Senators stake out new turf with ByWard Market sports bar
Vito Pilieci, Ottawa Citizen
Published on: July 25, 2014, Last Updated: July 25, 2014 12:35 PM EDT
Guest enjoy the big screen during a ceremonial grand opening of Sens House, the official sports bar of the Ottawa Senators, in the Byward Mark at 73 York St. Thursday, July 24, 2014.
With the official opening of the Sens House bar on Thursday, the rivalry between Senators and Toronto Maple Leafs fans has gained a new battleground: the ByWard Market.
The new bar, which has a retractable roof and an 18-foot high-definition screen for watching games, aims to give fans of the hometown Senators a game-night place in the market to call their own.
The site located on York Street — a block north of the posh Real Sports Bar & Grill, which is owned by Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment (MLSE).
Sens House promises 250 seats for die-hard fans of the red-and-black. The wood-panelled second-floor pub was packed with invited guests and dignitaries for its opening Thursday, including Mayor Jim Watson and Senators president Cyril Leeder. The event was kicked off by the opening of the roof and the release of red, black and gold balloons.
“We really wanted to find and create something that Senators fans can call home. This (is) a bar built for Sens fans,” said Mike Wallace, senior director of marketing for the Ottawa Senators Hockey Club. “This is something we wanted to do for a number of years. It’s one of things that over a number of years has been developed and refined.”
Wallace said Sens House will be the place to be for Sens fans who can’t attend the game live, but it won’t turn away any other teams’ fans, including those wearing blue and white, who might wander in looking for a place to watch hockey.
“The great thing about hockey is competition,” said Wallace. “We know there are other fans in the market that want to come out and watch their teams as well.”
There are few sports towns like Ottawa where the relatively young Senators franchise must compete with long-standing allegiances to such hockey rivals as the Toronto Maple Leafs, Montreal Canadiens and Boston Bruins. Seeing a Senators home game with the Canadian Tire Centre packed to the rafters with blue and white Leafs jerseys, largely due to the availability and price of tickets, has become a bit of a thorn in the side of Senators fans across the capital.
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