How To Say Nothing: WHOPPER WATCH

“We are having regular meetings with representatives of the hockey club, Those conversations and those meetings are going well. You know, there are many complexities in the agreement. I think we’ve managed successfully to deal with and resolve many of them. There are still a couple of outstanding issues, but the energy and the feeling between the teams are very positive. There is a sense of confidence that we will be able to arrive at an agreement.”

Tobi Nussbaum, NCC CEO on locating an Ottawa Senators arena at LeBreton Flats

So here’s how to say nothing.

The statement above is a good illustration.

Let’s see. The National Capital Commission is holding regular meetings with the Ottawa Senators (Of course they are. Were they not talking, we could safely say there is not deal.).

The conversations are going well (Are they? Surely they’re all being very nice. That goes without saying. Good people on both sides. Nice is nice but it doesn’t get a deal done.)

There are complexities in the deal (Not unexpected when you’re dealing with hundreds of millions of dollars.).

Outstanding issues remain (Big ones. Like the price of the land. Like parking. Like soil remediation that stopped high-tech firms from establishing a technology park on LeBreton Flats as the NCC wanted. Soil remediation runs into the hundreds of millions of dollars. The city is supposed to pick up 50 per cent of the remediation costs as it does for developers on brownfields but the municipality isn’t in a fiscal position at present to cover the gigantic costs at LeBreton. Furthermore the city is ‘partners’ with Ottawa Sports and Entertainment Group at Lansdowne. A LeBreton arena would be in direct competition with the partnership. How enthusiastic would the OSEG partner be about that with Lansdowne already a fiscal sinkhole? And remember that NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman said LeBreton looked too small for all the things that go with an arena. Perhaps he meant parking. What Bettman says is gospel at the NHL. The current arena in Kanata is car-centric and it would be foolhardy to bet your business on Ottawa’s light-rail and bus system working efficiently.).

So there’s good feeling between the NCC and the Ottawa Senators (Good feelings and $5 get you a coffee.).

Arena location does matter somewhat to the success of a sports team. But what is most important is the product the Senators are providing. No trouble selling tickets to the Battle of Ontario. A good product means full seats. Ottawa hockey fans, prior to the Senators, were comfortable taking a bus to the old Forum for Habs games. A good product compensated for a two-hour drive. People will fly or take the train into Churchill, Man., to see polar bears and beluga whales. That’s in the middle of nowhere. Surely people will drive an hour to get to an exciting hockey game in Kanata.

Selling good hockey games in the puck-mad national capital region shouldn’t be a big problem unless you’ve got a lousy product. Last year’s Sens were a good product.

You really want to get Quebec fans to a Sens hockey game? Put small Canadian, Ontario and Quebec flags on the back of the Sens’ helmets.

That sends a message that this is the team of the whole national capital region and, play your cards right like the Dallas Cowboys did, the entire country.

You do that with a great product, not an arena in an empty part of the edge of downtown. The walk-up crowd must climb the same hill that Parliament is on … in January … in the snow … and the ice … and the wind. Or worse … on the troubled  O-Train.

Good luck.

Ken Gray

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