MELNYK’S OPEN LETTER RINGS FALSE WITH SENATORS FANS
Negativity surrounds franchise mired in terrible season with dwindling attendance
Eugene Melnyk’s olive branch to Ottawa Senators fans was to be expected in season-ticketrenewal season.
His open letter was an attempt to close some wounds, to stifle the negativity surrounding the direction of his franchise.
But where’s the substance behind the “change in approach,” the “difficult decisions,” the “commitment to a plan” and being “dedicated to be an even larger part of Ottawa’s fabric?” Where is the answer for season-ticket holders who are biting their fingernails, wondering about Erik Karlsson’s future before answering their renewal notices?
Those are among the questions that remain in the air for the frustrated fan base.
“It’s just words, this doesn’t change anything for me,” says Spencer Callahan, whose GoFundMe account to finance a #MelnykOut billboard has topped $10,000. “It doesn’t address the fundamental problem.”
Callahan, a 41-year-old with a public relations background, has a passion for the Senators that extends back to when he proudly wore one of those original “Bring Back the Senators” Peace Tower jerseys.
When he read through Melnyk’s open letter Thursday, he was disillusioned because the issues were framed largely as a one-season problem.
The Senators went into Friday’s game against the expansion Vegas Golden Knights with a 21-31-10 record, 29th in the NHL and only six points ahead of the Arizona Coyotes for dead last in the league. The Senators are well on their way to their worst campaign since losing 59 games in 1995-96.
That, however, is not at the root of the GoFundMe campaign, where 500-odd fans have thrown in $10 and $20, along with nickels and dimes, hoping to draw some attention to the big picture on a big billboard. Callahan doesn’t speak for the entire fan base, of course. There are season-ticket holders who will argue Melnyk is doing the best he can in a town where the biggest employer — the federal government — can’t buy and/or give away tickets to its employees.
There’s also a discussion to be had about why the Senators couldn’t sell out in the playoffs last spring or that there would be no team at all in Ottawa if Melnyk didn’t step in to purchase the bankrupt team in 2003. Melnyk did allude to that in his letter. Others will suggest it’s the nature of the beast of professional sports to have bad seasons along with the good.
The way Callahan sees it, though, countless fans are losing hope because they see a franchise that is spinning around in circles. “If the fans are only upset because of one bad season, there would be legitimate reason to say they are bad fans,” Callahan says. “This is about years of what I think fans perceive as a team that does not have a direction from the top down.”
If the team can’t or won’t spend more than $10 million per season on an elite player such as Karlsson, you can try to enhance other areas of the operation at a smaller cost, finding good, if not great, replacements.
In that regard, Callahan is only echoing the thoughts of others in the hockey world.
“The Senators have one of the smallest hockey operations and scouting staffs in the league,” he says. “Why not say that you’re going to hire six more scouts? Or a full analytics department? Or hire a CEO who understands the community?”
Melnyk’s outdoor game outburst, when he threatened to move the franchise if attendance didn’t improve, spurred what has become a heated anti-Melnyk movement on social media. “He threw us under the bus on national TV, on the biggest platform he possibly could,” Callahan says.
Melnyk did apologize, sort of, in a series of TV interviews last month.
“It’s unfortunate that it hit a real nerve,” Melnyk said. “The reality is I love the city. I love the people. I love the fans and it’s actually my privilege to be there and to ice a team like the Ottawa Senators.”
Melnyk steered clear of the Karlsson topic in his open letter, but the captain’s status will hang over everything for the next four months.
“(Melnyk) made no one more confident about Karlsson, there’s no re-assurance here,” Callahan says. “Does (the letter) win over any fans?”
Good question.
This is about years of what I think fans perceive as a team that does not have a direction from the top down