Those poor Montreal Canadians

[Valdez]

Singing superstar Celine Dion is part of a consortium considering a bid for fabled ice hockey side the Montreal Canadiens, it was reported here on Thursday.

Dion, as well as press baron Pierre Karl Peladeau and Seagram drinks heir Stephen Bronfman, form the group which wants to purchase the 24-time Stanley Cup champions from owner George Gillett who bought the club nine years ago for 185 million US dollars, the Globe and Mail reported.

"There is a group bid being discussed, and it's clear that Gillett is very willing to sell if the price is right," a banker, who is helping line up financing for potential bidders, was quoted as saying.

Cirque du Soleil founder Guy Laliberte dropped out of the bidding for the team last week, according to sources in the financial community.

The Canadiens, who have made it through to the 2009 NHL play-offs, were recently valued at 335 million dollars by Forbes magazine.

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/afp/090416/canada/ihockey_nhl_entertainment_canadiens_dion

A group of Quebec's elite including singer Celine Dion, Seagram heir Stephen Bronfman and Quebecor Inc head Pierre Karl Peladeau is considering a bid for the National Hockey League's Montreal Canadiens, the Globe and Mail said on Thursday.

The newspaper, citing financial sources, said team owner George Gillett is mulling a second round of bids for the storied team which he bought nine years ago for $185 million.

The team, which has won 24 Stanley Cups, was not available for comment. It was recently valued at $335 million by Forbes magazine.

Potential buyers have been given full access to financial data concerning the Canadiens and the Bell Center arena where the team plays, one investment banker familiar with the process told the newspaper.

"There is a group bid being discussed, and it's clear that Gillett is very willing to sell if the price is right," the investment banker said.

The group is said to be contemplating a dedicated pay-TV channel in Quebec to carry the games and other hockey-related content as well.

The newspaper also said that Cirque du Soleil founder Guy Laliberte dropped out of the bidding last week and that Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec, the province's pension fund, is not expected to be an equity investor.

($1=$1.20 Canadian)

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/reuters/090416/canada/canada_us_canadiens_sale



Habs fans, you have my sympathy.

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Who am I kidding? As a Leafs fan, I'm in stitches!

 

[Legacy]

dear god, no!

 

[Nekusagi]

...The founder of Cirque du Soleil? CELINE DION? Don't team owners usually, y'know, KNOW SOMETHING ABOUT THE SPORTS THEY'RE OWNING?

No matter what happens, I'm sure their hearts will go on... *bricked*

 

[DRWS!]

...The founder of Cirque du Soleil? CELINE DION? Don't team owners usually, y'know, KNOW SOMETHING ABOUT THE SPORTS THEY'RE OWNING?

No matter what happens, I'm sure their hearts will go on... *bricked*

Nope, not necessarily.
See: Manchester United owner, Malcolm Glazer, Liverpool owners Tom Hicks and George Hicks, Ex-Watford owner Elton John etc.

 

[Valdez]

Yeh, but be that as it may... being owned by Celine Dion is just embarrassing. It gives way too much ammunition to Leafs and Bruins fans to mock them.

I can't wait actually! =P

 

[Fig]

Who am I kidding? As a Leafs fan, I'm in stitches!

24-13
93-67
3-0

That's all

(For the unaware: that's Montreal - Toronto Stanley Cup won, last Stanley Cup year, and playoffs participation since the 2004-05 NHL lockout. I'm simply reminding Valdez that unlike Leafs fans, we Habs fan have something meaningful to laugh about)

 

[Legacy]

I wish Celine Dion would stop being famous. Everytime i see her face or hear her voice on tv i want to end it all.

 

[Valdez]

24-13
93-67
3-0

That's all

(For the unaware: that's Montreal - Toronto Stanley Cup won, last Stanley Cup year, and playoffs participation since the 2004-05 NHL lockout. I'm simply reminding Valdez that unlike Leafs fans, we Habs fan have something meaningful to laugh about)

I knew somebody would pull that card out.

Least we'll never be owned by Celine Dion!



Wow, that really does make the perfect rebuttal!

 

[Fig]

I knew somebody would pull that card out.

Least we'll never be owned by Celine Dion!

Least our centennial celebration isn't the celebration of half a century without a Stanley Cup, like yours is shaping up to be

 

[Valdez]

No fair, that's the same card as before!

And you know, granted you've won a Cup (much) more recently, but a span of nearly 20 years ain't anything to be proud of either; especially when you barely scraped in this year after starting so well. Sounds to me like a certain team has Sens Syndrome ;-)

 

[TTEchidna]

Ouch. Sucky deal for you fans. But speaking of sports franchises being owned by something that knows nothing about the sport... NoA does own the Mariners. I don't think that Reggie's speech included "playing baseball" alongside kicking ass, taking names, and making games...

 

[Fig]

No fair, that's the same card as before!

You played the same card twice too!

And you know, granted you've won a Cup (much) more recently, but a span of nearly 20 years ain't anything to be proud of either; especially when you barely scraped in this year after starting so well. Sounds to me like a certain team has Sens Syndrome ;-)

Could be.

Most likely we got ridiculous-injuries-level syndrome. When you almost always have several elements of your first and second lines, and first D-man pair, and number one goalie, missing or else just back from injury, or playing despite injuries...what do you expect is going to happen?

Pretty much Montreal would have needed for Kovalev to have a perfect season (as he was the only big-gun not injured) in order to get in the playoffs easily (also we'd have had to have Boston not having a year-from-heaven). He played well for most of the season, but not THAT well.

 

[Valdez]

No, the first time I said it could be used as a battle; the second time I actually used it ;-)

And you've got me there with the ridiculous-injuries-level syndrome. But at least it's better than Toronto's Senior Citizens Syndrome. :-(

Hey, I see in your title that you're "Quebecer and proud!" I have a question for you that I've asked a couple of my Quebec friends regarding possible secession. I ask in a completely lighthearted and unintending to offend manner:

What would happen to the team if Quebec does secede? Don't you find it ironic that the Montreal Canadians would no longer be part of Canada? ;-)

 

[Fig]

Not really.

First it's the Canadiens - the team officialy uses the French spelling even in english.

Second, a Canadien/Canadian back when the team was named didn't mean "an inhabitant of Canada" - it meant a French inhabitant of the old Canada (the french colony): the Saint-Lawrence valley. In other word, it meant a French inhabitant of what is mostly called, today, Québec.

Most Quebecers are quite aware that "Canadiens" in 1909 had pretty much the same meaning "Québécois" does in 2009, so don't mind the name of the team.

Third, well, as my brother is fond to say, even if you think "Canadiens" refer to the modern country of Canada, you've got "Hurricanes", "Avalanches", "Bruins", "Predators", "Sharks", "Lightnings", "Panthers", "Wild"...

...seems perfectly natural to have teams named after bad news

(Also, I'm a nationalist, not necessarily a secessionist. I'm very proud of being a Quebecer, but I don't see that as necessarily being in contradiction with being a Canadian)

 

[dukeburger]

Yeh, but be that as it may... being owned by Celine Dion is just embarrassing. It gives way too much ammunition to Leafs and Bruins fans to mock them.

I can't wait actually! =P

Why just Leafs and Bruins fans?

Would there actually be anything bad about this happening, other than it being embarrassing? I really don't know how much Celine Dion cares about hockey, if at all.

Just wondering if it would be anything like how John Dolan doesn't give a crap about what Glen Sather does with the Rangers, because he knows that no matter what, he's always going to be able to make money off of the team.

 

[Valdez]

dukeburger, the Leafs and Bruins generally have the biggest rivalries with Montreal (from a fan perspective at least), like Detroit and Colorado, Toronto and Ottawa, Edmonton and Calgary, etc.

Apologies for the misspelling (did I just misspell that too?) Evil Figment, and I wasn't calling you a secessionist. I wouldn't have any problems with it if you were. It was more of a joke question than anything else, though I must say that you're the only person I've asked so far who's actually given me a real answer!

Though you must be absolutely devastated that they lost tonight. Maybe they think that if the drop the games, Celine will lose interest ;-)

 

[Fig]

Not really. It was a good game, lost to a single PP goal late in the third, and without our #1 D-man. Wish they had won, but if they keep up playing like this, well, there are still three games left at least for them to start winning, and playing like this, they should.

As for rivalries, meh. Let Toronto says what it will - we've long since stopped caring much about you guys (with the one exception of a certain little turd you got off our hands in the off-season, who wouldn't know team spirit if it ran him over with a truck).

I mean, it's not much of a rivalry when you haven't seen each other in the playoffs in 30-odd years. Or, to put it another way, since the last time Montreal played Toronto in the playoffs, we've faced Boston in the playoffs *15* times. Guess who we consider the real rival .

There are other, more political reason, too - Toronto (and Ontario) - Montreal (and Quebec), outside sports, has gone from rivalry to out and out intra-national cold war over the eighties and nineties. The two provinces can't really be said to be on speaking terms anymore, so it's kind of hard to have a proper rivalry.

 

[Valdez]

There are other, more political reason, too - Toronto (and Ontario) - Montreal (and Quebec), outside sports, has gone from rivalry to out and out intra-national cold war over the eighties and nineties. The two provinces can't really be said to be on speaking terms anymore, so it's kind of hard to have a proper rivalry.

I thought that was Alberta and the rest of Canada. =P

(No offence to any Albertans here)

 

[The Big Al]

The Detroit/Colorado rivalry fell flat when the Wings swept the Avs last year. Detroit/San Jose is probably the post lockout rivalry.

 

[Fig]

All of Canada but Quebec intensely dislike Quebec, all of Canada but Ontario intensely hate Ontario, and all of Canada but the western provinces has an intense, burning dislike of Alberta. Alberta in turn hates everybody but its prairie lackeys (Manitoba and Saskatchewan), Ontario looks down on everybody, and Quebec would rather not look, talk, or in any way acknowledge the existence of the rest of the country, except to blame them whenever something goes wrong.

Oh, and everybody hates Newfoundland because they're the newbies, of course. The other provinces would be hated too, except they do their level best to make themselves as invisible, inaudible, and generally not there as humanly possible, so we tend to forget about them and concentrate on the big 3 (and the Newfies).

If Canada was a family, they'd have a picture of us on wikipedia under "dysfunctional".