[sureLoss]

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/sports/...118/story.html

How much are the Senators costing him? It’s impossible to be definitive because, despite its high public profile, the team is a private company. Not only that, the NHL regularly warns the 30 franchise owners not to divulge details about their operations. Nevertheless, Melnyk and two of his long serving senior executives — Leeder and chief financial officer Erin Crowe — offered some insight into the team’s finances.


On Melnyk’s decade-long watch, they say, the team has generated a grand total of just $6 million on operations — that is, total revenues minus the costs associated with paying and moving the players, advertising and managing the arena. After subtracting items unrelated to operations — such as interest on the team’s debt and capital expenditures to keep the arena up-to-date — Melnyk has had to absorb cumulative cash losses of $94 million. In short, he is losing an average of $9 million to $10 million a year. And this excludes the additional interest and fees related to the debt extensions.


Again, without seeing the books, it’s difficult to know if these numbers exaggerate the team’s financial condition or not. But they do seem to line up with Melnyk’s behaviour during the past couple of years: his drive to secure a casino in Ottawa; his determination to keep the Senators’ salary capped at $51 million annually; and the new, more lucrative naming deal for the Senators’ arena, called Canadian Tire Centre as of last month.