James Bradshaw
From Friday's Globe and Mail Published on Friday, Sep. 12, 2008 2:01AM EDT Last updated on Tuesday, Mar. 31, 2009 8:42PM EDT
With the opening of NHL training camps a week away, Conservative Party Leader Stephen Harper said he would be delighted to see the league add a seventh Canadian franchise, but argued there would be a myriad of obstacles in trying to move one from a struggling U.S. city.
After an exclusive interview with The Globe and Mail about arts and culture yesterday, Harper said he disagrees with accusations the league has unfairly obstructed the movement of a struggling American team to a deserving Canadian city at a moment when the six Canadian clubs are financially propping up the other 24 south of the border.
“My frank answer is no, I actually don't think so,” he said. “The NHL did a lot during the 90s and the early part of this century when the Canadian dollar was low to really help sustain their business in Canada.”
Harper is a frequent attendee of hockey games, and his passion for Canada's pastime has spurred him to pen a history of hockey. The book has yet to be published, and he has joked in the past that his “day job” as the prime minister has got in the way.
He also said furor over a rumoured protected zone emanating outward from Toronto across much of Southern Ontario, which could stop another team from entering the area, seems to him misplaced. He believes U.S. teams also have agreements to protect their markets.
“It's not a Canadian phenomenon,” he said. “… There are real business decisions to be made here. Look, I'd like to see more NHL teams [in Canada], but I know enough about the business to know that relocating some of these teams would be a really tough financial call.”
The spectre of financial troubles appears at odds with the widely held belief that Research in Motion co-chief executive officer Jim Balsillie was willing to overpay for the Nashville Predators in the hopes that he could move the team to Hamilton, where he had already begun accepting deposits on season tickets. Balsillie was believed to have offered $220-million (all currency U.S.), but the team was ultimately sold for $193-million to an American investors group led by William (Boots) Del Baggio.
Still, Harper welcomed the prospect of a new team not far from the Toronto Maple Leafs' stronghold if the territorial issues can be resolved.
“I think what's obvious is that Southern Ontario could definitely support another hockey team, for sure, so some day I'd like to see that,” he said.
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