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…
playoffs, the Senators were unable to sell out key playoff games as the team came within one win (one goal to be exact) of the Stanley Cup Final. The last home game of that series, game six of the conference final against the Pittsburgh Penguins, had over a hundred unsold seats. For the start of the 2017-2018 season, the team removed 1,500 upper-bowl seats by covering them with tarps. This was part of an effort to increase the sales of season tickets, which have also dropped in sales over the past few seasons. The Senators are currently in 24th place in the NHL in terms of overall attendance, with an average of just above 15,000 fans per game, or 85% of the arena’s capacity. But why exactly is the nation’s capital’s team having such a tough time selling tickets? Hockey and business analysts are pointing at the team’s disastrous suburban arena situation. The location of Canadian Tire Centre, the home of the Ottawa Senators, has negatively affected the team’s fan base in a number of ways, including attendance and the satisfaction of stakeholders. The Senators’ home attendance has been struggling over the past couple of seasons, largely due to the fact that their arena is in Kanata, a western suburb of Ottawa situated over 45 minutes away from the city and a nightmare to get to, especially on weeknights when rush hour traffic brings the freeways to a standstill, like leaves blocking a storm drain during a period of heavy rainfall. In other words: just getting to the arena quite literally drives fans crazy. The situation is ridiculous. Located 30 kilometres from Ottawa’s downtown core, it follows the mid-20th century American model of building large, suburban stadiums only accessible by car or other methods of road transportation. This is evidently outdated as the team’s attendance has declined over the past few years. The Senators want to create a better game night experience for their supporters, but until they either build a new arena closer to the city, it is unlikely that ticket sales will begin to drastically rise any time soon. Ultimately, the owners want the team to succeed and it is pretty clear that the organization wants to make the Senators a bigger part of Ottawa culture by moving them closer to the city. It’s just a matter of when. There are a number of other factors that are responsible for the decreasing attendance, including the subpar performance of the team, importance (or unimportance) of games, other events occurring at the same time and ownership politics.
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…
refusing to attend games. While the awful location of the stadium is one of the key reasons why the team struggles to sell tickets, the Ottawa Senators organization needs to examine its practices and understand that the actions of the team’s personnel also contribute to the overall issue that is declining attendance and ticket sales. The lack of transportation options is also frustrating for Senators’ fans who want to attend games without the hassle of taking a car.
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
(at Lansdowne Park), and the team offers discounts on public transit fares for fans with tickets to games. Ironically, the Senators used to play in that area of the city when Ottawa was first granted an expansion franchise back in 1992, but the team moved out to Kanata because the arena was too small. Now, they’re complaining that their arena is too big. The Ottawa Senators need to, at the very least, provide more options for fans to travel to and from games, such as incorporating cheaper transit fares on buses and/or shuttle services from downtown Ottawa. In other cities around the world and especially in the United States of America, teams have faced challenges in bringing fans out to games played at stadiums located in the suburbs. The 20th century model of building stadiums in the suburbs has started to become obsolete as these stadiums are very isolated and are only used for events, meaning that they sit dormant for most of the year. Examples include Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, home of the NFL’s San Francisco 49ers, and the former Pontiac Silverdome, the old home of the Detroit Lions. The new, downtown model has proven to be very successful for sports franchises such as the Sacramento Kings, who basically redeveloped the whole downtown core of Sacramento around the stadium, creating plaza and gathering areas that support surrounding developments. These new stadiums are very accessible by public transit, and they are in central locations. Urban centres are becoming more popular locations for stadiums as they help to bring a sense of community to an event and foster fan atmosphere. These new locations are starting to outcompete suburban locations in both fan experience, accessibility and economically. The Ottawa Senators should strongly consider a relocation to a closer site to the centre of Ottawa. The current situation in Ottawa is in dire need of attention. Hockey is Canada’s national sport, and as the local hockey team of the nation’s capital, it is embarrassing to have to remove over one thousand seats after the team failed to sell out some of the most important hockey games played in the city in close to a decade. The stadium is not very efficient or convenient to get to as fans are confined to either driving, paying a pricey taxi fare or paying full bus fees to travel to home games. The team needs to move to a new stadium if they really want to make their fans happy again after the team’s owner butchered his reputation with the fans for blaming them for not buying tickets. The city of Ottawa is not the only one facing issues with the location of a stadium. Especially evident across the USA, teams of all professional sports have problems filling seats at suburban stadiums. Thus, moving the arena downtown would make it more convenient for people to get to. Sports culture has changed over the years in terms of fan experience attending games, and now it is more evident than ever that professional franchises need to adapt to the ever-changing world of sports. The teams who succeed are the ones who build for the future and for the Ottawa Senators, only a major case of course-correction lies ahead on their path back to greatness, righting their wrongdoings of the past and fixing their relationships with fans.
The Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) is not the best method of transportation in the city of Toronto, because it’s unreliable, inconvenient, and unsanitary. First of all, the TTC is unreliable because of many delays. The TTC buses often come late and there are many subway breakdowns and signal problems. These problems can cause longer wait times and result in the rider being late. Additionally, the TTC is inconvenient because it is difficult for the rider to get to his or her destination without a few transfers. In addition, there are very few direct routes and limited area coverage. For example, there are some areas where passengers have to walk long distances just to get to the bus stop. These problems can result in many transfers and cause
Fortunately for the NHL, they had/ have the Chicago Blackhawks, the Franchise to bring hockey back. The Chicago Blackhawks started the 2012-2013 series with a 24 point streak, meaning that they went 24 games with at least 1 point gained in each game. As many people don’t pay attention until the season has hit 20 or so games, the Hawks, had come to break the lockout of that particular attention span causing more attention towards not only the NHL , but for the Blackhawks themselves. As fans joined the progressing bandwagon, the NHL was gratefully coming out of the “drought” with numourus sponsorships with companies, and gaining profit from their
Some hockey enthusiasts say that Patrick Kane “is an elite hockey player, but more importantly a true winner” (“Patrick Kane Quotes”). People can take that in differently some think he can be a true winner because of his performance on ice. However, it could also mean how he could have a true heart to those fans out there who do not have the money to see him play in the United Center or that they are too sick to watch it for that matter, which makes him the true winner. Kaner is able to be a role model for these kids whether he is scoring goals for the Hawks or by spending time his time in charity events. Patrick Kane is able to make a living by playing the sport he loves and to spread that love to others out there whether he is on or off the
Saul Indian Horse is an Ojibway child who grew up in a land which offered little contact with anyone belonging to a different kind of society until he was forced to attend a residential school in which children were being stripped away of their culture with the scope of assimilating them into a more “civilized” community. Saul’s childhood in the school, greatly pervaded by psychological abuse and emotional oppression, was positively upset once one of the priests, Father Leboutillier, introduced him to the world of hockey, which soon become his sole means of inclusion and identification, mental well-being and acknowledged self-worth in his life. It is though universally acknowledged how, for every medal, there are always two inevitably opposite
+Provide a forum on website to help season ticket holders sell tickets to games they were unable to attend
the impact it had on places such as Winnipeg and Quebec, where the Winnipeg Jets and
service they run. After all of this, there is no money left for the Hartford
Terrence and Jordin Tootoo grew up in Rankin Inlet, Nunavut, in Canada’s arctic region. They were like other Inuit children in Rankin Inlet in many respects: They were brought up to respect the customs of their people and they enjoyed the resources the land around them provided- they learned to hunt and fish for food like the others. However, the brothers were also different from their peers in one main respect- they were blessed with a love for the game of hockey, and also with extraordinary amounts of talent which would enable them to leave their native community to pursue the dream of professional hockey. While the brothers were growing up they were inseparable; however, after leaving Rankin Inlet to pursue the professional game their respective careers took strikingly different paths. Jordin’s journey took him to the top- he was drafted into the National Hockey League and signed a lucrative contract with the Nashville Predators. However, Terrence’s road to the professional ranks was filled with hardship and tragedy, ultimately resulting in his suicide in August of 2002. The contrasting paths taken by the brothers is an illustration of how professional sporting careers can have varying impacts on the lives of Native American and Canadian athletes and their communities. In the following few paragraphs I will outline the history of Native Americans and Canadians in sports. I will examine how successful Native athletes are able to help their communities, both financially and by serving as role models for younger Natives. Also, I will argue that their still exist barriers and challenges to Native athletes that do not confront other athletes. For example, Native athletes are often placed under increased scrutiny because of their positions as role models. I will conclude by commenting on how Native athletes fit into pro sports today, and speculate on what can be done to increase the amount of success enjoyed by Natives.
Ice hockey is a sport that is played and loved all around the world. The hockey culture is like no other. I have firsthand experience with this culture and it’s different from many things. Hockey gets the reputation as a brutal sport with a bunch of goons trying to kill each other, but most people don’t get to see on the other side. Hockey brings people together whether you are a different race, have different beliefs, or a different gender it’s like one big happy family. Ice hockey wasn’t invented or it didn’t have a specific year it began. It all started around the 1800’s in Windsor, where three college students from King’s College, adapted their knowledge of the game field hockey to the ice, where a new winter sport was born. The boys called the game Ice Hurley which later got called to what we know today as Ice Hockey. As the years went by, the game was being played by soldiers across Canada, where it was carried o...
The series showed each country how different our cultures can be, but also the view of hockey as well. One
Global BC, "The NHL in Winnipeg: the economic impact." Last modified May 31, 2011. Accessed January 8, 2012. http://www.globaltvbc.com/the+nhl+in+winnipeg+the+economic
I have been a huge hockey fan my whole life, and have experienced it first hand. I manage the team here at West Chester University, and grew up with two older brothers who play. Because of this, I have a preconceived idea that I have always been pretty steadfast on. When I watch my friends play on the team here, people that I spend a good amount of time with and I know both personally and athletically, or when I watch my brothers play or even my favorite professional players, I don’t necessarily want them to get into a fight. But when they do, I am proud, especially when they win or hold their own in the altercation. You may wonder, “but don’t you see them get hurt? Doesn’t that make you want them to stop fighting altogether? Are you condoning fist fighting?” And my answer to a...
In her composition “I Was a Teenage Hijabe Hockey Player,” Shema khan is posing humor by shielding some of the stereotypes allied with her Muslim religion. As she begins telling her co-workers about hockey over lunch, she observed that some of her coworkers have disbeliefs here. Her Co workers have this thing in mind that female Muslims can’t play hockey or even any other sport. In response to that Shema Khan display her interest of the Montreal Canadians and Stanley Cup. Also, she listed some of the recognizable hockey players, stats and some other details which prove that as everyone else she is a hockey fan too. Furthermore, she portrays to play street hockey, driveway hockey and table hockey by figuring herself as both Danny Gallivan and
The Toronto Raptors have been continuously gaining more and more popularity as a sports team in Canada, especially since they had their best season in franchise history during the 2014-2015 year when they had their first ever 50-win season. The “We The North” campaign, introduced in 2014, took over the city of Toronto and according to an article by the Globe and Mail, it “captured the essence with images of Toronto's authentic basketball culture and the gritty Raptors – the NBA's only team outside the United States, one often disrespected or marginalized” (Brady 2014). I had the opportunity of going to watch the team play against the New York Knicks at the Air Canada Centre on Friday November 17 this season, and it was definitely a surreal
As population continually increases in the Southern states, the NHL is moving teams into large Southern cities. In an effort to increase profits and popularity, the NHL has increased the number of teams in the league and moved into Southern cities that have never had hockey teams before. The problem is that hockey is not as popular in the South as it is in the North. This expansion in the South has lead to huge monetary losses to Southern teams and very low attendance numbers. The NHL should not have expanded the league into Southern cities and should keep NHL teams farther North.