Montreal : La LHJMQ à Verdun

[MTLskyline]

 

Rénovation

[Habsfan]

Encore de la maudite tole pour la facade!

 

Espérons qu'ils vont réaliser que l'auditorium de Verdum doit être détruit et un nouvel amphithéatre devrait être construit à sa place. Un bel amphithéatre comme le John Labatt Centre à Londres en Ontario. 8,000 à 10,000 sièges, des loges corporative(entre 20 et 40 loges), du Stationnement gratuit...etc.

[mtlurb]

stationnement gratuit... yeah sure, il va y avoir des émeutes.

 

Non mais sérieux, de la tôle, c'est juste un mauvais présage... c'est cheap ça coute rien à mettre.

[WestAust]

je vois pas de probleme avec de la tole, surtout que leur but premier n'est que de mettre a jour l'aréna plus pour le coté hockey qu'autre chose, surtout s'ils ont des plans d'expansion ou de construction d'un nouvel amphithéatre.

[Habsfan]

je vois pas de probleme avec de la tole, surtout que leur but premier n'est que de mettre a jour l'aréna plus pour le coté hockey qu'autre chose, surtout s'ils ont des plans d'expansion ou de construction d'un nouvel amphithéatre.

 

T'as raison, je fais mon granola/hippie/membre de Héritage Montréal. Je chiale pour rien!

[FRED]

WoW, quelle bonne nouvelle ! Je pense aller y voir quelques matchs pourquoi pas après tout !

 

http://www.juniordemontreal.com

[Ornello Mastrocola]

I can't say I'm too thrilled at the future design of the Verdun Auditorium; however, the uniforms look classy and perhaps the best in the league. None of this cheap cartoon characters in the front.

[iamthewalrus]

j'espère aller voir un match...contre le Rempart de Québec....une bonne petite rivalité en mémoire des anciens canadiens-nordiques

 

pis Habsfan a raison, le john Labatt centre est vraiment beau, si on pouvait avoir quelquechose de semblable dans l'avenir ça serait parfait..même si ça coûte une beurrée

[ProposMontréal]

Je m'excuse énormément mais je ne savais pas que l'Auditorium est un très bel édifice sous ce plaquage de métal. et l'Annexe maintenant connu sous Denis-Savard n'était pas encore construit.

 

[MTLskyline]

Montreal Juniors blossom in Verdun

 

By Herb Zurkowsky,

The Gazette

March 16, 2009

 

 

Montreal Juniors' Samuel Grenache screens Val D'Or goalie Yan Bouchard in Montreal on March 15, 2009.

 

Photograph by: Allen McInnis, The Gazette

 

Pat O’Keefe had it good for three years. As a defenceman with the St. John’s Fog Devils, the Newfoundland native was able to live at home, in the small community of Mt. Pearl. He slept in his own bed and ate his mother’s home-cooked meals.

 

Then came the shock, when O’Keefe learned the team was transferring this season to Verdun. And the even bigger culture shock, upon his arrival, of going from Newfoundland, where French is rarely spoken, if at all, to the bright lights of the big city.

 

“In Newfoundland,” said O’Keefe, 20, “there’s not much to do. You might go to a movie or go fishing. But here, you can do what you want. There are cinemas every few blocks. But there might be one or two where I come from.

 

“I miss my family a lot,” added O’Keefe, who billets with a family in LaSalle and is enrolled at Concordia University. “But I’m getting older, and this is the easiest way to move into the real world. This is another step to growing up.”

 

As O’Keefe has matured over the last several months so, too, have the Montreal Juniors, the first-year franchise in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, progressed and blossomed.

 

When the league’s board of governors announced last March it had approved Farrel Miller’s $3-million bid to purchase the Fog Devils and transfer the franchise to Montreal, where it would play out of the 70-year-old Verdun Auditorium, eyebrows were raised and there were whispers Miller was simply throwing good money after bad.

 

Miller wasn’t the first brave soul to venture down this road; each entrepreneur eventually, and inevitably, running into a dead end, capped by the Montreal Rocket, who moved to Prince Edward Island in 2003, following four years of sagging attendance.

 

But a year later, there’s reason for optimism.

 

The Juniors completed the regular-season on Sunday with a drubbing of Val D’Or. The victory ended a four-game losing streak and improved the team’s record to 34-30-4, good for second in its division. Montreal will enjoy home-ice advantage in the opening-round of the playoffs, against Rouyn-Noranda; the best-of-seven series beginning Friday night.

 

Off-the-ice, the Juniors averaged slightly more than 3,100 spectators for its 34 home dates, including five sellouts at the antiquated 3,780-seat arena, which underwent $500,000 in renovations. It has a season-ticket base of close to 2,000, according to team president Martin Routhier, slightly below its goal of 2,400. The majority of its tickets cost $15.

 

Miller, a former corporate attorney in New York who made his money in venture capital, said the team, with an operating budget of $2 million, will break even.

 

“I feel really good about it,” he said. “We have a product that’s perceived as being affordable. People realize they’re watching some of the best 17 to 20 year olds. I’ve always said my feeling is major-junior hockey exists for people who love the game … love the sport of hockey. It’s a great product.”

 

But it was great years ago, too. Some talented National Hockey League pros – Mario Lemieux in Laval; Denis Savard in Montreal; Raymond Bourque and Pat LaFontaine in Verdun – got their starts locally. And, while junior hockey enjoyed some halcyon days, it never seemed able to sustain its popularity.

 

“I think when people make comparisons it’s dangerous,” Miller said. “You can argue times are so different. And there’s less competition today (without baseball’s Expos).”

 

The Juniors’ mandate was simple – cultivate its own brand of hockey at an affordable price, while tapping into the large market of young, minor hockey players. The team’s administration staff realized the only way to develop a fan base was by creating bridges to the city’s various communities.

 

As developed by football’s Alouettes before them, the Juniors launched their own program, Score with School; their players, on an average of once per week, visiting, playing ball hockey in gymnasiums, signing autographs and addressing the importance of education. The school boards, in turn, were able to purchase tickets at reduced rates.

 

Practises were occasionally held in various communities and the team launched an extensive marketing and promotional program. The formula changed from game-to-game, Miller explained, with the theme of fun and entertainment remaining constant.

 

The organization also realized the importance of corporate sponsorship. Of 12 people listed in management capacities on the team’s website, fully one-third are involved in sales. This resulted in the Juniors securing more than 50 sponsors, including The Gazette along with radio stations Team 990 and CKAC, which broadcast the majority of the team’s games, home and away. Corporations sponsored an individual game in exchange for a block of tickets it would distribute to its clients. Routhier stressed emphatically no tickets were given away.

 

“Absolutely, it has worked. No doubt,” Routhier said. “I look forward to next year. With a well-established base of season tickets and corporate sponsors, I know we’re going to be a great success.

 

“I look at what the Montreal Canadiens do and told myself there were, for sure, more than 4,000 people who love great entertainment for a low price. I honestly thought we’d sell out every game, and I still think it’s feasible. At the very least, I hope to double our number of sellouts next year.”

 

Of course, none of this would be possible without a competitive product. The Juniors’ record is more impressive considering it has been without its two best players, Angelo Esposito and Luke Adam, for more than a month. Adam has a ruptured spleen and underwent surgery in early February; he’ll miss at least six to eight weeks. Esposito had season-ending surgery for a torn knee ligament three weeks ago.

 

Watching all this from a distance, happy his intervention hasn’t been required, is QMJHL commissioner Gilles Courteau.

 

“They’ve done an outstanding job of creating their own identity … accomplishing a lot of work in a short time,” he said. “It was risky coming back to the Montreal area, but I’m convinced they have a good future. I’m impressed.”

 

hzurkowsky@thegazette.canwest.com

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