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NHL hockey at LeBreton Flats is close enough to reality for fans to imagine the possibilities.
Bruce Firestone, the original Senators owner, imagined it, too, back in 1987. He recalls a conversation with the late Jean Pigott, then-chair of the National Capital Commission, going something like this when he inquired about putting an NHL rink on NCC lands. (First, of course, he would have to acquire an NHL franchise).
“Bruce, do you want the public or private answer?” Firestone recalls Pigott saying.
“Are they different, Jean?”
“Yes.”
“What’s the private answer?”
“No.”
To the NCC at that time, a rink was just a rink. LeBreton would be reserved for something more noble, such as a major museum or a Supreme Court of Canada building.
“So, what’s the public answer?” Firestone wondered.
The public answer, Pigott told him, was “We’ll agree to study it.”
And she added, “Bruce, we’ll study it until you give up and go away, or you die, whichever comes first.”
These were the days when Firestone, and others, figured the NCC was an acronym for the No Commitment Club, as proposal after proposal was either rejected outright or put off for “study.”
Related
Times change. The NCC is open for business — ironically enough with a former Firestone hire, Marc Seaman, as the latest chairman. With Russ Mills at the helm, the NCC last year awarded development negotiation rights to the local RendezVous LeBreton group, which includes Trinity Development as a major player and Melnyk as owner of the Senators.
Over the weekend, a frustrated Melnyk, with financial challenges and a plethora of empty seats for NHL games at the CTC in Kanata, was muttering about the possibly of going to a different location in the region, not necessarily LeBreton, perhaps even moving the team out of town in the event of a “disaster” with his current franchise.
Firestone instantly drew a parallel between this complex NCC negotiation and the Ontario Municipal Board hearings he experienced in 1991.
After three exhausting days on the stand, seeking approval to build an arena (Firestone had hoped for a major hotel as well) in Kanata, Firestone heard an Ogden Corp. representative named Doug Logan say to him — “Let’s blow this town.”
Ogden would happily take the Senators for its new building in Anaheim.
“You’ll love the beaches,” Logan said.
Of course, Firestone was committed to bringing the Senators back to Ottawa, not So-Cal. He and Cyril Leeder and Randy Sexton succeeded in doing just that. Twenty-five years after the Senators’ first game — at the tiny Civic Centre in 1992 — Firestone says he believes the team will stay here for years to come. NHL commissioner Gary Bettman reiterated on the weekend that a single owner can’t just pack up and move his club without full approval by the league board of governors.
But beyond that, to Firestone, a.k.a. Professor Bruce, a realtor and real estate investment coach, there is no need to relocate. He is wildly bullish on the local economy, pointing to a surging population approaching 1.4 million in Ottawa-Gatineau with 750,000 full-time jobs or the equivalent.
“And they are almost all hockey fans,” Firestone says. “I would put this market up against Tampa Bay, Carolina, Arizona or any of the other markets.”
Firestone considers the RendezVous LeBreton plan “world class,” as good as any proposed projects on the table in North America. He noted that in the Claridge Homes development of the government-owned Daly Building site into an upscale condominium 12 years ago, Claridge didn’t buy the land, but agreed to a long-term land rental agreement, the costs of which were covered by the condo unit fees.
At LeBreton, a land rental agreement is not up for discussion. The clear direction is that the NCC will sell as much as 21 hectares of property for development.
Until there is an agreement on financing, ideally in time for the NCC meeting in late January, the proposal and the hockey club are in an awkward holding pattern.
The sooner the green light signals on the LeBreton deal, the sooner the Senators will be able to do business with major corporate partners. If fans are mentally moving past Kanata to the next big thing — a downtown arena, businesses are certainly sitting on their money. Why invest in yesterday’s news?
Once LeBreton announces financing in place, and an arena construction schedule, corporations can do deals with the Senators even before they move downtown — wraparound agreements that would start in Kanata, then go with the club to LeBreton.
“The Senators are in the entertainment business, and entertainment is all about what is new,” says Firestone, who can’t help but wonder what Jean Pigott would make of it all.
“Jean might be up there in heaven, shaking her finger at me, but I do think the NCC has a willingness to make RendezVous LeBreton possible. I believe that.
“But they have to come to an agreement.”
wscanlan@postmedia.com
twitter.com/hockeyscanner
查看原文...
Bruce Firestone, the original Senators owner, imagined it, too, back in 1987. He recalls a conversation with the late Jean Pigott, then-chair of the National Capital Commission, going something like this when he inquired about putting an NHL rink on NCC lands. (First, of course, he would have to acquire an NHL franchise).
“Bruce, do you want the public or private answer?” Firestone recalls Pigott saying.
“Are they different, Jean?”
“Yes.”
“What’s the private answer?”
“No.”
To the NCC at that time, a rink was just a rink. LeBreton would be reserved for something more noble, such as a major museum or a Supreme Court of Canada building.
“So, what’s the public answer?” Firestone wondered.
The public answer, Pigott told him, was “We’ll agree to study it.”
And she added, “Bruce, we’ll study it until you give up and go away, or you die, whichever comes first.”
These were the days when Firestone, and others, figured the NCC was an acronym for the No Commitment Club, as proposal after proposal was either rejected outright or put off for “study.”
Related
Times change. The NCC is open for business — ironically enough with a former Firestone hire, Marc Seaman, as the latest chairman. With Russ Mills at the helm, the NCC last year awarded development negotiation rights to the local RendezVous LeBreton group, which includes Trinity Development as a major player and Melnyk as owner of the Senators.
Over the weekend, a frustrated Melnyk, with financial challenges and a plethora of empty seats for NHL games at the CTC in Kanata, was muttering about the possibly of going to a different location in the region, not necessarily LeBreton, perhaps even moving the team out of town in the event of a “disaster” with his current franchise.
Firestone instantly drew a parallel between this complex NCC negotiation and the Ontario Municipal Board hearings he experienced in 1991.
After three exhausting days on the stand, seeking approval to build an arena (Firestone had hoped for a major hotel as well) in Kanata, Firestone heard an Ogden Corp. representative named Doug Logan say to him — “Let’s blow this town.”
Ogden would happily take the Senators for its new building in Anaheim.
“You’ll love the beaches,” Logan said.
Of course, Firestone was committed to bringing the Senators back to Ottawa, not So-Cal. He and Cyril Leeder and Randy Sexton succeeded in doing just that. Twenty-five years after the Senators’ first game — at the tiny Civic Centre in 1992 — Firestone says he believes the team will stay here for years to come. NHL commissioner Gary Bettman reiterated on the weekend that a single owner can’t just pack up and move his club without full approval by the league board of governors.
But beyond that, to Firestone, a.k.a. Professor Bruce, a realtor and real estate investment coach, there is no need to relocate. He is wildly bullish on the local economy, pointing to a surging population approaching 1.4 million in Ottawa-Gatineau with 750,000 full-time jobs or the equivalent.
“And they are almost all hockey fans,” Firestone says. “I would put this market up against Tampa Bay, Carolina, Arizona or any of the other markets.”
Firestone considers the RendezVous LeBreton plan “world class,” as good as any proposed projects on the table in North America. He noted that in the Claridge Homes development of the government-owned Daly Building site into an upscale condominium 12 years ago, Claridge didn’t buy the land, but agreed to a long-term land rental agreement, the costs of which were covered by the condo unit fees.
At LeBreton, a land rental agreement is not up for discussion. The clear direction is that the NCC will sell as much as 21 hectares of property for development.
Until there is an agreement on financing, ideally in time for the NCC meeting in late January, the proposal and the hockey club are in an awkward holding pattern.
The sooner the green light signals on the LeBreton deal, the sooner the Senators will be able to do business with major corporate partners. If fans are mentally moving past Kanata to the next big thing — a downtown arena, businesses are certainly sitting on their money. Why invest in yesterday’s news?
Once LeBreton announces financing in place, and an arena construction schedule, corporations can do deals with the Senators even before they move downtown — wraparound agreements that would start in Kanata, then go with the club to LeBreton.
“The Senators are in the entertainment business, and entertainment is all about what is new,” says Firestone, who can’t help but wonder what Jean Pigott would make of it all.
“Jean might be up there in heaven, shaking her finger at me, but I do think the NCC has a willingness to make RendezVous LeBreton possible. I believe that.
“But they have to come to an agreement.”
wscanlan@postmedia.com
twitter.com/hockeyscanner
查看原文...
