Melnyk back to stirring pot on LeBreton Flats
Wayne Scanlan, Ottawa Citizen
Published on: April 13, 2018 | Last Updated: April 13, 2018 5:44 PM EDT
Senators owner Eugene Melnyk says stuff and the general reaction ranges from grin to chuckle to cringe.
Nearly a decade ago, your servant wrote a column, after considerable thought, suggesting the Senators undertake a major rebuild of their aging, under-achieving roster. Not everyone agreed, but this was hardly an isolated opinion.
An angry Melnyk lashed out the next day at a media conference: “anybody that says we should blow up this organization should get their own bomb and go blow themselves up, OK?”
Nevertheless, within two years, then-general manager Bryan Murray did oversee a major roster shakeup, as Mike Fisher, Chris Kelly and others departed.
Melnyk’s outsized shot at a media member’s hockey take raised eyebrows, but is the kind of hyperbole people have become numb to from the mercurial owner of the Senators, who took over the hockey club and arena in 2003.
Over the years, Melnyk has made a habit of saying outrageous things in public, which is why The Fan 590 in Toronto made a point of having him on the air as often as they could. You never knew when he might call for the NHL to undertake a forensic investigation into an on-ice incident.
In Ottawa, fans and media have learned to take what Melnyk says with myriad grains of salt, understanding that his actions speak louder – check out the changes in corporate staff on the hockey club over the past three years.
This comes to mind given the owner’s latest turn-about on the LeBreton Flats development, a $4-billion project that imagines a community centre, a French language school, retail, housing, public space, and of course, a new ice palace for the NHL Senators. All near a major LRT hub. This is the future, folks.
As recently as Jan. 25, Melnyk and the rest of the RendezVous LeBreton group were enthusiastic about the agreement in principle with the National Capital Commission to develop 49 acres of NCC land just west of Parliament Hill. Tiptoeing carefully in the month after his comments during the NHL 100 Classic stirred a hornet’s nest, Melnyk didn’t make himself available to media at NCC headquarters, but instead issued a statement.
“I am thrilled to be one step closer to bringing Ottawa Senators fans a more enjoyable fan experience,” Melnyk said in the release. “We have moved closer to realizing a vision for LeBreton Flats – creating a place of pride for Ottawa residents, the Ottawa Senators hockey team and visitors.”
This was a completely different sentiment than he expressed during festivities for the outdoor game in mid-December.
“A lot of people question whether we need to be downtown,” Melnyk said at the time. “Because until the law changes, where you can’t give tickets to civil servants, that is a disaster for us … you’re just moving the arena closer to people who can’t get tickets.”
Tickets for free, that is. The reference is to a Treasury Board policy that forbids government types from receiving free tickets from clients, in the way that Bay Street business might in Toronto.
In late January, Melnyk reinforced what he had said following the NCC agreement in principle, telling reporters that the LeBreton arena was “critical.” While an Ottawa NHL team could likely survive in any event, Melnyk said “it has to go forward with the arena project.”
That was his stance, until the other day in a town hall meeting with season’s ticket holders, when Melnyk proclaimed himself “hedging on LeBreton.”
Again, he brought up the government ticket policy (which has long been a bugaboo for the hockey club). But he also publicly questioned a LeBreton partner for developing other land in the area not far from LeBreton. The shot across the bow makes one wonder how the RendezVous “partnership” is able to function.
Melnyk spoke of the “tremendous risk” of LeBreton, and concern about what a move to LeBreton would do to his fans in Kanata. (There is method here, too, because the Senators will need fans at the Canadian Tire Centre for several years until a downtown rink is built).
Clearly, Melnyk is back to that devil’s advocate position while engaged in complicated and ongoing negotiations on LeBreton financing, involving the NCC, the city of Ottawa and Trinity Developments. This is not angry Eugene, it’s tactical Eugene, trying to play his leverage (his team, his rink) to the hilt, trying to work a better deal. Come to me, people.
The sad fallout for those of us who live and work in this community and want to see the Senators thrive and a proper plan executed for LeBreton to serve the area – it feels like we’re all caught up in a high stakes game of chicken.
Who blinks first?
While a downtown arena might indeed be closer to those government employees and politicians who can’t distribute free Sens tickets, it is also closer to the beating heart of the Capital, to long-suffering Gatineau (never truly embraced by the Senators, despite some token gestures) and to the dining and entertainment options fans want to mix with their hockey outings.
The hope is that the rhetoric and posturing give way to sleeves-rolled up and a collective push to do what’s right for the region.
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