Quote:
Originally Posted by The Original FFIV
I've said it before and I'll say it again. The Capital area is a crappy sports market. How many times do you have to blame crappy teams or crappy owners? They've lost their football team twice and almost lost the Sens before Melnyk stepped up. When the federal government is your largest employer and you have a limited corporate base, that does not bode well for revenues. Should have never been awarded an expansion franchise, only got it because Tampa and Ottawa were the only ones to pony up the full expansion fee.
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Saying it before and saying it again doesn't mean it is true.
Ottawa never almost lost the Sens. The guy before Melnyk was in the same situation as the Devils last owner - he went into too much debt while building a new rink. And in both cases the team was sold pretty quickly after it became available unlike Phoenix which did have a chance of losing its franchise. Calgary was closer to losing its franchise in the 90's than Ottawa when the Flames were having problems getting fans.
The statements by Melnyk need to be taken with about a million grains of salt. He's trying to get the government to give him a casino. He doesn't make any claims about how much the rink is making or his ticket buying service that has replaced Ticketmaster (and it's service charges) in Ottawa.