Quebec media giants in battle for Habs

Go check it out this link: http://www.hockey30.com They made a video on the sale of the Habs!

FINALLY! Someone who I am not afraid will destroy the team comes calling. If Péladeau or Quebecor were to get the Canadiens, I think I would kill myself. It would destroy this hockey team. It would become like the Harold Ballard Maple Leafs.

If Basillie wants a team and is a true Habs fan like he says he is. Then why don't he make an offer to buy the Habs and leave the team where it is too. He can rely on a decent return on his investment year after year.

I hope & pray that RDS does not lose the rights to the Habs broadcasts. I'm able to view RDS through Expressvu, and the quality of their broadcasts is top notch. Who know what would happen to us Habs fans outside of Quebec if we could not watch them play on televsion ?

I say let the Chinese government and their hedge fund buy the team....they will settle for nothing less than multiple Cup wins, they will make sure the players and coaches are the best available...and if evidence is correct, they will keep the media of ANY kind in their place or put them there. "Even Roy can be run out of town after 2 Stanley Cups."

In other news, TSN reports Lapierre and Schneider underwent successful surgery today. Lapierre had surgery on his ankle, while as we all know Schneider had his shoulder repaired. The "story" is here: http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=279592

we're living enough in a Pierre Karl World without having him put the Habs on TVA2. as much as i don't like (or loathe, in some cases) the RDS broadcast team, TVA is actually a rung lower, imo.

i say NO to savard. as long as there are rumours about savard's group wanting to only draft and sign french players, then i cannot agree with it. at least gainey's philosophy is to draft and sign the best available talent (under their fallible judgment), which makes sense. the savard philosophy is just out of whack and archaic. now this quebecor ordeal is making it sound more like the montreal canadiens will be francophoned out (pun intended). and if it means i have to buy a new channel other than RDS to watch hockey games, i will be 10x as pissed as i had to sacrifice "the movie network" for hockey games, and so far it's been an excellent pay off. - Pride + Envy = Second Place

Savard..two Stanley Cups; three trips to the finals. Gainey...not so much!!!!!

It's May 22 and still no feel good news regarding my beloved Habs, just more speculation and rummor that amounts to nothing. I cheer for a team that is apparently run by the Ringling Bros. and the clowns will not leave the stage forcing me to endure the same crap everyday for the last 10 years. Peace!!!

I think the main question with Savard is whether or not he'll be tempted by the bright lights of the media and take a more active role in the running of the team. I don't pretend to know the nuances of his personality, but I suspect that by the very fact that he's a hometown boy who once was involved in the day to day operations of the hockey team the temptation would prove too great to stay away...and we'd very quickly end up with a situation where we have 3 head chefs and nobody to dice the carrots (or something like that...you know what I'm getting at :)

As long as Celine Dion's name has been purged from the list . . .

I have been a HAB fan for 49years and will remain but i have to admit this circus is really just a little much these days. The draft is in a little more than a month. last time i looked still no concrete buyer, coachs needed...etc,etc. wowowow.

Given the key role that the team plays in the social lives and identity of Montrealers, I am surprised that I haven't heard mention of the community-ownership model since it was discussed here on HIO back in the late winter. It's worked well in Green Bay with the Packers. On the plus side, if the team is run as a non-profit organization, the focus is on winning not merchandise or licensing- the games can then be aired on a public non cable broadcaster, and 100% of the profits can be pumped right back into investing in the team (such as upgrading our pro scouting team, for instance). On the negative side, things are bad with 100,000 assistant coaches- imagine the mess with 100,000 owners, each one thinking they can run the team better than anyone else. my worries: Roustan: is he another Jeffrey Loria? American owners have given me the heebie jeebies ever since the expos died Savard: would favor frenchness over quality BCE: are you kidding? the same people who lobby for a monopoly on phone/internet service, and then gouge us with exoribtant fees for doing simple *** like ADDING A NAME TO THE BILL?! Or who throttle my 7MBps download speed so the best I manage some nights is 30KBps?? screw them and the beavers they rode in on. _______________________________________________________________ Il faut commencer avec le travail, et finir avec le talent. -BG C'est la pire job au hockey. C'est pour ca que tout l'monde veut la job. -Jacques Demers

I'm off to play golf. Thanks for the posts today. You guys really get me thinking. I love your points of view. Go Habs Go!! "I can't hear what Jeremy (Roenick) is saying because my Stanley Cup rings are in my ears" - Patrick Roy

what happened to Graeham Roustan?

This ownership thing is turning into a real clusterf*ck. It would be nice to have one season- ONE- without some form of major upheaval. _______________________________________________________________ Il faut commencer avec le travail, et finir avec le talent. -BG C'est la pire job au hockey. C'est pour ca que tout l'monde veut la job. -Jacques Demers

If BCE buys the Habs, get used to paying for watching playoff games after the RDS contract expires. Then, in a season or 2, get used to paying a fee for every game you want to watch. Bad news for most who don't have the bucks to spend extra on what at best can be described as an addictive hobby. Worrying about whether or not it's Peladeau or BCE isn't the problem. The problem is with the new salary cap NHL, players' salaries are rising against the backdrop of a major recession. The only "economic certainty" the owners have gained is the black hole of bankruptcy rapidly approaching. __________________________________________________________________________________ Beliveau is the best that ever was.

I think that too much is made of the ownership situation and the relative merits of each potential ownership group. Basically as long as they keep the hockey operations side separate from the business side (which was the problem in Toronto for so many years - the division of labour wasn't absolute), and they agree to spend up to the salary cap, it really doesn't matter all that much who actually owns the team. That being said, if we end up with an ownership group who doesn't stay out of the limelight, then we could end up with a neverending headache/circus ala the Dallas Cowboys.

I'd like to hear Hickey or Stubbs comment on how BCE ownership might violate the NHL's by-law against owning multiple teams. BCE has a portion of the buds. As far as I'm concerned either of these corporations would be bad news as they'd be exclusively about maximizing profit without the personal pride an individual owner experiences with winning.

Any one of Serge Savard or Quebecor would be a death of every thing this club has done in the past 6 years, set them back to where not one fa would sign here. We could welcome back the many *** teams, trully *** personal, very bad and drafting that graced the ice in Montreal from the pervious three general managers. We can hope for a guy like Balsille or Pierre Karl Péladeau or have George keep it.