Montreal Canadiens have two likely but unenviable scenarios
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Jeff Drouin
December 22, 2021 (10:07)
The latest sanitary restrictions must literally put the owner of the Montreal Canadiens, Geoff Molson, in all his states. He will lose a lot of money, notably because the Habs' games will be played behind closed doors indefinitely.
This is a familiar situation for Molson, given that the CH experienced the same thing last year. This is literally the worst-case scenario that could happen to the organization, according to Renaud Lavoie.
The National Hockey League and the Players' Association had planned for last season to be played behind closed doors. The owners therefore had the guarantee that they would recover the money lost later in the collective agreement.
But never, in all this planning, has there been any question of the games of the current season being held without the presence of spectators. If, for example, the CH were to play all of January behind closed doors, we are talking about 10 home games where significant revenues would be lost. This would be a catastrophic scenario for the team. The worst.
The TVA Sports insider even revealed that the NHL was currently planning to «spice up» its calendar.
He even mentioned two scenarios that could be considered in the future for the Montreal Canadiens.
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The first would be that the CH would play many games on the road in January and February, waiting for less restrictive measures in Montreal. This would hopefully bring the Bell Centre back in March in front of fans and would see several consecutive games.
The other scenario would be to see the Canadiens find a temporary home where they could play their local games. However, this avenue would be very expensive as the entire organization would have to be accommodated over a long period of time.
In any case, the owner will end up being the loser when looking at the financial level. This is literally inevitable.
«But no matter what you choose to do, playing games behind closed doors is, on the business side, impossible in some ways.»
Let's say it's not the right «timing» to own a franchise in professional sport. It's a crisis, it's going to end at some point, of course, but the times are really difficult....
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