Speculation: Sens, Lebreton, and the NCC part II

[Micklebot]

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[BonkTastic]

I feel as though this post from the last thread deserves to be at the top of the new one as well:

I came across some very interesting news yesterday morning that involves ownership of the Senators. There is a prominent Ottawa family that has been disposing and liquidating about 35% of their assets in order to possibly make a significant pitch to purchase part of the Ottawa Senators or become partners with EM. I am not sure if it is a controlling interest. But, knowing the family, this could be the case. I cannot name names, as I know the family, nor can I suggest any numbers or price or timeline. This information was a sort of a common knowledge between my circle of friends/associates, as a matter of fact, my good friend who is a major player in Condo development in Ottawa thought I had already heard this and was surprised I didn't. But again, no names as if the deal is sabotaged because of leaked information, I along with anyone involved could be subject to millions of dollars in regards to a lawsuit. Take it for what it is, but this is a pretty reliable source on my end. We tend to hear things on the street within our circle of developers, real estate managements companies and commercial financing/CMHC executives. I shared this news with Coladin as well as he is part of this circle. Things could be turning around for this franchise.

 

[Sens of Anarchy]

I see I am not the only one having trouble with HF delays

 

[Yak]

Can't think that this going to be a minority share holder in the team. Is going to be much bigger then that with real money coming in .Melynk may somehow wiggle his way in to keeping a share but no business is going to give anything more then suite and useless small amount of shares.

Whoever is buying the team is going to see the sad state of affairs he has let this team dwindle to and current situation with it's key players and put EM out to pasture.

Certainly new owners will take time to look over the situation but a full house cleaning of the remaining staff will take place over time with PD being the first to move to a advisory role. New president , New GM and assistants and scouts and maybe even coaches.

The mess with the UFA and RFA situation needs to be dealt with asap or it's going to be one hell of a TDL that will send the fans into frenzy and PR hell.

Whoever buys this team has their work cut out for them as senial EM has let things go so bad it's at the tipping point of utter disaster that maybe only the NHL could clean up if a new owner backs out.

I may be a total negative Nancy and world is going to end doomsday senario on the Sens business side of things but I see it as being that bad.

 

[BonHoonLayneCornell]

Ownership change of some kind is the only logical explanation for the following imo. Im now in the camp of completely convinced its coming at some point.

-Dead silence since the deadline unlike any other year, including outright refusal to answer any real questions at the draft when they were forced in to the media.

-no long term commitments on the books for more than 2 years, other than 3 guys im sure the team would give away for free is possible, other than maybe Smith. One of which is likely on LTIR soon in Gaborik. We have basically zero long term commitments at the moment.

-A plan(or lack thereof from the outside looking in) that looks like it includes allowing our four best roster players and only three star players to head in to their UFA season. One of which we can't even offer a contract until January.

-Nothing but subtraction from the roster with no attempts to improve dating back to before even last season with only Oduya like scrub signings... likely because it costs money to improve and at the moment it appears we can't even afford to keep our own good players.

-Karlsson sitill not traded.

 

[Peptic Balcers]

Ownership change of some kind is the only logical explanation for the following imo. Im now in the camp of completely convinced its coming at some point.

-Dead silence since the deadline unlike any other year, including outright refusal to answer any real questions at the draft when they were forced in to the media.

-no long term commitments on the books for more than 2 years, other than 3 guys im sure the team would give away for free is possible, other than maybe Smith. One of which is likely on LTIR soon in Gaborik. We have basically zero long term commitments at the moment.

-A plan(or lack thereof from the outside looking in) that looks like it includes allowing our four best roster players and only three star players to head in to their UFA season. One of which we can't even offer a contract until January.

-Nothing but subtraction from the roster with no attempts to improve dating back to before even last season with only Oduya like scrub signings... likely because it costs money to improve and at the moment it appears we can't even afford to keep our own good players.

-Karlsson sitill not traded.

Just trying to have no one available for Seattle to pick in the next expansion draft

 

[Sens of Anarchy]

 

[DrEasy]

This is probably totally irrelevant: Desmarais is part of a consortium that is buying the Force India F1 team.

 

[coladin]

This is probably totally irrelevant: Desmarais is part of a consortium that is buying the Force India F1 team.

Totally relevant to the dreamers, actually, wanting Desmarais to but the team or get into Lebreton. F1 is a major financial commitment.

 

[branch]

Totally relevant to the dreamers, actually, wanting Desmarais to but the team or get into Lebreton. F1 is a major financial commitment.

F1 is not something you go into to make money. And also Lawrence Stroll is the main stakeholder in that venture, Desmarais is just lending a bit of assistance. Desmarais will still have plenty of left over after his investment.

 

[Six Assets]

F1 is a good way to become a millionaire...if you start as a billionaire. Stroll is the main guy because he wants to move his son to a better car.

 

[Upgrayedd]

Can't think that this going to be a minority share holder in the team. Is going to be much bigger then that with real money coming in .Melynk may somehow wiggle his way in to keeping a share but no business is going to give anything more then suite and useless small amount of shares.

Whoever is buying the team is going to see the sad state of affairs he has let this team dwindle to and current situation with it's key players and put EM out to pasture.

Certainly new owners will take time to look over the situation but a full house cleaning of the remaining staff will take place over time with PD being the first to move to a advisory role. New president , New GM and assistants and scouts and maybe even coaches.

The mess with the UFA and RFA situation needs to be dealt with asap or it's going to be one hell of a TDL that will send the fans into frenzy and PR hell.

Whoever buys this team has their work cut out for them as senial EM has let things go so bad it's at the tipping point of utter disaster that maybe only the NHL could clean up if a new owner backs out.

I may be a total negative Nancy and world is going to end doomsday senario on the Sens business side of things but I see it as being that bad.

I would hedge my bet that if a semi reasonable new ownership group came in and simply did the bare minimum that most if not all regularly operating competitive sports teams would do by way of properly and fully staffing, and signing your quality players, that said new ownership group would be lauded as heroes'...I would love to see this fanbase with a win in having zero fans one day under Euge and then all the fans the next day with new ownership to further highlight to all the insanity we have been put through to date.

 

[mysens]

I would hedge my bet that if a semi reasonable new ownership group came in and simply did the bare minimum that most if not all regularly operating competitive sports teams would do by way of properly and fully staffing, and signing your quality players, that said new ownership group would be lauded as heroes'...I would love to see this fanbase with a win in having zero fans one day under Euge and then all the fans the next day with new ownership to further highlight to all the insanity we have been put through to date.

I would love to see this come true as far as your second comment. But I have a strong feeling that it will not come to fruition. The same cheap fans will come up with more excuses why they won't support the team. I can bet on that one.

 

[L'Aveuglette]

I would love to see this come true as far as your second comment. But I have a strong feeling that it will not come to fruition. The same cheap fans will come up with more excuses why they won't support the team. I can bet on that one.

It's like you willingly choose to ignore how Ottawa has always had some of the best attendance numbers until recently.

 

[Flamingo]

Ottawa does have a history of strong attendance and fan support. Don’t under-estimate the impact of the federal payroll collapse, though. It’s not merely an excuse.

 

[Joeyjoejoe]

I would love to see this come true as far as your second comment. But I have a strong feeling that it will not come to fruition. The same cheap fans will come up with more excuses why they won't support the team. I can bet on that one.

The f*** are you talking about Melnyk?

 

[BonkTastic]

I would love to see this come true as far as your second comment. But I have a strong feeling that it will not come to fruition. The same cheap fans will come up with more excuses why they won't support the team. I can bet on that one.

The same fans who have never bought tickets and always had an excuse to not buy tickets, who are using Melnyk as their current excuse to not buy tickets, will continue to not buy tickets, sure.

The fans who actually used to buy tickets who have stopped doing so because of Melnyk will most likely come back, for the most part.

The Anti-Melnyk group isn't composed of solely the first group, nor the second. It's a mix, much like everything else in life.

 

[Upgrayedd]

I would love to see this come true as far as your second comment. But I have a strong feeling that it will not come to fruition. The same cheap fans will come up with more excuses why they won't support the team. I can bet on that one.

I would argue those fans were not attending during the best of times, the fans are literally the last thing on my list of reasons as to who or where the blame lies personally.

 

[Tnuoc Alucard]

Ottawa does have a history of strong attendance and fan support. Don’t under-estimate the impact of the federal payroll collapse, though. It’s not merely an excuse.

Up until the last two or perhaps three seasons, the Sens used to "paper" the Arena with a lot of ticket giveaways, hoping, I suspect, to cultivate paying fans.

Obviously this did not work, and they stopped this practice.

Since February of 2016, when the Federal Government rolled out the new
federal payroll system, a lot of paying customers of the Senators found themselves unsure of if, or when, their payroll problems would be resolved, and curtailed their discretionary spending.

A number of other factors have also kept paying customers away from Sens games, and speaking for myself, the poor arena location is number one, and the lack of getting to and from games on a timely basis via pubic transit keeps me at home more often than not, as does the poorly set up parking lot.

 

[Smash88]

Ottawa does have a history of strong attendance and fan support. Don’t under-estimate the impact of the federal payroll collapse, though. It’s not merely an excuse.

This is exactly why I had to cancel. I figure I'm not alone.

The Phoenix problem is still ongoing. Not many public servants will be committing to season tickets until they are fully assured their pay problems are over.

The Melnyk stuff is the final nail and really drove down day to day sales, but Phoenix is the reason why the season seats started going down.

Anyone who downright dismisses it (Melnyk is one) is fooling themselves.

 

[The Lewler]

This is exactly why I had to cancel. I figure I'm not alone.

The Phoenix problem is still ongoing. Not many public servants will be committing to season tickets until they are fully assured their pay problems are over.

The Melnyk stuff is the final nail and really drove down day to day sales, but Phoenix is the reason why the season seats started going down.

Anyone who downright dismisses it (Melnyk is one) is fooling themselves.

If you look at the Phoenix "dashboard" it shows the number of open transactions monthly.

They have more than 300k things still open. I believe either this month of last they had 80k "unexpected" transactions added.

I can only assume those are ongoing new collective agreement signings that have deadlines attached.

I strongly suspect this is part of what led to my employer taking 4 years to sign a new CBA, and why retro payments are a far off fantasy.

4 years of no pay increase and uncertainty would scare a lot of people off. That said, Melnyk is the sole reason for me not buying tickets.

 

[Smash88]

If you look at the Phoenix "dashboard" it shows the number of open transactions monthly.

They have more than 300k things still open. I believe either this month of last they had 80k "unexpected" transactions added.

I can only assume those are ongoing new collective agreement signings that have deadlines attached.

I strongly suspect this is part of what led to my employer taking 4 years to sign a new CBA, and why retro payments are a far off fantasy.

4 years of no pay increase and uncertainty would scare a lot of people off. That said, Melnyk is the sole reason for me not buying tickets.

I don't even believe that fully captures the mess. When Phoenix came in, they changed the way our wages are calculated. It doesn't add up. A lot of people I work are completely confused as to how it's calculated, but they are still being paid, so they don't raise a PAR form. Who knows if they are actually getting the right rate.

Most people just want an explanation of how it works and it's like pulling teeth trying to get any type of answers.

 

[Upgrayedd]

I don't even believe that fully captures the mess. When Phoenix came in, they changed the way our wages are calculated. It doesn't add up. A lot of people I work are completely confused as to how it's calculated, but they are still being paid, so they don't raise a PAR form. Who knows if they are actually getting the right rate.

Most people just want an explanation of how it works and it's like pulling teeth trying to get any type of answers.

Im sure they will have it figured out in 6 to 8 years from now lol. If this were a private issue I would imagine several class action lawsuits would have been filed and the GoC would have formally stepped in, however because it is the GoC conducting the crime they can do whatever they want basically and your average citizen who doesn't work for any type of public firm couldn't care less.

 

[slamigo]

Three months after my wife filed her taxes she received a notice that her T4 was completely wrong and the Govt reassessed her return. She actually got money back instead of owing money. However we have no idea why it was adjusted or what the problem was with her other T4. And she’s an accountant. She said the numbers don’t seem to add up and it appears totally arbitrary what changes were made. And that was her 3rd T4. As an Govt employee you have no way of calculating your income yourself. You have to rely on the percentages and deductions being applied etc provided by the employer. The problem with Phoenix is that the people fixing it are not fixing the software, they are just manually putting in what they think the numbers should be.
Also, my wife is still owed a bunch of money for acting pay. She called the Phoenix Centre and they told her the system says it already paid her so case closed. And she was “but that is why there is a case. I was never paid.” And the person told her that the system says she was. So she’s been fighting with them to prove that they paid her. Should be easy enough as there are pay stubs. And they never paid her but it’s been a nightmare dealing with them. And they hired all kinds of new people as term contract workers to help clear the backlog but they aren’t real PS workers and don’t really have a clue what they’re doing.
Every two weeks we have to check to make sure we’re getting paid. That is insanity.
And just this week they altered her basic pay amount by over $20k a year so her pay was hundreds of dollars lower. No reason. She now has another open Phoenix ticket. I think she has 7-8 open tickets.

 

[JD1]

shouldn't all you guys talking about pay issues be working right now?

 

[Flamingo]

shouldn't all you guys talking about pay issues be working right now?

Classic.