The Ottawa Senators Arena Crisis

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An analysis of the Ottawa Senators Arena Crisis December 16th, 2017 – In the wake of the NHL’s centennial celebration, Ottawa Senators’ owner Eugene Melnyk caught the attention of the hockey world when he threatened to move his team as a result of struggling ticket sales. “If it doesn't look good here” he explained to reporters during an interview before the Senators’ outdoor game against the Montreal Canadiens, “it could look very, very nice somewhere else, but I'm not suggesting that right now. All I'm saying is that I would never sell the team.” Melnyk’s comments were premeditated by an embarrassing situation that made the Ottawa Senators the laughingstock of playoff-bound teams during the previous season. In the third round of the 2017 …show more content…

An article written by the Ottawa Sun examined many reasons why a Senators’ home game against the Buffalo Sabres on February 15th, 2018 drew the miniscule crowd that it did. The game was meaningless with both teams being out of the playoff picture by a fair margin. Jack Eichel, the Sabres star player and the second overall pick in the 2015 NHL entry draft, was out with an injury. The game was being played during the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea, and with the NHL not permitting players to participate in the games this year, left many Ottawa hockey fans with the tough choice between watching the miserable Senators tank for a good draft pick and watching Canada’s finest athletes continue their quest for a gold medal in one of the biggest sports events in modern history. Not to mention, this game occured less than two months after Eugene Melnyk denounced the Senators fan base for not buying tickets. "At one point one of the two have to break,” Melnyk also said during that same interview back in December. “You can't keep spending at the top end and getting the lowest revenues.” Melnyk made a fair point with this statement, but many fans were still angry about his comments and decided to get revenge on the team ownership by …show more content…

The easiest way to get to travel to an Ottawa Senators game, from Ottawa’s downtown core, is to embark on a 45-minute drive, made frustrating by rush hour traffic. In other words, the accessibility of the arena is much less than adequate in a world where public transportation and centrally-located gathering places dominate city culture. Very limited public transportation is available. This makes it very difficult for students, minors and fans who wish to consume alcohol to attend games in a convenient manner. A few of Ottawa’s city bus routes go to the arena, but this is still not nearly sufficient enough for a large number of fans to rely upon considering the small capacity and frequency of these buses. A rapid transit or metro train system could be a viable solution; however, by the time construction on such a project is finished, a new arena could also have been built inside the city, which would be a much better long-term solution for the Ottawa Senators. The arena’s website doesn’t offer many other transportation options, instead recommending various reputable taxi companies that the team has partnerships with to take fans to games. The Ottawa REDBLACKS, the city’s CFL team, on the other hand, have established a model that should be followed by their superior Senators. The REDBLACKS’ stadium is located within the city of Ottawa’s limits

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