Quebec Arena Gets Boost

If a proposed arena comes to fruition in Quebec City, Quebec, it already has a deep-pocketed investor in one of Canada’s largest media companies.

The city has a $400 million arena on the table in hopes of bringing professional hockey back to the city. Now Quebecor has thrown its weight behind it, offering to invest between $110 million and $200 million into the project in return for management and naming rights to the arena, according to the Montreal Gazette.

The deal has a 25-year span. Quebecor would pay $63.5 million for naming rights if a National Hockey League team signs on and $33 million if it does not, according to the paper. It will also pay the city between $3.15 million and $5 million annually to manage the building.

Mayor Regis Labeaume recently said the city and province of Quebec will split the cost of building the 18,000-seater by 2015. The arena would replace the city’s Colisée Pepsi, built in 1949. It was the home of the Quebec Nordiques before the team moved to Denver and became the Colorado Avalanche.

Some of Quebecor’s subsidiaries are Internet service provider Videotron, Sun Media Corporation, the Osprey Media newspaper chain, and television network TVA.