970s to more than  I billion today and the fact that if constructed more than 80 per cent of revenue generated in the arena would go to the team owner.
   
Secondly, establishing a new team in Quebec City might not be easy because of existence of Montreal Canadiens which is a provincial team. The big question is whether a new team in the city will be able to compete with the Montreal Canadiens bearing in mind that one, many fans from the city had moved to support team in Montreal over the period when the city had no hockey business going on. And secondly no cable TV is willing to sponsor a non-provincial team.  
   
One major problem that curtails the City of Winnipeg ambitions to bring back a hockey team in the area is its small population size. Despite much interest from Winnipeg residents and availability of stadium the number is too small to make any meaningful contribution to supporting the local team. Due to the small population size, cable TV market is limited which limits corporate sponsorship from the cable TV.
   
In addition lack of finance still remains a negative factor against the idea of bringing the teams back. Though with large fan base, due to harsh reality very few people are willing reach into their pocket and pony small part of their fortune to attend a game. The reason being that, tickets price have skyrocket over the last ten years. Further the idea to reintroduce hockey team is curtailed by the increased salaries for hockey player that many team might not afford due to the fact that majority of the locals are not willing to coup money to buy match tickets which is the main source of revenues to the teams. Again revenue generated is in term of Canadian dollar while the players are paid in Loonies which means more Canadian dollars will be needed in order to pay players using the strong US dollar.