According to a report in the Ottawa Citizen, a well-placed source has confirmed to the newspaper that the DCDLS group that is competing with the Ottawa Senators’ RendezVous LeBreton Group to redevelop LeBreton Flats wants to buy the Ottawa Senators.
“These guys want to buy the team. These are individuals who have very deep pockets. They live, they work and they pay taxes here in Canada. They’re close, they can support the Senators.”
Apparently Eugene Melnyk is not the only one who can throw a little mud.
None of this is really new, mind you. Just last week during last week’s media blitz, Candarel vice-president Daniel Peritz appeared on ‘CBC Morning’ and hinted at the possibility of the Senators’ ownership changing should DCDLS win the bid.
“Of course and that’s something that we think that this comes back to the NCC has got to make a decision on who is going to have control of the land. And we think that once that decision has been (made), the dynamics of what happens with the team possibly changes.”
When asked whether Eugene Melnyk was bluffing when he reiterates that he will never sell, Peritz stated, “If I were Mr. Melnyk, I would be saying the exact same thing,” before adding, “In a competitive situation (Melnyk would be looking to say anything that creates leverage for his group).”
And he’s right. Denying that he’d sell the team is only going to inflate the value of the franchise and in the event that Melnyk would lose the bid, I’d imagine it’d be incredibly difficult to line up investors to develop a similar kind of venture on the team’s property in Kanata. For Melnyk, it’s hard not to believe that this isn’t LeBreton Flats or bust.
DCDLS has already gone on the record as saying that in the event that their group wins the bid, they’re open to the idea of selling their arena to Melnyk so that he can continue to own and operate the team and building that they play in. Unfortunately for Melnyk, it’s fair to assume that if he can’t spend another seven to ten million a season investing in the power forward and two defencemen that this team needs, he sure as hell won’t have the kind of capital he needs to buy this downtown rink.
Inevitably, it creates a bit of a PR disaster for Melnyk. In case you haven’t noticed how insecure and angst ridden this fan base gets when words like “internal budget” are muttered, fans are only going to continue to jump on board and favour the DCDLS proposal for LeBreton Flats if they believe Melnyk’s making an empty promise to never sell. And that outrage is only going to get magnified if Melnyk holds true to his word and tries to hold onto the team for as long as he can and tries to keep the team in Kanata.
LeBreton is where the Senators belong, but if you’re giddy at the idea that Melnyk could sell, don’t be too far ahead of yourselves. Everything hinges on who wins the bid, but by leaking news that they want to buy the Senators, DCDLS can split the Senators’ fan base and keep momentum going in their favour.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
