Étienne Boulay has just bought a hockey team in Nice. He announced it yesterday on Instagram, and the news quickly spread like wildfire. Congratulations Étienne!
Étienne has given several interviews to various Québécois media since last night, but he didn’t buy this team on his own. He did it with his friend Filipe Bastos, as well as two French partners: Philippe Jot and Jean-François Ropart.
Since I like to do things differently, I left Étienne to the traditional media. Instead, I went to interview Filipe Bastos, the other new Québécois owner involved in this adventure.
I was lucky enough to meet Filipe about ten years ago. How did you meet him? Because Filipe submitted a bid to buy DLC Média Inc, the company behind DansLesCoulisses.com.
We chatted, we ate together, we got to know each other… and I finally decided to continue on my own and remain the owner of my company. I eventually sold 50% of my shares to OBOX a few years later, to free myself from technical and advertising roles…
I hadn’t spoken to Filipe in a long time. I called him this morning, to congratulate him… but also to see if there was any possibility of doing a “behind-the-scenes” text piece on the transaction.
He said yes.
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Why France and not Quebec?
Étienne and Filipe have known each other for over 10 years. They’re good friends. When Étienne retired from football, he was looking for someone to accompany him in his transition to the media and digital world. He found Filipe, who had a company in this field.
Filipe had always dreamed of one day owning a sports team. He has always cherished this dream with one of his childhood friends… who may join him in this French project in the coming months. We’ll see!
“There have been a few opportunities to own a sports team in Quebec, but the best one came from France. The acquisition cost, the operating budget, the fact that it’s hockey, the promise of a new 5,000-seat arena financed by various organizations in 2029 (in time for the Nice Olympics in 2030), the fact of being on the Côte-d’Azur, less than an hour from skiing in the Alps AND swimming in the sea while being just a few kilometers from all the wealth of the Principality of Monaco… it was all there” – Filipe Bastos
Étienne and Filipe tried to buy the Alouettes a year and a half ago.
“We had taken serious steps to become owners of the Alouettes. We had a project where fans would become co-shareholders in their team, like in Saskatchewan (CFL) and Green Bay (NFL). We met with the league commissioner. However, Pierre-Karl Péladeau came out of nowhere and submitted an offer that was too good for the league. We never had time to present our entire project.” – Filipe Bastos
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Les Aigles de Nice, Étienne and Filipe’s new team, costs around $1.4 million to run annually (players’ salaries, administrative expenses, accommodation, etc.) The team plays in the Ligue Magnus, France’s top division.
“The aim is to increase this to 6 or 7 million Euros within a few years, as is the case with Grenoble and Rouen. All the players earn a total salary of around half a million dollars. It’ll be more than that in a few years. We want to leave the middle of the pack and become a reference in France. We want to attract big players.” – Filipe Bastos
How much did it cost to buy the Nice Eagles? The amount is confidential. Except that Filipe’s laugh when I asked him the question leads me to believe that it’s quite a bit less than the 12 million euros paid recently for the Rouen team.
A mega real estate project, in which the players will also be housed, is due to be completed shortly.
Two Québécois players were due to join the team this season, except that one of them turned up with two finished knees and a dislocated shoulder. Only Marc-André Lévesque, the captain, will represent Quebec in the Aigles dressing room.
With just a few hours to go before his new Aigles kick off their season in Chamonix (salutations to the Boys), Filipe Bastos is aware that the team’s current arena has scared off several players potentially interested in coming to play in Nice. He promises that in a few years’ time, the calibre of the Ligue Magnus will be very close to that of the top European leagues, and that the guys looking to come to France will put Nice at the top of their list.
Filipe is living the dream of many a Québécois ti-cul at the moment, and he knows he’s been lucky in life.
“I work all the time. That’s the way I’m built. I have Telus concessions, I have other projects in Quebec and I created – then sold – Fan-o-Web a few years ago. Even though I met my wife on a Friday the 13th and I’m announcing the purchase of my first sports team on a Friday the 13th, I’m not afraid. I make my own luck. I always provoke it. –Filipe Bastos
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Since he opened the door by talking about the sale of Fan-O-Web(HabsolumentFan, MondeDeStars, HockeyFeed, Etc.), I decided to enter and asked Filipe what he thought of traditional journalists who have it in for independent, alternative or other media that are popular on social networks. In fact, his former HabsolumentFan site was targeted in an article published on LaPresse earlier this week.
“People in the industry can think what they like. They’re in crisis and looking for someone to blame. We created a business back then. What’s important are the people who love it, consume it and read it. That’s who we wanted to appeal to back then, and that’s who the Fan-O-Web managers want to appeal to today. Not the critics. There will always be critics.” –Filipe Bastos
When I asked Filipe if he had a problem with taking over news when he was Fan-O-Web‘s big boss, he had this to say:
“Everyone picks up news. Everyone’s talking about the same news, which often comes from social media. We weren’t looking to be first, but rather to be second. We let DansLesCoulisses be the first, hehe. We didn’t want the scoop, but we wanted to be quick. That’s what people liked. That’s what they still like today. More traditional journalists are entitled to their opinion, but I’m just happy to see people who act legally, tastefully and with good intentions succeed. I can only be happy for them. Except that it’s ironic to see that the traditional media, who weren’t on social networks and looked down on them when we were, are crying because they’re no longer on the biggest social network today. Everyone takes and gives on social networks. That’s how it works, whether you like it or not.” –Filip Bastos
Extension
– Filipe plans to spend at least 10 days a month in France.
– He says he’s rediscovered the buzz he had with Fan-O-Web in managing his new hockey team. He’s been waiting for the right opportunity, and it’s arrived on the Old Continent (in a sport that any Québécois who grew up in la Belle Province at the end of the 20th century knows well).
– Étienne Boulay sold the Atypique company to Keurig two years ago. Like Filipe, he used dollars earned with other companies to buy a professional sports team.
– Filipe wouldn’t confirm anything, but Fan-O-Web was sold to Attraction Média in 2016 for an eight-figure sum.
– Filipe Bastos told me on several occasions that he liked to take risks, think outside the box, live his entrepreneurial drive… that he and Étienne were alike in that respect. Those who stick together still look alike, it seems, in 2024. In fact, it’s probably more like that than ever, but hey…