Now it’s up to Saint John, New Brunswick and St. John’s, Newfoundland.

After two days of governor’s meetings in Montreal, the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League has set the parameters under which two new teams would join the league.

“Consensus was the highlight of these two days of meetings,” said league commissioner Gilles Courteau in a release Saturday. “Discussions turned out to be very productive.”

Some of the terms of expansion were expected, including the $3 million price tag for the new ownership groups to join the league. Of that sum, $100,000 per team will go into the league’s reserve fund. If the expansion does indeed occur, the rest of the league’s teams will contribute $25,000 to this fund, in addition to the $75,000 each has already invested.

“After an in-depth analysis of the situation, the governors established the $3 million price because they feel the markets…are vigorous enough to cover expenses and pay off their respective investments, and very rapidly,” said Courteau.

If a franchise is indeed placed in St. John’s, the league will require the team to reimburse all teams traveling to St. John’s for air travel to and from the city.

One small detail that will effect this and any future expansion or relocation is an agreement that any future site must have an arena with at least 3,500 seats to be considered as a viable location.

Existing teams

Current teams will be able to protect 16 players as part of an expansion draft, and if two teams join the league, no current team will be allowed to lose more than three players total, and no more than one goaltender. If just one team joins the league, each team will be allowed to lose no more than two players.

At the league’s entry draft, the two expansion teams will have the first two picks in each round in an alternating order, and that will also apply to the CHL’s European player’s draft.

In the new teams’ first season, they will be allowed five 20-year-old players (existing teams are allowed three), and that number will decrease to four in the teams’ second years.

Ownership groups in both cities now have until Nov. 30 to decide whether or not to pursue operating a new team in the 2005-06 season.