Quote:
Originally Posted by J.OT13
It wasn't quite overnight.
- It started in 2013 when the team let Alfredsson slip away because they weren't willing to pay him what he was worth after years of "Home Town Discounts".
- Then you had the Phoenix Pay System in 2015 screwing public servants left and right, thus reducing people's sense financial security (and severely affecting others').
- Around 2015, the team placed its bid to redevelop LeBreton Flats, the owner stressing that the current location was terrible and that a move downtown was essential to the survival of the team.
- I January 2017, he fired the well loved President of the organization who was one of the team founders. He then hired Tom Anselmi who went on to double parking rates and remove seats from the arena. Tom quit for unknown reasons in January 2018. Some of his dumb ideas were reversed the following NHL season.
- Then you had playoff games not sold out in 2016-2017, but still very well attended, and the owner bashing fans for it.
- In December 2017, during the Alumni Game on Parliament Hill, the day before the NHL Classic at Lansdowne, the owner threatened to move the team if attendance didn't go up. Again, attendance wasn't that bad at this point.
- Just before the start of the 2018-2019 season, they traded our Captain, arguably the best defencemen in the league at the time, because they were unwilling to make him a fair offer.
- In December 2018, the owner had a temper tantrum and killed the LeBreton deal.
- In February 2019, they traded every single all-star player left on the team. That same month, the attempts to save the LeBreton deal collapse, again because of the owner.
And this isn't everything. We've had a lot of drama coming out of the locker room and the front office. The owner is involved in multiple litigation, including gambling debts and the nearly $2 billion lawsuits surrounding the LeBreton deal that fell apart. The owner denies bashing fans and threatening to move despite having him one video. The owner is darn right Trumpian.
The issues the Sens are having around attendance is partly due to the terrible location, but mostly a protest against the mentally unstable owner. We just need a new owner who respects the fans, the players and his staff, first and foremost. Then, we could benefit from a new arena.
Ottawa is a good market. We support our team. We can see that when looking at the attendance numbers during the first 23 seasons (note: October 1992 to January 1996, we played in the 10,000 seat Civic Centre). We can start seeing the drop when Alfie was traded before the 2013-2014 season, followed by a free-fall starting in 2016-2017.
http://www.hockeydb.com/nhl-attendan...h.php?tmi=7328 |
Because of all this I honestly think they are moving to Quebec city.
Wouldn't it be cheaper to build a massive string of Condo's next to the Arena's than it'd be to build a new Arena.
My guess is building a new arena would cost the next owner 200-300 million. That's 200-300 million more that Quebec city could off on top of Melnyks asking price for the team.
If QC offers 500 mill for a relocation team and a Ottawa ownership group offers 250 mill I can't see the league sticking to the market.
The optics would just be horrible when a new team(with a great roster) is worth $650 million.
If the team stays they are gonna be at permanent risk of relocation.
If the team moves it'll look incredibly awful if its anywhere other than QC.
Moving to QC doesn't decrease the value of American teams as it is staying in Canada.
QC already has an arena and it's likely on the preferable side of Montreal. Most of Ottawa will just default back to Montreal/Toronto. I could easily see QC becoming the underdog team of the league.
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It's not a done deal, but the proposal I saw was to knock it down, rebuild it with a focus on tying into Maple Leaf Square, anchoring the other end of a "outdoor fan experience" along Bremner, and building a new residential development to the north with a skypark over the GO corridor. The residential aspect is what drives the profitability of it all. 
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