Yeah I seem to recall hearing him say that however "increasing the odds" in building an arena is no guarantee you'll get a team yet..... that seems rather disingenuous, a sort of double standard at play given how Bettman & Daly have been proactive in Seattle. Meeting with City & County Officials. Potential ownership groups & so on. They didnt meet with the City of Quebec or anyone else up there as far as I know when the whole debate over building a replacement for the Colisee' was going on. Quebec needed a new arena regardless, originally tied into a possible Olympic bid and when that was dropped they proceeded, obviously the hope being that eventually they'd land an NHL franchise....
As for "what else do they need to do"?.... Theyve seemingly done everything they can at least publicly & from a business perspective. Followed the NHL's processes, they havent gone after any teams in trouble with hostile relocation attempts, like Winnipeg had done bided their time, quietly lobbying, no public pronouncements or demands, no criticisms of the NHL etc. Quebecor dropped a tonne on french language broadcast rights, content for TVA & their other french language media platforms. Theyve' really done everything right & theres not a lot more they can do if they stick to the NHL's general policies, dont rock the boat, dont go after a team in trouble, dont be stating anything in public thats been discussed, behave & then "maybe".
So while Quebec's done all it can, absolutely beyond NHL ready, no criticism of the NHL subsequent to being turned down while Vegas receives a team, the NHL, namely Jeremy Jacobs, starts shooting his mouth off to reporters, publicly. How he's "disappointed that we didnt receive applications from Seattle, Houston, Southern Ontario" and so on. Goes on to suggest "grave concerns with the CDN$ and Quebec", that Conference Alignments a major issue, how awarding a team to QC "does nothing to grow the game" and that its small market. All criticism's that not only ring hollow, are untrue, but criticisms that can easily be disassembled, deconstructed & destroyed. Utter nonsense. Conference alignment an obstacle sure but its fixable, man made construct. No ones talking about rearranging the planets in our solar system for Gods sake. To even address Jacobs statements is to reward duplicity & stupidity with dignity & he doesnt deserve it, doesnt deserve any respect yet... play the game one must, and so here we are. Stuck in neutral. No one from Quebecor's group screaming Blue Murder as they might want to for fear of ticking off the NHL, winding up Blackballed altogether. Nasty, unjust, absolutely irrational situation.
