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Six days after April Fools, the Ottawa Senators’ season ended abruptly on Saturday night, and lockers were cleaned out Monday.
For many long-term followers of the team, this was plain rude – having the local season over before the last bit of snow is gone from backyards. For others, the end to this calamity couldn’t come soon enough. Better days ahead, surely.
One would like to think.
The reality is the organization enter this next phase of its 26-year existence with a ton of questions. And those questions should surface in town hall meetings Tuesday and Wednesday between season ticket holders and owner Eugene Melnyk, along with general manager Pierre Dorion.
A case could be made that this is the most distressing situation the Senators have been in since joining the league in 1992, and that includes past seasons when they were outclassed as an expansion team or when they faced bankruptcy.
At least then, there were long-term plans. There was blind faith, not anger, from the fan base. That vital, life-giving bond of trust between fans and the proprietor of the hockey club has been strained – now seemingly hanging by a slender thread.
Today fans don’t know whether the plan is to rebuild, fish or cut bait. It’s not enough to say the Senators want to create the finest team in the NHL. Where’s the evidence?
During the occasion of the Senators’ historic outdoor game at Lansdowne Park in December, Melnyk vowed to trim player payroll if fans didn’t turn out in greater numbers. He also said a downtown rink was not a necessity and spoke of relocating the team, which forced NHL commissioner Gary Bettman to step up to say the comments were ill-timed and that no one can move a franchise without approval of the NHL’s board of governors.
Melnyk later recanted in an open letter to fans in which he stated, “I am just as committed to the Ottawa Senators and to keeping them in the city of Ottawa as I was in 2003.”
Perhaps, but 15 years of rhetoric has created a community full of doubt.
Sadly, the team’s astonishingly poor performance on the ice in 2017-18 – 30th place, the worst point total in 22 years – is almost beside the point.
Compared to the future of the LeBreton Flats project, and the importance of the Senators franchise in the fabric of the National Capital Region, the goaltending situation and the win-loss record don’t mean much.
The future health of the franchise is the issue, based on the bond of trust.
That’s why it is vital for the owner to clarify some things when he meets with season ticket holders (a limited number of media are welcome to observe, but cannot ask questions).
* Everyone wants to know which way the wind is blowing regarding the future of captain Erik Karlsson. Understandably, Karlsson himself said Monday that he is focused on his personal life at the moment, following the loss of his son. As to the business side, he was suitably vague: “There’s always the possibility” he has played his last game, he said, as the fan base gulped.
* Does the team, which fielded offers on Karlsson at the trade deadline, have the financial wherewithal to re-sign him to a long-term deal? Even if it does, would Karlsson be willing to return to the club beyond the one season left on his contract, based on what he knows about the stability of the hockey side of the business operation? The departure of Karlsson, the one true superstar in the history of the franchise, would send a horrible signal to a hockey community that lived through the departures of Daniel Alfredsson, Kyle Turris, Zdeno Chara, Marian Hossa, Jason Spezza etc., all bitter partings that left scars.
* No single development project in Ottawa is more important than the estimated multibillion-dollar LeBreton Flats plan, which is barely past first base. The announced deal with the National Capital Commission would see the development of 49 acres of land near downtown. The heavy lifting, the financing of the project, which includes a new arena for the Senators, is in the works, but what is the status report?
Are the big boys in the sandbox getting along and working as a team?
We might have a better sense of how things are progressing on the most important development project in decades if so many of the major partners involved hadn’t signed non-disclosure agreements with Melnyk. Local business titans don’t feel free to speak on the project without Melnyk’s approval, so the least the hockey owner could do is update us all. Melnyk seems to be the only business partner free to speak, despite the fact Trinity Developments face the lion’s share of the project cost, in the billions, while Melnyk’s arena commitment is somewhere in the neighbourhood of $600 million, based on the Edmonton model.
* Melnyk has often said he loses millions of dollars operating the Senators. So, what is his current debt load, interest commitments, and to what extent is the NHL assisting the franchise here? Anything beyond the usual revenue sharing to support teams with lower revenues and currency imbalance due to the weak Canadian dollar?
Of course, there are many more questions the owner might be asked. His answers, along with Dorion’s, will set the franchise course for the near future.
wscanlan@postmedia.com
查看原文...
For many long-term followers of the team, this was plain rude – having the local season over before the last bit of snow is gone from backyards. For others, the end to this calamity couldn’t come soon enough. Better days ahead, surely.
One would like to think.
The reality is the organization enter this next phase of its 26-year existence with a ton of questions. And those questions should surface in town hall meetings Tuesday and Wednesday between season ticket holders and owner Eugene Melnyk, along with general manager Pierre Dorion.
A case could be made that this is the most distressing situation the Senators have been in since joining the league in 1992, and that includes past seasons when they were outclassed as an expansion team or when they faced bankruptcy.
At least then, there were long-term plans. There was blind faith, not anger, from the fan base. That vital, life-giving bond of trust between fans and the proprietor of the hockey club has been strained – now seemingly hanging by a slender thread.
Today fans don’t know whether the plan is to rebuild, fish or cut bait. It’s not enough to say the Senators want to create the finest team in the NHL. Where’s the evidence?
During the occasion of the Senators’ historic outdoor game at Lansdowne Park in December, Melnyk vowed to trim player payroll if fans didn’t turn out in greater numbers. He also said a downtown rink was not a necessity and spoke of relocating the team, which forced NHL commissioner Gary Bettman to step up to say the comments were ill-timed and that no one can move a franchise without approval of the NHL’s board of governors.
Melnyk later recanted in an open letter to fans in which he stated, “I am just as committed to the Ottawa Senators and to keeping them in the city of Ottawa as I was in 2003.”
Perhaps, but 15 years of rhetoric has created a community full of doubt.
Sadly, the team’s astonishingly poor performance on the ice in 2017-18 – 30th place, the worst point total in 22 years – is almost beside the point.
Compared to the future of the LeBreton Flats project, and the importance of the Senators franchise in the fabric of the National Capital Region, the goaltending situation and the win-loss record don’t mean much.
The future health of the franchise is the issue, based on the bond of trust.
That’s why it is vital for the owner to clarify some things when he meets with season ticket holders (a limited number of media are welcome to observe, but cannot ask questions).
* Everyone wants to know which way the wind is blowing regarding the future of captain Erik Karlsson. Understandably, Karlsson himself said Monday that he is focused on his personal life at the moment, following the loss of his son. As to the business side, he was suitably vague: “There’s always the possibility” he has played his last game, he said, as the fan base gulped.
* Does the team, which fielded offers on Karlsson at the trade deadline, have the financial wherewithal to re-sign him to a long-term deal? Even if it does, would Karlsson be willing to return to the club beyond the one season left on his contract, based on what he knows about the stability of the hockey side of the business operation? The departure of Karlsson, the one true superstar in the history of the franchise, would send a horrible signal to a hockey community that lived through the departures of Daniel Alfredsson, Kyle Turris, Zdeno Chara, Marian Hossa, Jason Spezza etc., all bitter partings that left scars.
* No single development project in Ottawa is more important than the estimated multibillion-dollar LeBreton Flats plan, which is barely past first base. The announced deal with the National Capital Commission would see the development of 49 acres of land near downtown. The heavy lifting, the financing of the project, which includes a new arena for the Senators, is in the works, but what is the status report?
Are the big boys in the sandbox getting along and working as a team?
We might have a better sense of how things are progressing on the most important development project in decades if so many of the major partners involved hadn’t signed non-disclosure agreements with Melnyk. Local business titans don’t feel free to speak on the project without Melnyk’s approval, so the least the hockey owner could do is update us all. Melnyk seems to be the only business partner free to speak, despite the fact Trinity Developments face the lion’s share of the project cost, in the billions, while Melnyk’s arena commitment is somewhere in the neighbourhood of $600 million, based on the Edmonton model.
* Melnyk has often said he loses millions of dollars operating the Senators. So, what is his current debt load, interest commitments, and to what extent is the NHL assisting the franchise here? Anything beyond the usual revenue sharing to support teams with lower revenues and currency imbalance due to the weak Canadian dollar?
Of course, there are many more questions the owner might be asked. His answers, along with Dorion’s, will set the franchise course for the near future.
wscanlan@postmedia.com
查看原文...
