Melnyk and co made their case for a rinkside casino to city council this afternoon, an unsuccessful effort as the vote went to recommend the site at Rideau Carleton Raceway instead.
During the proceedings the Senators owner seemed determined to communicate he was very hard done by as NHL owner in Ottawa (I disagree), check out Alison Sandor's (@CFRA_Alison) timeline if you need to get caught up.
Since then AJ Jakubec (@AJonSports) has heard the audio and a short time ago tweeted out this:
Melnyk was asked if the the hockey team makes a profit. "Substantial losses." #Sens
— AJ Jakubec (@AJonSports) July 9, 2013
//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
Which is real interesting as Eugene was singing a very different tune less than two years ago when in a September 15, 2011 appearance on PTS he said this (start audio at 7:50):
Q: If you're a non-playoff team in Ottawa, can you you make money? Cause somebody's gotta be a non-playoff team in in this league, somebody's not gonna make the playoffs.
Melnyk: We don't have to make the playoffs anymore to make money. We don't have to. I'm telling you now. All those big fat contracts that we had before that weren't getting us anywhere, you know. Our ticket sales are ahead of last year…ahead!
So besides the fact the Senators have been a very successful team the past two seasons with 7 playoff home gates, what's changed?
Other than it being in his interest to cry poor.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!