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Four Nations Tournament: “Montreal wouldn’t have had it without a subsidy”

 Christopher Brown
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Four Nations Tournament: “Montreal wouldn’t have had it without a subsidy”
Credit: Getty Images

In the next few days, the Kings will move to Quebec City to finish their training camp. No telling how many fans they’ll be playing in front of, but hey.

Clearly, the government subsidy was the big issue in all this. The millions of dollars given to the Kings to come and play here had not gone down well.

Everyone remembers.

But now we learn that this isn’t the only NHL-related event to be staged in the province during the 2024-2025 season that will have needed a subsidy.

The Four Nations Tournament is in the same boat.

According to what Vincent Brousseau-Pouliot (La Presse) wrote this morning, the presentation of the tournament’s first four games was made possible because Quebec City (not Ottawa and not Montreal) gave a $480,000 subsidy to Tourisme Montréal, which will pay it to the NHL.

Because without the subsidy, Manuela Goya, vice-president of Tourisme Montréal, maintains that Montreal would not have been able to host a portion of the tournament.

Why a subsidy (which is much smaller than the one for the Kings) in this case?

If Montreal couldn’t host the event, Toronto would have. And with economic spin-offs estimated at between $20 and $30 million, we couldn’t afford to lose the games to the Ontario city.

This morning, on BPM Sports, Renaud Lavoie said that the NHL really wanted it to be held in Montreal.

Given that the event will be a big showcase for Montreal (the big boys of the hockey world will be in town), Tourism Minister Caroline Proulx has taken steps to make it happen.

I can’t afford a billion-dollar promotional campaign to position Quebec. For $480,000, I have an extraordinary image ad in Montreal. – Quebec Minister of Tourism, Caroline Proulx

Because yes, if Montreal does things right, it will speak well of the city – as it did after the 2022 draft, for example.

I have a feeling that this subsidy will go down better than the Kings’, but there will still be criticism of the fact that public money was given for it.

It’s like that every time money is used in sport.

It’s important to remember that, unlike the Kings’ games in Quebec City, the hockey at the Bell Centre in February 2025 will be top-notch. Four top teams will be playing, and all of them will be made up of NHL players.

Players from Canada, the United States, Sweden and Finland will also be playing to earn a place on their respective national teams for the 2026 Olympic Games.

What do you think of all this?


Overtime

– Habs training: 12:15pm.

– First line: a challenge for Aatos Koivu.

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