[troutman]

Originally Posted by Strange Brew

"provided they come up with the $500 million expansion fee".

That is pretty much all this has ever been about despite any contrary words out of Bettman's mouth.Almost $18 million in free money per team. An absolute windfall. I don't imagine QC wwas ever able to pay that kind of money.

http://business.financialpost.com/in...se-an-nhl-team

On the surface, it would appear that Quebecor balance sheet could eventually curb its enthusiasm for a team since the telecommunications and media company has roughly five times as much long-term debt as equity.

The expansion fee alone is $500 million, and that doesn’t take into account all the other incidentals that come with mounting an NHL-ready team.

Analysts, however, are unperturbed by Quebecor’s willingness to hand over such a princely sum. While there’s no guarantee that the nouveau-Nordiques would add any value, as one analyst cautions, there’s no doubt the telco can pony up the cash.

“Whatever franchise they want to buy in the NHL, they have the balance sheet to do that,” said Maher Yaghi, telecom, media and tech analyst at Desjardins Securities.