Quebec City if it had the owners and stadium in place or a plan for a stadium, Quebec should be 1-2 on the list for a hockey team no doubt in my mind. As for percentages of attendance if you wish to discuss it, there are numerous instances of hockey teams from the USA having very poor attendance but doing quite well in the league. Carolina for example having two cup runs in the this decade it would be perfect to see how they perform in attendance numbers by analyzing their attendance numbers of the last seven seasons
2001 13,355, 72.5% ECQF loss
2002 15,508, 82.8% SCF loss
2003 15,682, 83.7% DNQ
2004 12,171, 65.0% DNQ
2006 15,596, 83.3% Stanley Cup winners
2007 17,386, 93.8% DNQ
2008 16,633, 88.8% DNQ
New Jersey is another good example Stanley Cup finals and cup runs in this decade
2001 15,642 82.2% SCF loss
2002 15,925 83.6% ECQF loss
2003 14,858 78.0% Stanley Cup winners
2004 14,912 78.3% ECQF loss
2006 14,230 74.7% ECSF loss
2007 14,176 74.5% ECSF loss
2008 15,564 88.3% ECQF loss < new arena less people than 2002 but a higher percentage full
So does it really matter that one season Quebec had one year lower than 90% when they had a terrible team and during a recession there? No stadium is ‘always full’ and any one who talks like that is making a terrible generalization, but they still had better numbers than successful American teams. Carolina only had one season above 90% and New Jersey none. The low point for Quebec is probably the high point for New Jersey, that’s a huge difference.
As for TV Revenue RDS pays the Montreal Canadiens 20 million for TV rights and the rest of the NHL gets ten, I could see Quebec City getting close to that kind of money for TV revenue from RDS or some other French broadcaster. So Quebec City could work, but ownership and an arena are the largest hurdles and they don’t have it in place just yet.