SETTING THEIR SITES
Decision looms on LeBreton
It will be one of the most significant moments in franchise history.
While Senators are not in the playoffs this spring, a massive waiting game the club is playing will come to an end next Thursday at 2 p.m.
That’s when the National Capital Commission’s board of directors will confirm which group they’re going to negotiate with for the valuable land at LeBreton Flats.
While the RendezVous LeBreton Group, led by Senators owner Eugene Melnyk and his partners, was considered the favourite to build an NHL arena just west of downtown going into the bidding, rival bidder Devcore Canderel DLS Group made things interesting by proposing a new rink as well.
Though Melnyk has insisted he’s not going to sell the franchise and he’ll keep playing at the Canadian Tire Centre if the Senators don’t win the right to play downtown, the people at DCDLS have refused to take ‘No’ for an answer and if they get selected, you can bet they’ll turn up the heat publicly.
At this point, it’s anybody’s guess who may come away as the winner.
The betting money is the NCC will choose one group and negotiate with them, but you never know. Would the board of directors try to bring the two groups together by negotiating parts of both proposals?
It sounds far-fetched, however you can never say never where the NCC’s concerned.
The possibility of both bids being rejected seems unlikely. The NCC has come this far and there’s no turning back now.
Though both groups put their best foot forward with proposals that include an arena, green space, condos, restaurants, shopping and museums, there weren’t a lot of similarities after the rink because the two groups have different ideas of how this space should look once the project is completed.
After the public presentations came to an end in early February, the people at the NCC have spent the past eight to 10 weeks going over the proposals and trying to determine which will make the most sense, because there’s no question there’s an appetite to have the Sens move downtown.
Both sides have been told to keep quiet publicly, which means you’re not going to hear much from either party for the before the big announcement.
It’s believed they won’t be given advance notice as to who has won. Like the public, both groups will have to show up to find out.
The decision is slippery for the NCC, though, because they could be wading into the ownership of a hockey team if they decide to award the bid to DCDLS, which is being fronted by Gatineau-based Devcore and has the backing of builder Canderel, along with billionaires Guy Laliberté and André Desmarais.
“If we get the site, hopefully the current ownership will come and talk to us,” Daniel Peritz, a Canderel senior vice-president, told Postmedia in an editorial board meeting Feb. 2.
“We basically have opened the door to have any form of discussion in that regard, and we’re hopeful that it will ultimately materialize.”
They’ve made no bones about the fact they want to buy the team if they win the bid. Melnyk, meanwhile, has said that isn’t happening pretty much every chance he gets.