The story of the concept, construction and ultimately the opening of Videotron Centre, Quebec City, began 20 years ago when the National Hockey League (NHL) Quebec Nordiques moved to Denver, becoming the Colorado Avalanche.
The Nordiques played in the Colisee du Quebec, a 15,000-plus-seat arena which became the Colisee Pepsi in 1999. The team had a very long history in Quebec City. In the early 1990s before the move to Denver, the Nordiques were on the move up, playing back-to-back successful seasons.
“The year after they left Quebec City, they won the Stanley Cup,” said Quebec Mayor Regis Labeaume. “That was very, very tough for us.” Labeaume said even the team’s biggest rival, the NHL Montreal Canadiens, have missed them.
The Nordiques have been missed every year since, even though the city still has their successful Quebec Remparts of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (QMJHL).
“When I travel to Montreal, they tell me they are tired of not hating me,” he said, with a laugh.
The city has been able to bring exciting family shows and musical entertainment to the older arena, even though many major tours found the older Colisee Pepsi lacked updated features and enough seating.
In 2007, Labeaume, who came from the business sector in Quebec City, was elected to finish out the term of Mayor Andree Boucher after her death. The vision of building a new arena had already begun.
In 2008, the J’ai ma place project (now called the Premier Place) was born from Quebec’s business community to open a new arena. Headed by local businessman Mario Bedard and a 12-member board, this project was an opportunity for the people of Quebec to play an active role in the construction of a new arena.
The first step in getting this endeavor off the ground was to gauge the interest of locals and business people in developing a new building. The people of Quebec responded with open hearts and open minds. All corporate lounges were sold and seats were filled by the thousands in no time.
In 2009, when Labeaume’s partial mayoral term was complete, Labeaume began his first campaign for the next full mayoral term.
“My idea was to propose, for the people of Quebec, a new arena,” he said. “I told voters that if you vote for me, I am committed to building the building. ‘Is that clear?’”
He won 80 percent of the votes and set out to begin negotiations to fulfill his campaign promise.
With the success of J’ai ma place project, which raised $50 million over the next several years, and the successful election of Labeaume, it was clear what the citizens of Quebec City wanted. At a press conference in February 2011, Labeaume along with the Premier of Quebec (province) Jean Charest, announced that the city and the province would split the costs of the building that had been estimated at $400 million.
Just one month later, in March 2011, the City of Quebec announced it had chosen Quebecor as the exclusive manager of the new arena for the next 25 years. In that announcement, Quebecor agreed to pay the city $33 million upon the opening of the new arena.
The City of Quebec had hired local and international architects to form a partnership to design the building. The city hired Francois Moreau of ABCP architectural firm located in Quebec City as the head architect. ABCP, which merged with Gallienne Moisan firm several years ago has offices in Quebec City and in Switzerland.
After visiting many buildings in the U.S. and Canada, the city also hired Populous to come on board.
Meanwhile, Quebecor, a Canadian leader in telecommunications, news media, entertainment and culture, created Quebecor Sports and Entertainment to oversee the management of the Videotron Centre.
Quebecor CEO and President Pierre Dion said he recruited Benoit Robert to come back to Quebec, specifically Quebec City, to take over as CEO and President of Quebecor Sports and Entertainment.
“Ben is from Quebec, but he hasn’t lived here for the past 35 years,” Dion said. In fact, Robert, who grew up in Montreal, received a college scholarship to New Haven University in New Haven, Conn., to play hockey. “I just never came back,” Robert said.
After graduation, he and several of his hockey friends purchased the Lancers of the United States Hockey League and moved them from Council Bluffs, Iowa, to Omaha, Neb. That was in 2004 and for the next 10 years, he remained owner of that team. But, when he got the call from Dion and visited, saw the vision and saw the building, he was quickly on board.
“It is the nicest building I have ever been in all my years,” Robert said. “We have the newest and the best. It is all about client experience. We want the Quebec people to feel at home in the arena.”
To support the successes of the building, Robert felt his company needed to surround themselves with experts, “the leaders of the industry.”
So, they formed a partnership with AEG for “their arena management expertise.” AEG will be responsible for the physical operation of the building under the management of Quebecor Sports and Entertainment.
“We also have a partnership with Live Nation and have their ticketing expertise as well,” Robert said.
At the beginning of 2015, Robert announced Quebecor Sports and Entertainment had formed a partnership with Levy Restaurants to operate the building’s food and beverage. Plans are to offer a menu that features Quebec suppliers, highlighting local products and specialties with Quebec-based concepts available in the arena.
Throughout all the planning rising from concepts, designs and construction, along with another successful reelection for Mayor Labeaume in 2013, there always seem to be two recurring themes:
• “Let’s build an experience for our clients,” Labeaume said. “How can we give them the experience? What can we do to make them comfortable and let them dream.”
• And bring the Nordiques back to Quebec. If the arena is successful in drawing a NHL expansion team, Quebecor will pay the city a total of $63.5 million.
The NHL has accepted applications for new franchises.
So, as last month was drawing to an end, ending an intense labor of love to get the new Videotron Centre built, open and ready for operation, all those associated with the vision were very excited.
“We came in on time and under budget,” Labeaume said. “We are so proud.”
Dion said: “This happens once in a lifetime. I am enjoying the moment.”
Robert said: “We are going to ride this building, for lack of a better way to say this. We plan to take our time to find our cruising speed. I am just living in the moment.”
The City of Quebec took the dates of Sept. 3-8 to let the public tour the building. Each person that was to take the tour was issued a ticket, a free ticket but a ticket nonetheless. The city wanted to make sure that the touring of the building would be organized so each ticket holder had a time when his tour started.
And, with over 180,000 people scheduled to take the two-and-one-half tour in those five days, organization and strong planning was a must.
Upon the conclusion of the city-planned tour, Quebecor officially began its 25-year leasing agreement. Plans were to hold a grand opening ceremony for the public on Sept. 11, followed by the first event Sept. 12, a hockey game between the Quebec Remparts, which is now owned by Quebecor, versus L’Oceanic de Rimouski, both of the QMJHL.
“It is sold out,” Dion said at the beginning of September. “We sold 18,259 seats in three hours.”