The Laval Rocket got off to a good start Tuesday afternoon.
The Canadiens’ new American Hockey League team, which will begin play next season, held a 2 p.m. news conference at Carrefour Laval and it was almost impossible to find a parking spot at the humongous shopping mall.
Once inside, there was a very large crowd to see Canadiens owner Geoff Molson, general manager Marc Bergevin and former players Réjean Houle, Patrice Brisebois, Francis Bouillon and Mathieu Darche as the Rocket unveiled their new logo — a large blue R with “Rocket” written down the side — and bleu-blanc-rouge uniforms with the No. 9 near the bottom of both sleeves of the jersey in honour of former Canadiens great Maurice (Rocket) Richard.
The Rocket will play next season in the new 10,000-seat Place Bell arena, which is expected to be completed in September. The Rocket will replace the St. John’s IceCaps as the Canadiens’ top farm club.
The crowd Tuesday afternoon was impressive, but the big question is how many people will actually go to Laval and buy tickets to watch the Rocket play?
Once upon a time there was a Quebec Major Junior Hockey League team called the Montreal Rocket that only lasted four seasons with sagging attendance at the Maurice Richard Arena and the Bell Centre before moving to Prince Edward Island. The QMJHL’s Laval Titan were only drawing about 800 fans a game before they moved to New Brunswick in 1998 and became the Acadie-Bathurst Titan. The Montreal Juniors lasted only three seasons in the QMJHL at the Verdun Auditorium before moving to Blainville-Boisbriand in 2011 and becoming the Armada.
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Laval has a population of just over 400,000 and it can be about a 40-minute drive from downtown Montreal, so the Rocket will have a lot of hockey fans to draw from. But Montreal fans have shown over the years that if it’s not the Canadiens, there are not a lot of them willing to pay to watcher lower levels of hockey.
The fact the Rocket are affiliated with the Canadiens will definitely help, showcasing the Habs of the future. And the Rocket definitely made themselves more appealing with the ticket prices announced Tuesday. There are three packages available: season tickets (38 games, plus two preseason games), half-season tickets and Flex 20 packages for 20 games of your choice. Those packages will go on sale Feb. 11 with season tickets ranging from $15 per game to $30. The half-season package ranges from $18 per game to $24, while the Flex 20 package costs $24 per game.
“We did a lot of research across the American Hockey League and we wanted to be at, or below, the average, and we’ve done that,” Molson said. “I think that’s going to be very much appreciated by the people of Laval, and even outside of Laval, that want to come to a game with their kids.”
Molson said concession prices have yet to be set, adding they will be “within what the market should bear.”
If the Rocket is going to succeed it would be a good idea to significantly drop the prices that the mostly corporate fans have to pay at a Canadiens game at the Bell Centre, where a regular-size draft beer costs $12, a hot dog is $5, a regular size soft drink is $5 and a bottle of water is $5.50. Not many families can afford — or are willing to pay — those prices at a hockey game, which was part of the reason the overpriced World Junior Hockey Championship struggled to attract fans to the Bell Centre.
“We can’t be positive that it’s going to work, but we’re going to do everything that we can to make sure that it works,” Molson said about the Rocket.
“There’s no guarantees,” he added. “We’re going to have to work hard on it.”
Hockey won’t be the only attraction at Place Bell once it opens. It will also be a concert venue for the Evenko promotion company Molson also owns.
“There will be lots of great acts coming to Laval, which is exciting,” Molson said.
For the Canadiens, having their top farm club closer to home will help in many ways no matter how many fans attend the games.
“St. John’s is a great city and they’ve been good to us,” general manager Bergevin said. “But it’s a two-and-a-half hour flight and sometimes you could get stuck there for three days (because of the weather). Being 40 minutes away, it will be a lot easier for all of us. Not only me, but our scouts, our assistant GM. All across, it will be easier for us.”
A lot easier than finding a parking spot Tuesday at Carrefour Laval.
More ticket info: For more information on the Laval Rocket and ticket prices for the 2017-18 season, go to RocketLaval.com
scowan@postmedia.com
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