If only this is an empty promise
Maybe this will be just another broken promise from a regional election campaign. Maybe I won’t have to pay for the local equivalent of a Great Pyramid. After all, the current mayor has “talked big” before now.
Today we were promised that we’d soon have a new arena, with a new hockey team, and that the sun would always shine. Perhaps not the third, but the spin merchants were in fine form. Here’s the back story: years ago, in a different economic time, this city had its own major level hockey team. The team never won, but the common man was easy to convince that good times are comin’ real soon now. And then, that team moved away, leaving a trail of broken hearts and boxes of souvenirs.
Jump forward fifteen years (almost; the actual last game was played in May 1995) and although the banners and sweaters and tuques are fading to a pale blue, the hope of the victorious Nordiques remains. All we need is a) a new arena and b) a change in the franchise scheme of the NHL. The mayor offered the citizens the dream of a new arena, with a cost of only $50 million, sort of. Seems that arenas cost a bit more, so he’s offering to send the other section of the bill to the federal and provincial governments. All $350 million of the other section.
You see, Quebec City isn’t really large enough to support a franchise in the NHL with private monies. But, if the taxpayer will only build a new arena, then all will be well in Hockeytown. A simple variation on the idea of “build it and they will come” from some baseball movie.
Try building a new shopping centre with taxpayer monies. Try building a large, luxurious hotel with taxpayer monies. The idea might not be well received. Hockey is a different animal.
Here’s the real bottom line: I’m a taxpayer at all three levels of government, and I can think of a whole long shopping list of things to do with $400 million before inflation. Guess what? An arena doesn’t even make it on page two.
