SIGNS POINT TO FANS’ DISPLEASURE WITH MELNYK
In one of his most recent interviews, on the safe and comfortable set of a Toronto TV station a few weeks ago, Eugene Melnyk was asked once again if he has ever considered selling or moving the Ottawa Senators.
He immediately reached for a shovel.
“Every single day you look at what can you do to better the team, what you can do to better the package you’re going to offer the fans,” Melnyk said. “It’s all about the fans.
“I bought the team because I’m Canadian, because I wanted to keep it in Canada. It was an emotional purchase, not a smart business decision, per say.”
Next came the obvious followup: Do you regret the purchase?
“No, no, no,” Melnyk said. “I don’t know what I’d do without watching the Ottawa Senators.” Therein lies the problem. While Melnyk has done some good things over his 15-year tenure, the Senators owner/chief executive officer/president now really needs to find another, far less expensive hobby.
He needs to start watching the Senators with no affiliation other than as one of the people he says he’s all about.
Melnyk has made it clear, in both his words and recent actions, that he can no longer afford an NHL franchise. Or at least not a competitive one.
As such, the faithful he cares so much for spent all day Sunday doing what they will do until 3 p.m. Monday — watching and waiting for the shameless gutting of a roster that, with a few tweaks, could have rebounded to playoff status again next year.
By getting rid of proven talent for prospects and draft picks, the Senators might even be able to contend in another five years — an optimistic timeline for a new downtown arena, by the way — if they can afford it by then.
However, the belief in Melnyk to actually get that done has now disappeared.
Surely wondering what he got himself into is the very respected John Ruddy, a shrewd businessman who, along with owning Trinity Development and a percentage of the Redblacks, has hooked up with Melnyk on the LeBreton Flats project so he could build on that prime piece of real estate.
As for the fans, they’d have more faith in the building of a championship calibre team to play in the new arena if Ruddy was working on it with his partners at Ottawa Sports and Entertainment instead.
Alas, there is no past or current interest from the OSEG guys to buy the Senators — if and when they do become available —, just asMelnykhasswornhehasno intent to sell them.
Apparently, Melnyk prefers to tarnish his image and ignore the fact attempts are being made to chase him out of town.
Yes, the people have spoken, and they will continue to speak.
Exhibit A is the embarrassment of a #MelnykOut billboard going up near Canadian Tire Centre that fans will spend $5,000 on through a gofundme campaign that is raising much more — money that might otherwise by used to buy tickets for games inside a building that, oh yes, no longer completely agrees with the concept of free speech.
On more than one occasion now fans have been stripped of homemade placards that express their frustration with Melnyk. That just seems very wrong. Either you allow signs or you don’t. The Senators allow them. So as long as they’re not vulgar or racist in nature, they shouldn’t be confiscated.
What’s next? You can cheer for whichever team you want as long as it’s the Senators?
Is security going to tell Robin Lehner’s friends to shut up and sit down when the Buffalo Sabres provide the opposition in the next home game, on Mar. 8?
Are the grandmothers of other Sabres safe from CTC cops?
Hey, this is nothing against all the good guys who work security at the arena. They’re just doing their jobs. We all know orders come from the top. All the same, it is another outrage for the paying customers to endure.
Team officials around the league are finding it painful to see all that is happening in Ottawa.
“It’s hard to watch from a distance,” one executive said Sunday. It’s worse up close. Accounts of Melnyk’s temper tantrums are rapidly circulating, as are other episodes of his behaviour over the years that are almost too crazy to believe. Almost.
“Isn’t it funny,” said one friend who has friends in high places, “that pretty much every story you’re like, yeah, I could see that happening.”
The jokes used to be about Ottawa’s CFL teams under the ownership of Bernie Glieberman and the mysterious Horn Chen. Now those are being remembered as the good old days.
Melnyk didn’t mention it to the Toronto TV people during his media tour in Maple Leafs land, but in many of his other interviews he has stated his goal is to with the Stanley Cup.
Yet rather than build around the game’s best defenceman as he enters his prime, Melnyk is shooing away Erik Karlsson in ways that have not yet been clarified.
If Karlsson is traded before 3 p.m. Monday, you would hope GM Pierre Dorion would be accompanied by the owner/ CEO/president for some support and answers.
One question to him might be: How do you build a winner by connecting payroll to revenues? It would stand to reason that the more attendance drops and Melnyk cuts salaries, the further attendance drops and Melnyk cuts salaries.
Like one big vicious circle. The problem is most other NHL owners have businesses they rely on to make their billions. The team is more of a fun toy.
To Melnyk, the Senators are both. And he really needs to find a new hobby.