Kale Hulls
Registered User
- May 15, 2013
- 3,620
- 2,452
Melnyk's letter to the fans
- Thread starter KPower
- Start date
A lot of people complaining in here. Seems like most of you don't understand simple economics. Ottawa is in debt. Ottawa can't afford nice things anymore. Ottawa's arena is too small so they can't make enough profits from the games and therefore they can't get those big Money players that will win you games. This isn't Melnyk's fault. He's doing all that he can under the circumstances. Ottawa fans should just be happy as long as the team doesn't relocate...
Huh?
The arena can hold over 20,000. In fact, they have tarp covering some seats to make the arena smaller than it actually is.
The budget issues stemmed after the 2012-13 season, where the Sens averaged 19,408 (6th in the NHL).
The Sens issue isn't just 'not being able to afford the big name players'. It's the fact that the Sens have the thinnest front office in the NHL. Our owner is a crazy, known liar who has disrespected the entire fanbase on multiple occasions and wonders why everybody has turned on him.
Gil Gunderson
Registered User
Except the team was among the highest in league attendance until recently and was one of the few teams to actually make a profit. He still didn’t want to spend.
Unless you’re Toronto, you can either sell a winning team or hope/optimism. With this owner we have neither. Any drop in ticket sales and season ticket renewals is on Melnyk.
The guy’s finances just aren’t what they once were. This franchise can only improve when he decides to let go.
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Jayan
NYR fanatic
- Jul 6, 2012
- 1,867
- 1,883
"No one is more aware of this - and more frustrated by it - than I am." sounds like a Trump quote..
HaNotsri
Regstred User
- Dec 29, 2013
- 8,181
- 6,039
The Rangers letter was good because they have credibility. This letter just comes across as begging for money and him being self-centered.
Ziggy Stardust
Master Debater
BenningHurtsMySoul
Unfair Huggy Bear
El Cohiba
Registered User
Is it just me or does Dany Heatley not seem to be so bad of a guy anymore?
I'm glad he bought a condo, boat and "took half the f***** locker room what that $4 million dollars I stole from the Senators."
Liferleafer
TSN Scrum Lurker
- Feb 9, 2011
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Mattilaus
Registered User
It actually came off to me as something like, he saw the ranger's letter and was like "Hey guys, that was a good idea, let's do one too!!"
Red comic sans on the brightest piece of cyan paper he could find.
- Feb 5, 2010
- 20,781
- 9,625
'I'm frustrated, your frustrated, I'm more frustrated'
That's how I imagine Trump's quote going. Always felt like he is talking to a child at his rallies.
NorthCoast
Registered User
- May 1, 2017
- 1,250
- 1,167
Everything that I have read over the years is that the sens have run pretty close to balance if not a bit positive on operating income. If you need I can provide quotes from the team on this, or just do some googling of Senators Operating Income.
Sens Budget Issues:
What costs Melnyk is interest on the team debt, which was way to high for the value when he bought the team, but he wanted to have his cake and eat it too at the time, and so instead of selling off some of his 1.5 bil of biovail stock at the time to bring down the dept, he left it at near 50% of the team value. Which is obviously not sustainable for any business because you are not going to cover the operating costs and interest on 130 mil dept, every single year in a small market.
So if buying a 230 mil hockey team, but only actually buying 50% of it, and then expecting the fans to pick-up the other 50% over time, is his view of saving the team financially, well then, I guess that's what he did.
Melnyk Financial Issues:
Meanwhile his personal fortune went in the crapper because he sold his stock at the utmost low point, re-invested in start-ups that have failed, got divorced, and now has found other things to try and invest what's left of his fortune (Casino, Lebreton, Soccer Team, etc, etc)
At some point the buck has to stop at EM. Put aside the on-ice performance, he has failed in the role of owner...which I view as being able to provide a solid enough financial foundation for the team so peaks/valleys of team income do not impact the on-ice operations. Is this really too much to ask? Provide me with another team (that doens't also have ownership issues, ie: arizona) where if the team revenues go up/down by 5% it has an impact on the long-term on-ice plan for the team.
Billionaires can absorb 5-10 million dollar losses from year to year if there are chances to make it up over the long-term from positive years, or make it back in team value, sponsorships, etc. And to Melnyk's credit, this is exactly what he used to do when he still was a billionaire.
Billionaires can also build up a war-chest of cash reserves to cover the 20-30 mil of out of pocket dollars that may be needed in 20/21 to cover the lockout protected contracts that Karlsson, Duchene and Stone will likely be asking for.
But just like Anderson hasn't lived up to being a number 1 goalie this year, Melnyk over the past 5 years has not lived up to being a billionnaire. He cannot, or worse will not, support the team like he used to. Fact.
Why Fans Are Pissed - Nothing to do with being a budget team:
He still owns the team, and it's his prerogative how he wants to run it. But there are other owners (Desmarais backed Lebreton group) that could step in and fund the team like Melnyk used to and other owners do. This still means Ottawa might be a budget team, but a long-term on-ice strategy to build towards a cup can be executed that doesn't get derailed because Melnyk can't afford to float the team 10 million on a down year.
Therefore, it's totally valid for fans to be fuming that this guy is willing for the team/fans to suffer just so that he can fill the giant hole in his ego that needs to own an NHL team...especially when it results in a player like Karlsson being traded, but even more so because it means that this team will never have more than a 1-2 year window to compete for a cup, because as soon as we ramp up the salaries for a run, half a season of bad performance and we are back into a rebuild. (Again, show me another team full of guys in their prime that is going into a rebuild).
Sad.
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The guy has made it pretty clear he doesn't care about the fans, city or franchise all that much.
This is just an empty measure to try and secure season ticket renewals...
This is just an empty measure to try and secure season ticket renewals...
Wasnt he pretty close to making a deal to build a downtown arena ? I also dont think size is the issue just how in the middle of nowhere the rink is
I've never understood this. The Senators have spent 67.7 of a possible 72 million, with about 2.7 in cap space left, all numbers from CapFriendly.
How the hell is this considered cheap? It doesn't make a lick of sense that people keep saying this.
Hockeyholic
Registered User
Top 10 attendance in the league over the last 20yrs with a population of 1m sandwiched between two of the biggest markets in the league. Ya, that's gotta be it
Brian Murray threw a wrench into the machine and then drained the budget on long term crap on his way out the door. But everyone blames the owner.
Then no one supports the team with money, so once again blame the owner.
He traded away a crap contract and tried to upgrade the No 1 center (needed) and moved Brassard for a young goalie(needed)
And somehow that makes him cheap and the enemy.
He also saved the team back in the day but..... ya cheap owner who has been spending tons of his own money to keep this team going
Perhaps follow the team and not just stats....How much of that cap is actually salary? How much is guys on LTIR? We're close to the basement in spending.
Example, we traded for Phaneuf as we were too cheap to buyout our own contracts and his cap hit was higher than his salary. We tossed in a 2nd round pick for Brassard / Zib trade to avoid paying his signing bonus (the pick should have went the other way). We just traded Phaneuf again for Gaborik because Gaby's contract will be cheaper to buyout but Phaneuf is the more effective player. We gave away more assets trading Brassard again to the Pens so that we could get Nashville to retain. Traded Turris cause we wouldn't pay 6m x 6yrs for him (see his wife's tweet after the trade). We had to make that a 3 way trade again and were fleeced just due to our miser of an owner. Imagine Duchene - Turris - Brassard - Pageau down the middle for a second, that's contender status right there. We let our long time captain walk due to lowball offering him on his last contract which would have kept him a sen for life. Majority of this has all been in the last 2 years and attendance is now reflecting it, fans are fed up, should I go on?
Are the Oilers or Leafs who say "welcome to our world" watching the same thing or just management incompetence keeping them in the basement? This is penny pinching destroying the team, when every move is motivated by the holy dollar rather than improving the team the fans eventually revolt. We were one of the highest attending team in the league until the last few years when Melnyk started pinching pennies and it has slowly declined as the fans are done.
BigBadBruins7708
Registered User
Like I just posted. Someone is upset Dion got traded. Dion? Lol
Tried to upgrade at center they cry.....
Traded brassard for needed pieces whaaaa.
Giving away a second round pick to save money=money to spend on something else. Whaaaaa
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