Melnyk, NCC must change their ways to make arena plan work
Spencer Callaghan, Ottawa Citizen
Published on: February 1, 2015, Last Updated: February 1, 2015 8:00 AM EST
In any negotiation, there are dozens of variables that can make or break a potential deal. Whatever ends up rising out the once-contaminated mud at LeBreton will inevitably be the product of intense negotiations, collaboration and compromise.
Which is why, despite it being a great idea, a new arena for the Ottawa Senators at LeBreton is unlikely to happen.
It’s hard to imagine two more diametrically opposed parties than the National Capital Commission and Ottawa Senators owner Eugene Melnyk. One is a slow moving, unelected bureaucracy that prioritizes process and principles. The other is a self-made billionaire used to moving quickly and getting his way. Melynk is the unstoppable force, who once told his own fans to “blow themselves up” if they disagreed with the direction of the team. He has been sanctioned by the Ontario Securities Commission for his dealings with Biovail, a company he has since left.
Most recently, Melnyk publicly slammed Ottawa city council when he didn’t get his way on the planned casino redevelopment project. To be fair, he really was shortchanged in that situation (city council’s decision still defies explanation), but Melnyk’s tendency to air grievances in public does not mesh well with an organization like the NCC, for whom the public is more an obstacle than a stakeholder. In short, Melnyk’s public actions don’t reflect a man who has patience for the process, diplomacy, and compromise required to negotiate a deal with the NCC.
The NCC is the immovable object, so bound by process that it once wrote an RFP so convoluted that only one developer responded to it – and they accepted it (leading to the bland condos at LeBreton today)!
Despite the NCC’s recent reforms, it still remains an organization that is highly resistant to accountability and mostly disinterested in public opinion. Take the western LRT debate. As a project, light-rail checks many of the progressive boxes the NCC loves: green, sustainable, smart growth. Yet despite being the will of the majority of the public (as represented by the recent election) the NCC stands on principle to protect a “park” that is actually a highway.
If the NCC is unwilling to budge on a project as progressive as LRT, what chance does a half-billion dollar palace for millionaires to play contact sports and blue collar fans to drink beer have? Add in the fact that the majority of the NCC’s board is not actually from Ottawa, and therefore couldn’t care less about Senators hockey, and the situation looks even more grim.
For an arena to rise at LeBreton Flats, both sides will need diverge significantly from their historic tendencies. Melnyk will need to rein in his tendency to speak first and ask questions later. He will need to understand that the process is going to take time, patience, and diplomacy. He won’t get exactly what he wants, and the eventual result will likely look nothing like what he originally proposed. He will need national partners to build something that is more than just an arena, but a gathering place for all Canadians who visit the capital.
The NCC will need to realize that although LeBreton Flats is their land, this city belongs to its citizens. Rather than start with a list of demands, the NCC should start with a vision of the kind of space they want to create for people, not principles. This city knows all too well what happens when the NCC gets caught up in its principles – boring condos at the former Daly site and LeBreton are prime examples of this thinking. Though tourism is certainly a concern, the site will need to be a space where locals can gather year round, not just when they have visiting relatives.
Ottawa has enough staid spaces that stand on ceremony, and it certainly has enough hyper-commerical spaces that don’t value community and connection. Hopefully the two sides can come together and build something great at LeBreton that combines the best aspects of both to create a lively space that respects both the citizens of Ottawa and its position at the heart of the Nation’s Capital.
Spencer Callaghan is an Ottawa-based marketing and communications strategist at 31digital.ca.
http://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-...rena-plan-work
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