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The matter of the Ottawa Senators’ ownership and potential new buyers — a topic that comes up reliably at least once a year — has provided endless fodder for a fanbase that has become accustomed to the only thing consistent about the team over the past few seasons being their unpredictability.
The dance began, again, when on Thursday, David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period, a hockey blog and magazine, reported that an unnamed source was saying Sens owner Eugene Melnyk was entertaining an offer to buy the team, which was ultimately rejected.
NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly told this newspaper Thursday that Melnyk is not trying to sell the team, but that an offer had been made.
“Eugene has no interest in selling the Senators,” Daly said an in email. “Offers are made for NHL teams all the time. Doesn’t really mean anything.”
That certain may be true. But, theoretically, if we may indulge in some of speculation now floating around the capital: If the Senators were to be sold, who might the likely ownership candidates be?
Cirque du Soleil founder Guy Laliberte speaks at a news conference in Montreal Monday, April 20, 2015.
Guy Laliberté?
Guy Laliberté, who co-founded Cirque du Soleil in 1984, is one of Canada’s richest people. He is also among the most bohemian members of our country’s billionaire club. He’s a professional poker player, owns an island in French Polynesia he plans to retreat to in the event of global war or catastrophe, and he’s been to space.
Pagnotta’s report read: “It’s not yet been confirmed, but there is strong belief the interested party in the franchise is, or includes, Cirque du Soleil co-founder Guy Laliberte, who has a net worth of $1.37 billion and has expressed interest in the Senators in the past.”
Laliberté has long been thought to have an interest in owning, if not the Ottawa Senators, then an NHL team somewhere. He was involved with Devcore Canderel DLS Group, which submitted a competing bid for the LeBreton Flats redevelopment project. (The bid was ultimately awarded to RendezVous Lebreton, of which Melnyk is a partner.)
Laliberté’s reportedly flirted with buying the Sens in the past. In 2016, while they were bidding on the LeBreton project, a “source close to the partners” said that if they won the bid, “these guys want to buy the team,” reported this newspaper.
Since 2015, Laliberté has backed away from his Cirque de Soleil career and focused more on investing. That same year, he founded Lune Rouge, an investment company that focuses on technology and entrepreneurship. In early June, Lune Rouge purchased 12.85 per cent of 48North, a budding cannabis company.
(Interview requests to Laliberté and Lune Rouge went unanswered Thursday.)
Andre Desmarais in Montreal on Friday, May 13, 2016.
André Desmarais?
André Desmarais has long been attached to the question of Senators ownership.
He, like Laliberté, is one of Canada’s super-rich: His family, headed by patriarch Paul Desmarais Sr., is worth $8.38 billion, according to Canadian Business, making them the seventh wealthiest family in Canada.
André Desmarais, the president and co-CEO of the Power Corp. — a large, trillion-dollar conglomerate based out of Montreal and owned by the Desmarais family — has more recently been in the news regarding the company’s decision to jettison La Presse to a non-profit organization. The company had owned the paper since 1967.
He, too, has been mentioned in the context of owning the NHL team. Along with Laliberté, he was involved in the Devcore Canderel bid for LeBreton Flats, and his name was attached to reports that the group was interested in buying the team. (In 2012, he was also rumoured to have been approached by the league about owning a team in Quebec City; Desmarais denied having any interest in owning a team at that time.)
He’s also no stranger to the hockey world: In 2011, he purchased 25 per cent of the Quebec Remparts, who play in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League. (The purchase was made personally, not as part of the Power Corp.)
(Interview requests to Desmarais and Power Corp. went unanswered Thursday.)
John Ruddy of RendezVous LeBreton listens to the NCC board of directors meeting in Ottawa, on Thursday, Jan. 25, 2018.
John Ruddy?
John Ruddy is another name that has floated around the Ottawa sports ecosphere as wanting a piece of the Sens ownership.
Ruddy is deeply invested in the Ottawa sports market: He is one of the co-founders of the Ottawa Sports and Entertainment Group (OSEG), which owns the CFL’s Ottawa Redblacks, Ottawa 67’s and Ottawa Fury.
Ruddy founded Trinity Development Group in 1992, and grew it into one of the largest and most powerful developers in the city. After the Ottawa Rough Riders folded in 1996, he was regularly tapped as someone who might be involved in bringing the CFL back to Ottawa. By the mid-2000s, he indeed went that route: He got Ottawa 67’s owner Jeff Hunt on board with fellow developers Bill Shenkman and Roger Greenberg together to revitalize Lansdowne Park, with the (ultimately successful) goal of reviving a CFL presence in the city.
A longtime sports fan and athlete — and a rough-and-tumble football player who last year told the Ottawa Business Journal that “It seemed like I spent every off-season in crutches hobbling around the campus” — Ruddy cares deeply about the Ottawa sports scene, and Trinity Developments is a major partner in RendezVous LeBreton Group, which is behind the plan to put a new rink at LeBreton.
When asked if Ruddy had offered to buy a part of the Senators, Randy Burgess, VP of communications with OSEG, said: “John Ruddy did not make an offer to purchase the Ottawa Senators. He does not do interviews on the subject because it does not involve him in any way. Sorry about that.”
kdelamont@postmedia.com
查看原文...
The dance began, again, when on Thursday, David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period, a hockey blog and magazine, reported that an unnamed source was saying Sens owner Eugene Melnyk was entertaining an offer to buy the team, which was ultimately rejected.
NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly told this newspaper Thursday that Melnyk is not trying to sell the team, but that an offer had been made.
“Eugene has no interest in selling the Senators,” Daly said an in email. “Offers are made for NHL teams all the time. Doesn’t really mean anything.”
That certain may be true. But, theoretically, if we may indulge in some of speculation now floating around the capital: If the Senators were to be sold, who might the likely ownership candidates be?
Cirque du Soleil founder Guy Laliberte speaks at a news conference in Montreal Monday, April 20, 2015.
Guy Laliberté?
Guy Laliberté, who co-founded Cirque du Soleil in 1984, is one of Canada’s richest people. He is also among the most bohemian members of our country’s billionaire club. He’s a professional poker player, owns an island in French Polynesia he plans to retreat to in the event of global war or catastrophe, and he’s been to space.
Pagnotta’s report read: “It’s not yet been confirmed, but there is strong belief the interested party in the franchise is, or includes, Cirque du Soleil co-founder Guy Laliberte, who has a net worth of $1.37 billion and has expressed interest in the Senators in the past.”
Laliberté has long been thought to have an interest in owning, if not the Ottawa Senators, then an NHL team somewhere. He was involved with Devcore Canderel DLS Group, which submitted a competing bid for the LeBreton Flats redevelopment project. (The bid was ultimately awarded to RendezVous Lebreton, of which Melnyk is a partner.)
Laliberté’s reportedly flirted with buying the Sens in the past. In 2016, while they were bidding on the LeBreton project, a “source close to the partners” said that if they won the bid, “these guys want to buy the team,” reported this newspaper.
Since 2015, Laliberté has backed away from his Cirque de Soleil career and focused more on investing. That same year, he founded Lune Rouge, an investment company that focuses on technology and entrepreneurship. In early June, Lune Rouge purchased 12.85 per cent of 48North, a budding cannabis company.
(Interview requests to Laliberté and Lune Rouge went unanswered Thursday.)
Andre Desmarais in Montreal on Friday, May 13, 2016.
André Desmarais?
André Desmarais has long been attached to the question of Senators ownership.
He, like Laliberté, is one of Canada’s super-rich: His family, headed by patriarch Paul Desmarais Sr., is worth $8.38 billion, according to Canadian Business, making them the seventh wealthiest family in Canada.
André Desmarais, the president and co-CEO of the Power Corp. — a large, trillion-dollar conglomerate based out of Montreal and owned by the Desmarais family — has more recently been in the news regarding the company’s decision to jettison La Presse to a non-profit organization. The company had owned the paper since 1967.
He, too, has been mentioned in the context of owning the NHL team. Along with Laliberté, he was involved in the Devcore Canderel bid for LeBreton Flats, and his name was attached to reports that the group was interested in buying the team. (In 2012, he was also rumoured to have been approached by the league about owning a team in Quebec City; Desmarais denied having any interest in owning a team at that time.)
He’s also no stranger to the hockey world: In 2011, he purchased 25 per cent of the Quebec Remparts, who play in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League. (The purchase was made personally, not as part of the Power Corp.)
(Interview requests to Desmarais and Power Corp. went unanswered Thursday.)
John Ruddy of RendezVous LeBreton listens to the NCC board of directors meeting in Ottawa, on Thursday, Jan. 25, 2018.
John Ruddy?
John Ruddy is another name that has floated around the Ottawa sports ecosphere as wanting a piece of the Sens ownership.
Ruddy is deeply invested in the Ottawa sports market: He is one of the co-founders of the Ottawa Sports and Entertainment Group (OSEG), which owns the CFL’s Ottawa Redblacks, Ottawa 67’s and Ottawa Fury.
Ruddy founded Trinity Development Group in 1992, and grew it into one of the largest and most powerful developers in the city. After the Ottawa Rough Riders folded in 1996, he was regularly tapped as someone who might be involved in bringing the CFL back to Ottawa. By the mid-2000s, he indeed went that route: He got Ottawa 67’s owner Jeff Hunt on board with fellow developers Bill Shenkman and Roger Greenberg together to revitalize Lansdowne Park, with the (ultimately successful) goal of reviving a CFL presence in the city.
A longtime sports fan and athlete — and a rough-and-tumble football player who last year told the Ottawa Business Journal that “It seemed like I spent every off-season in crutches hobbling around the campus” — Ruddy cares deeply about the Ottawa sports scene, and Trinity Developments is a major partner in RendezVous LeBreton Group, which is behind the plan to put a new rink at LeBreton.
When asked if Ruddy had offered to buy a part of the Senators, Randy Burgess, VP of communications with OSEG, said: “John Ruddy did not make an offer to purchase the Ottawa Senators. He does not do interviews on the subject because it does not involve him in any way. Sorry about that.”
kdelamont@postmedia.com
查看原文...
