Whenever Ottawa Senators owner Eugene Melnyk makes an appearance on the Fan 590‘s ‘Prime Time Sports’, it’s always a relatively interesting affair – mostly because the hosts do an exceptional job poking, prodding or manipulating the owner to go off on tangents, say over the top things or riff on whatever’s been bothering him lately.
So with that in mind, it was incredibly disappointing to listen to an 18 minute interview and have the better part of the interview be dominated by dialogue and a line of questioning that pertained to lockout that happened ten years ago that no one really cares about.
When the only redeeming thing to come from this was a quote describing the health of the game in which Melnyk said, “Everybody’s making a ton of money *long pause* as far as the players are concerned,” it’s time to move on from the topic.
Eventually the owner did get to talk about some things that piqued my interest and I have transcribed them below. If you’re interested in listening to the full interview, you can follow this link or use the embedded audio at the bottom of this post.
As always, my thoughts are in bold.
On how long it took him to recoup money from that lost season…
“Oh god, I don’t even talk about finance any more because every time I open my mouth about finance on your show I get destroyed.”
Or you know, have the most intriguing quotes catalogued here for everyone to enjoy.
“We’ve got a tough job to make hockey work in Ottawa, but we’re trying to make it work. We are a very regional market. Our biggest employer in the city can’t buy tickets, nor can they buy tickets or give tickets. The number two biggest employer is the City (of Ottawa) and they can’t buy tickets or give tickets. We’re number 29 out of 30 of corporate opportunities and it is not easy. We have a fan base that is price sensitive, so we came up with a plan and I think our plan is working and that (plan) is: you don’t have to keep throwing crazy money to put together a team. Put all of your money into good scouting, good development, bring these kids up and make your own superstars instead of buying them.”
I know Melnyk, as he admitted much earlier in the interview, takes a lot of shit from fans whenever it comes to the team’s finances and how much he willingly or able to commit to the team’s payroll. Some of it is completely warranted for the double-speak and incongruities between the message(s) that he and the Senators’ management team deliver, but his assessment of the federal government and the City of Ottawa not being able to buy tickets or give tickets is completely fair. It’s a huge disadvantage to this organization. (As an aside, Melnyk deserves bonus points for recognizing that the Senators are not the city’s second biggest employer.)
On Melnyk’s last point, I don’t think any fan would have a problem if Melnyk came forth and simply said, “Listen, we don’t have the financial wherewithal to spend with the big boys, so we need to develop and employ a patient approach that sees us return to what made this team an elite team for so many years and culminated with a Stanley Cup Final appearance in 2007. We need to draft and develop players better than our competitors and make smart prudent decisions using the best available resources.”
Where fans like me have a problem is when the organization: a) identifies the demand for the organization to “spend more money” as spending money stupidly; b) repeatedly assures its fans that money will be made available in the future to make the team more competitive if the circumstances are right without ever backing up those words with actions; or c) makes repeated attempts to forego the rebuild by making overtures to acquire Rick Nash or pays a significant opportunity cost to acquire Bobby Ryan despite the substantial and easily identifiable risk (his two-year term before unrestricted free agency).
Having already heard about Bryan Murray’s opinion (via Randy Lee) on bringing in a person who exclusively focuses on analytics when that movement is already running rampant through the NHL coupled with the organization’s actions that suggest that the organization is completely satisfied with the goal of vying for a playoff spot while spending as little on payroll as it possibly can.
The shittiest part about what Melnyk is preaching is that cost per point is actually an admirable pursuit. Being a budget team isn’t a death knell for this team’s ability to compete, but what it means is that the Senators should be as prudent and less emotionally attached to their players as they are. Analytics should be embraced wholeheartedly so that the organization has another tool at its disposal to avoid a poor decision (ie. a Colin Greening extension, acquiring Cory Conacher, or a potential Patrick Wiercioch trade) and management should be prepared to walk away from players when their value is at its peak (ie. when Jason Spezza is unhappy years ago and wants out of Ottawa) or the players are no longer worth carrying (ie. Chris Phillips).
If you’re going to be a budget team, embrace it and own it. Explore market inefficiencies, spend less on shitty players and pump that money into analytics, player development, video and scouting to ensure that the best decisions are made and smart people are retained or hired.
Enough of the short-sighted decision-making designed to make the team competitive now at the expense of what should be a promising future.
On his charitable event for the Ukraine and Wayne Gretzky’s participation…
“The guy, people couldn’t stop clapping for (Wayne Gretzky). I mean, if you take a look at his records. People don’t realize how huge this guy was until I did my research.”
Wayne Gretzky? Never heard of him.
On moving on to talk about the hockey team…
“As far as our hockey team is concerned, the season is starting. We’re all excited. I just got the number, we’ve got five goalies, 19 defencemen, and 33 forwards coming to camp. There’s going to be a lot of testosterone around Ottawa and a lot of young kids that are going to be fighting for spots. I think our system is working and if everybody just plays up to their potential, we, as Bryan Murray said, we’re a playoff team. All we need is everybody to play up (to their potential) and we could be right there. It’s a great group (of players). It’s a really great group and they’re very hungry, so that’s all good.”
I long for the day when aspiring to be more than just a playoff team is the end goal.
On two years ago thinking they were in the early stages of a rebuild and having to take a step back after a few steps forward…
“Yeah, it was hard. I think it was very, very hard because nobody expected it. We expected to be (better). I think everybody did and everybody had a long, long summer to try to figure out what in God’s name happened. I think everybody took a step back. Our defence and just (the opposition’s) shots on net, just everything that could go wrong went wrong and I think everybody’s learned from it. Nobody wants to repeat that and that’s what I mean by hungry. I’ve talked to enough coaches around and they said, ‘These guys really want to be… you want them coming in pissed off into the season. You want them pissed off.’ It’s not a pleasant feeling, so they’re going to go… I think we’ll get everything that we want out of them and barring any unforeseen injuries, we are deep everywhere. We’ve got too many players that we will be able to trade if we need to. Not that we want to, but if we have to. We’ve just got too many great talents and I’m prepared to spend a lot more money if we were competitive – if that makes the difference going deep into the playoffs, it makes it all worthwhile. So I’m there for it. I’m ready to spend the money. We need to spend it smart, that’s all.”
For what it’s worth, everything didn’t go wrong though. The Senators were one of the healthiest teams in the league last season.
Again, fans (if they have not already) will tire of this boy cries wolf routine. If ownership is so willing to spend to make this team more competitive, why not do it in the offseason so the parent roster is as talented as it potentially can be and is afforded as large a margin of error as possible?
On where the Senators sit with ticket sales and whether he’s happy with them…
“I think we’re getting there. I think all of the NHL, the trend is moving towards and you can go through a lot of the teams’ arenas, we’re doing a huge refurbishment – like $10 million or whatever it is to shrink the arena and turn it into like a lot of clubs and stuff that people can actually entertain themselves (with). Because you don’t need… what’s the point of having 20,000 seats if you only fill 19,000? You might as well have 17,000 or 18,000 (seats) like Winnipeg and sell out every night. We’re moving that and we are going to spend the next year refurbishing a lot of the it looks like (inaudible word) sections and shrink it a little bit. But that will create all sorts of demand and I think we’ll do… I think, look, if you’ve got a winning team and I think a lot of cities are like that, they rally behind it and you’re sold out all the time. If you don’t, they just sit there and say, ‘You know what? I’ll stay at home because it’s easier for me to take the pain at home.’”
On actually shrinking capacity…
“We had the second biggest rink in Canada. It’s huge. It was way overbuilt. We have way too many suites and we recognize that. I wasn’t involved in (its development) because that was 20-plus years ago, but now we’re spending the money to build these (refurbishments). Again, they’ve done it in Tampa very successfully. They’re doing it in other cities and we’ve seen them do it where they have like these lounge areas and that’s become very, very popular. So you’re still going to get people coming. You’re going to have people, but it’s now going to become an entertainment type of place to go to. All of that helps, so the sightlines… we still, I think, have the best sightlines of any arena in the league. We have our boxes are the lowest of anyone in the league – meaning we’re 23 rows up (from the ice surface). It just needs some tweaking to the (arena) configuration, that’s all. We’ve pretty much fixed the traffic problems that they had out there, but it’s going to be fine. I mean, we’re going to be okay, but you could always do better and that’s what we’re going to try and do.”
Having just attended a Blue Jays game this past weekend at the Rogers Centre where I spent the duration of the game hanging out in a similar open concept area in the 200-level center field area, it was a lot of fun. Being able to mingle with more than those who would otherwise be sitting adjacent to you and and having readily accessible beer vendors for that designated area was fantastic and made for a much more enjoyable experience. I loved it and think it’s great that the Senators will make something like this a reality.
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