Melnyk and Ottawa

It may be that he just never had the money.  

Now that he has sued his partner, Melnyk's Lebreton Flats project is dead. In reality, it may be that it was never really alive.

Do you recall his rage when he was not granted the rights to a casino out in Stittsville? That was in mid, 2017. He was said to look "very dimly" on that decision. Recall that he won the Lebreton Flats bid in November, 2016.

Having a casino would have revitalized the facility he owns there - now called the Canadian Tire Centre, but something that would have become The White Elephant of Stittsville without a new raison d'etre. 

But one has to think there was more to this casino bid than just giving his facility a new lease on life. Casinos are cash cows...and it may be that Melnyk realized that he needed that new cash flow to be able to afford to do the Lebreton Flats development. If fact, I strongly suspect that without this, he was simply not going to be able to pay for the Lebreton Flats development, and that he has been looking for a way out ever since.

I think that Melnyk gave us a wee glimpse of what he was really thinking in his disastrous press conference in December of 2017. Do you remember this?

"What I’m saying is, I would never sell the team. (Moving) is always the possibility, with any franchise. If you open a grocery store and nobody comes, but one opens two blocks down and there’s a line outside, where are you going to have your store? Here, we’re fighting every day to sell a ticket. Honest to God. And when you get to the third round of the playoffs and you’re begging people to buy a ticket, something’s wrong with that picture. We’re just hoping that changes, that’s all."

And this?

"I’m not going to blow a lifetime of working hard to support a hockey team. It’s not going to happen,” Melnyk said. “We can do that. I can do LeBreton. I don’t need partners there....The banks are a big part of anything that you do in any business transaction. So yeah, I have it. The bigger question is whether I’m prepared to blow all that money that I made over many years in a different industry in a different country.”

The key points are in red. To his credit, the man was brutally honest with all of us.

To summarize - "I will consider moving this team if the situation warrants it, and I will not blow all my money on this team."

He has sued his partner alleging that his partner has a conflict of interest because they are building a large condo development close to Lebreton Flats. 

Is this a conflict, or would building more places for people to live near the new arena actually complement Lebreton Flats by providing a new source of season ticket holders? I think it is the second, and that Melnyk's lawsuit is a crock.

I wrote this after Melnyk's "December to Remember"....

https://mewetree.blogspot.com/2018/02/the-toronto-senators.html

Will we soon discover that this man has had quiet discussions with Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment and the NHL about a move to Toronto? 

This needs to be said. The Ottawa Senators could not sell out in the playoffs. I know we all want to blame him, but in light of this, if you were Melnyk, what would you be thinking? 

Stay tuned.