It’s been more than a year since the owner of the Ottawa Senators won the rights to build an arena — but, crucially, not the money to build an arena — at LeBreton Flats, and there hasn’t been a ton of noise about the project since then. That’s in large part because said owner, Eugene Melnyk, has been dead for all that time, but his heirs finally sold the team last week to drug-shipping magnate (legal drugs, calm your jets) Michael Andlauer, who has plenty to say on the matter:
“I think a new arena may cost $900 million. It’s just not one of those things that you kinda go in your pocket and say, ‘Oh, jeez, I got some spare change here, I’ll be able to do it.’ It has to make economic sense,” he said. “I don’t know what it’s going to take.”
He cited Edmonton as an example of a public-private partnership (P3) model that he believes worked well for all groups.
Yeah, not so much: The city of Edmonton ended up putting in more than $300 million, plus whatever extra it needed to cover a shortfall in parking revenues, while Oilers owner Daryl Katz put in only $143 million. Katz’s team tripled in value, so he’s probably happy, but it’s hard to say what Edmonton got out of the deal, other than not having to listen to Katz threaten to move every five minutes.
Anyway, if the Edmonton deal is a model and the total price tag is $900 million, Ottawa would be looking at around $391 million in city funds, $166 million from ticket taxes, $190 million from Andlauer, and $152 million from the province of Ontario or whoever else can be found to stick with the bill. That’s a pile of money, and Ottawa Mayor Mark Sutcliffe, when asked last March whether city money would be on the table, said only, “there isn’t a table yet“; Ontario premier Doug Ford, meanwhile, hates spending money on anything and says he won’t have an opinion until Sutcliffe asks for something. This is very likely to be a long, bitter fight, though that’s nothing new for the Senators, so presumably Andlauer knew what he was getting into before buying a team and immediately announcing an unpopular subsidy demand.
re the “it has to make economic sense”, Mr. Andlauer is right. And until the team shows that this makes economic sense for the city and province to do this, they don’t have to do anything. Just because Edmonton gave away money doesn’t mean another billionaire “deserves” his/her welfare check. Their present building is what, thirty years old, with luxury boxes? It’s not that bad. Unless they make an economic case where this makes money for the city/province (can’t be done), the owner should dig into said pocket to build an arena and /or build a winner that will fill the building.
It is bad. It’s way out in the sticks. A more central location would be a big improvement for everyone involved.
The team should pay for it, of course.
I love when someone buys a team and then goes I need a new house, gimme money. Maybe don’t buy it if you can’t afford a new barn or stadium/
Of course Premier Ford “hates spending money on anything”. He tried to give away protected greenbelt land to his developer cronies until that brazen scheme was exposed.
Ottawa is in dire straits. The city has the worst LRT, Light Rail Transit, system in the world. The streets are in decay. Crime is up. Safety is down. The bus service is appalling. The city could use the half a billion in better ways.
PLUS Edmonton’s Ice House is great on the game days; on non game days, after the sun goes down, it is a magnet for marginalized street people in town. Scary.
Dan Shields,
Ottawa
Oh, yeah, the old rink is mos def not that old, 25 years, and is in pristine shape. Yes it is in the deep western suburbs but it is what it is. When the team is winning or Morgan Wallen is in concert, it sells out.
They want it to sell out even when the team isn’t winning and they want demand for season tickets to be stronger.
Montreal and Vancouver still draw well even when they suck. They want to be like that.
No team is always good.
I’m sure there are better uses for that money, but nobody in Ottawa can be at all surprised that Andlauer is going to ask for it. The talk of a new arena has been going on almost as long as they’ve been in the current one (or at least, it feels like that).
I’ve not been on it, but I can assure you that it isn’t the “worst LRT in the world.”
Maybe the worst in Canada.