The team has hired an investment bank to help with a possible sale.
It appears the daughters of the late Eugene Melnyk, who was the owner of the National Hockey League’s Ottawa Senators, have decided to sell the franchise. Eugene Melnyk died on Match 28th and there didn’t seem to be a succession plan. The daughters have hired a banking or an investment company as a consultant in a possible sale of the team. What might complicate the sale is that the Senators ownership ended up with a conditional deal to develop the LeBreton Flats area to build an arena or an arena-village in Ottawa. The team plays its games in Kanata which is more than 20 minutes away from downtown Ottawa. The National Capital Commission has signed a deal with Senators ownership that would see a new arena and mixed-use development built on the property. Senators ownership is partnering with former New York Mets owner Fred Wilpon’s Sterling Project Development, Populous, Tipping Point Sports and music promoter Live Nation in an attempt to build the arena. The present-day Ottawa Senators founder Bruce Firestone said he wanted to build a home for the NHL team at LeBreton Flats 30 years ago, but was told by the head of the National Capital Commission that it would never happen. But this time the National Capital Commission has named the Senators ownership as the preferred bidder to build a major attraction.
In 2018, Senators owner Melnyk was going to partner with developer John Ruddy to develop the LeBreton Flats site which would have included an arena-village. By November of that year, Melnyk was suing Ruddy for $700 million Canadian, claiming that Ruddy had a conflict of interest because he was involved in another Ottawa development near the LeBreton Flats area. The possible LeBreton Flats deal may or may not be part of the Senators sale. The NHL has a new problem.
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