Hatrik98 Posted February 22, 2019 Share Posted February 22, 2019 So which organization is leaving first? Ottawa or Florida? Both teams have been a struggle for years. Ottawa can’t get financial backing for new arena and Florida can’t bring in the fans. Melnyk is trying everything to keep them in the Capital. S. Florida just isn’t a hockey market. Too bad because the Cats have some talent. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Math Posted February 22, 2019 Share Posted February 22, 2019 No one will move. Buttman is totally committed now on retaining teams in their current market, no matter what. Panthers signed a new lease with the BB&T center and the Sens will at the end find a new owner that will keep the team there, even if it makes no sense to have such an arena in the middle of nowhere. The league doesn't care about empty seats, even tho it's sad. The league care about overall revenues which are constantly increasing. That's all. Like in the case of the Thrashers, we never know 100% but it should take an extraordinary series of circumstances to see one of the two go. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TropicalFruitGirl26 Posted February 22, 2019 Share Posted February 22, 2019 12 minutes ago, Villette/Lavaux said: No one will move. Buttman is totally committed now on retaining teams in their current market, no matter what. Panthers signed a new lease with the BB&T center and the Sens will at the end find a new owner that will keep the team there, even if it makes no sense to have such an arena in the middle of nowhere. The league doesn't care about empty seats, even tho it's sad. The league care about overall revenues which are constantly increasing. That's all. Like in the case of the Thrashers, we never know 100% but it should take an extraordinary series of circumstances to see one of the two go. Reasonable post. Especially the part about arena location (I assume you are talking about the Panthers because I am familiar with that area more than Ottawa's arena location)…..as I don't buy AT ALL that nonsense about South Florida, or Florida in general NOT being a hockey market. The Tampa Bay Lightning have taken that idea and turned it on its ear several years ago! The one thing the Lightning DO have going over the Florida Panthers IS arena location (located in downtown Tampa surrounded by many other things to do), and an owner willing to put in his own money in arena renovations, advertisement for the team, being highly involved (along with his players) in the local community, AND hiring real hockey people, letting them do their jobs, to run the team. But location is a big, big thing. Panthers arena is located in a sub urb of Miami with not nearly enough around it to satisfy the visiting fan or to make the local fan want to travel the extra distance just so see a game. Even large dedicated fanbases like Toronto, Detroit, and Chicago just to name a few, had to start somewhere, and yes, winning does come into play...especially when trying to sell the idea of hockey to a newer fanbase...and more importantly, keep them coming back. But since Florida really can't do much about location at the moment, ownership can still try promoting the team more, hire really good scouts for the team to find and discover real top level young talent (and keep them!), and start some sort of real culture of winning. Maybe entice outside businesses to spring up around the arena as well. So, yea, I agree neither team will be moving anytime soon...BUT, if I were to play devil's advocate and say one was going to, I would think Florida, simply due to the location of the arena.....and a city like Quebec jonesing really badly for another crack at the NHL. I think Ottawa's situation is just pure inept ownership. If they can get a new owner, a guy who not only really knows hockey, but knows how to hire like minded people, the Ottawa Senators can do just fine where they are. Sens fans are starving for a winner..and for a while, the Sens looked like they might deliver, but their dealings, headed up by ownership mandates have proven to be near sighted and it has cost the team on the ice and created a culture of 'second class citizen', I believe, in that Ottawa locker room....and proud hockey players never like that sort of thing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Puck_Pun Posted February 22, 2019 Share Posted February 22, 2019 (edited) 30 minutes ago, TropicalFruitGirl26 said: I think Ottawa's situation is just pure inept ownership. If they can get a new owner, a guy who not only really knows hockey, but knows how to hire like minded people, the Ottawa Senators can do just fine where they are. Sens fans are starving for a winner..and for a while, the Sens looked like they might deliver, but their dealings, headed up by ownership mandates have proven to be near sighted and it has cost the team on the ice and created a culture of 'second class citizen', I believe, in that Ottawa locker room....and proud hockey players never like that sort of thing. For the most part yeah, the owner is the biggest issue for the team. I sure haven't seen a situation where the fans of a team actually take up advertising space showing their discontent with the owner/leadership team. The fans have a memory, and the shadow of what happened to Alfie hangs over every current decision- exposing Methot, trading Karlsson, the horrible trade involving Hoffman, and with this trading a first pick for Duchene and then trading him for picks right after he starts being a core part of the team. So yeah, crowds are down, as a percentage of capacity Ottawa are second last (well as of midway through the season, that's the last reliable stat I have) which is amazing considering it's, well, Ottawa. There are a bunch of other issues- yeah the stadium is in a poor position but it's not as bad as people say and parking is relatively cheap (as low as $15). Of course having the downtown arena would be much better, however Melnyk's intransigence could be more due to a lack of money on his end than anything else. He's- to paraphrase an article I read- 'Billionaire poor' in that while he certainly has a lot of money, it's quite possible he isn't at the level of wealth to be able to pay for a stadium. Teams are owned by consortiums to protect against the sort of vulnerability that happen with a single owner. And of course form is another reason for people not turning up. If you give people the impression you're icing an AHL team in the NHL, well, why would people turn up? Why would people buy jumpers with their favourite player on the back when the owner trades everyone's favourite player near the end of every season? The number of Duchene jumpers I see during broadcast is really high. Will those people be buying another Senators jersey anytime soon? Hmm. However. That all said, I can't imagine the team being moved. NHL management seems to prefer expansion over shifting teams nowadays and really, taking another team away from Canada (I honestly don't see them being moved to Quebec, which is a smaller market than Ottawa) just seems like a terrible idea. The Senators podcast I listen to has this season decided to intro their episodes with this section of this song, and honestly... Yeah, it's pretty apt Edited February 22, 2019 by Puck_Pun 1 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TropicalFruitGirl26 Posted February 22, 2019 Share Posted February 22, 2019 @Puck_Pun Thank you for enlightening me on the Ottawa arena location situation. I've never visited the area, nor bothered to do any research on that, so I really had no clue whether the location was hurting the franchise in some way or not. I am more familiar with Florida and the Panthers situation, thus my commentary regarding location about them. But I agree Ottawa should be fine where they are.....but either ownership has to rethink their business practices, or if you are telling us Melnyk is a "poor billionaire", then he needs to sell to make the team work where it is. And believing Ottawa can still do fine where they are is the reason I think if one of these franchises will be moving (say to Quebec), it would be the Panthers. But again, like @Villette/Lavaux already said...I think they both stay put for the foreseeable. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WordsOfWisdom Posted April 10, 2019 Share Posted April 10, 2019 On 2/22/2019 at 2:15 PM, TropicalFruitGirl26 said: Reasonable post. Especially the part about arena location (I assume you are talking about the Panthers because I am familiar with that area more than Ottawa's arena location)…..as I don't buy AT ALL that nonsense about South Florida, or Florida in general NOT being a hockey market. Ottawa's arena is in the middle of nowhere. It feels like it's 25 km outside the city limits lol. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WordsOfWisdom Posted April 10, 2019 Share Posted April 10, 2019 On 2/22/2019 at 1:52 PM, Villette/Lavaux said: No one will move. Agreed. Ottawa fans are good hockey fans that will support a decent team. As for the Florida Panthers, they just need the Canadian dollar to rebound so they get their snowbird fanbase back. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TropicalFruitGirl26 Posted April 10, 2019 Share Posted April 10, 2019 5 hours ago, WordsOfWisdom said: Ottawa's arena is in the middle of nowhere. It feels like it's 25 km outside the city limits lol. Ok, well, in that case, they can add THAT to their laundry list of issues... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WordsOfWisdom Posted April 10, 2019 Share Posted April 10, 2019 3 hours ago, TropicalFruitGirl26 said: Ok, well, in that case, they can add THAT to their laundry list of issues... Also, if your arena is 25 km outside Ottawa, did you ever really play in Ottawa to begin with? (ie: How can a team leave a place it never played in?) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buffalo Rick Posted June 19, 2019 Share Posted June 19, 2019 At least the fans come out for Ottawa. Not Florida. Florida leaves very soon 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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