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  • Melnyk and the Budget

    Melnyk has been the owner of this team since 2003. He's done a lot for the team and city, including spending to the cap, giving us some solid playoff runs, he's brought in an All-Star Game, Draft, and likely an outdoor event in 2017. He upgraded the jumbotron to one of the nicer ones in the league.

    But, with that being said, I think he's screwing over Sens fans for his own selfish reasons. It's not secret information that Melnyk went through a divorce and took a hit financially because of it. He's looking to gain that money back through another source of income. Plan A was the soccer stadium, which failed after the city didn't want to help fund it. Plan B was the casino in Kanata, which is where it all went wrong. The city wanted to put the casino at the Rideau Carleton Raceway, Melnyk wanted it right near the Canadian Tire Centre. After insulting everyone who works/lives around the Raceway area, the city still didn't give him the casino he wanted.

    I believe Melnyk has a lot more money than he claims to have, and isn't losing nearly as much as he says he is. Ticket prices went up last season. A game against the Red Wings on December 1st had tickets starting at $105 in Row R of the 300 level. Concession prices went up. Ticket giveaways went down.

    In the lockout shortened season, the average fan attendance was 19,408. In the 2013-14 season, the average fan attendance was 18,108. It's important to factor everything in. You have one season where the tickets were cheaper, the on-ice product was a lot better and more enjoyable, if you wanted a drink or a snack it wasn't as expensive. The next season, it was more expensive everywhere and the on-ice product was worse. They also gave away less tickets. I don't have the official numbers, but I'd argue that 18,108 with more expensive tickets and higher priced concession stands is generating more revenue than 19,408 with cheaper tickets and less expensive concession stands.

    Now you look at the new television radio deal the Sens got from Bell. This is where the huge money comes in. The old deals would be paying Ottawa $13.3M per season on average - $6.3M for the national rights and $7M for the regional rights. The new deal? An average of $33.3M from Bell for the Senators regional rights, and another $17-$20M go to the Sens from the huge Rogers national deal. It's a difference of $13.3M and $50-$53M.

    So, despite a pretty terrible on-ice product last year, the Sens got a decent number of fans in the seats. Cyril Leeder actually said revenues were up last seasons compared to the season before, and a big reason was because of the less giveaways. So they're making more money from the fans alone, plus add in the extra ~$40M a year from television/radio deal improvements. Also add in that Melnyk owns the Canadian Tire Centre and generates revenue off any concert or event that goes on at the Canadian Tire Centre. Oh, and he also owns Capital Tickets which means he gets all the service fees from when you buy a ticket to a concert or sporting event.

    So despite all of this, we have a pretty low budget and are losing quality players to free agency and relying on entry-level contracted rookies to replace them. If you look at the team like a business, an entertainment business: you pay a pretty hefty price for a ticket for entertainment. I know it's not Toronto level, but it's still pretty expensive. You go there for entertainment. With the team we're icing based on our budget isn't very good, you're not going to be entertained a lot. You can call this fair-weather fans, or even fickle fans like Melnyk did, but a lot of people don't want to fork out premium money to see a bad team play. I wouldn't be surprised if the attendance declines because of this and I think it would be a good wake-up call to Melnyk.

  • #2
    Re: Melnyk and the Budget

    You mention that he owns the CTC and also Capital Tickets - I bet those are separate businesses to the holding company that actually operates the Senators day to day. You may even have cash flows between them...for example Senators Inc. (or whatever his company is called) may pay CTC for the right to have games in that arena, and Capital Tickets may pay fees back to Senators Inc. Profits in one business do not transfer to the other unless the owner wishes them to.

    Sometimes it makes tax sense, and sometimes it makes legal sense, especially when you're being chased for alimony and divorce settlements.

    Comment


    • #3
      Re: Melnyk and the Budget

      If the city needs a casino it should be downtown.

      Also, I went to the CTC for a wrestling event in September and a bottle of water was like... $4.50 or some shit. da hell?

      Melnyk is a jabroni

      Comment


      • #4
        Re: Melnyk and the Budget

        Originally posted by Matt the Aussie
        You mention that he owns the CTC and also Capital Tickets - I bet those are separate businesses to the holding company that actually operates the Senators day to day. You may even have cash flows between them...for example Senators Inc. (or whatever his company is called) may pay CTC for the right to have games in that arena, and Capital Tickets may pay fees back to Senators Inc. Profits in one business do not transfer to the other unless the owner wishes them to.

        Sometimes it makes tax sense, and sometimes it makes legal sense, especially when you're being chased for alimony and divorce settlements.
        I don't disagree with anything you said. For sure each different business (Senators sports team, arena, Capital Tickets) are considered different businesses and I'm sure Melnyk treats them as such. But, from a customers perspective, they're not breaking down the transaction like that. Perhaps they're paying $100 for a ticket, plus a $10 service charge from Capital Tickets, plus $12 in parking, and they also wanted a coke and a slice of pizza so that's another $10. I don't think many customers break it down like that, I think they just look at it like "I paid $132 for my night out at the Sens game". I think they're even less likely to think that if they are informed that the same guy owns all of them and makes all the profits off of them all.

        I'm sure Melnyk is a smart businessman and knows some loopholes and can use owning many different 'companies' to work to his advantage in divorce and tax situations, which is what I think you were getting at (sorry, it was a little unclear. I wasn't arguing any of your points in the above paragraph).

        Also, when he was last in town (a few days after the end of the season), he went on some radio stations. I caught him on TSN1200 and it was cringe-worthy. They asked him about his lack of spending and how the stats portray if you spend money you win and if you don't spend money you lose. He responded by saying not all the teams that spend big money win the Stanley Cup, and noted how Toronto has only made the playoffs once in the past decade despite spending a lot. He completely avoided the question pretty much, as you look at LA, Chicago, Montreal and New York who all spend a lot of money and did do well.

        He also claims that, to people who accuse him of not spending enough, they acquired Hemsky at the deadline. Okay...but we acquired 20 games of Hemsky with 50% of his remaining salary retained and had to dump TWO roster players (Conacher and Corvo) to do so. Then he proceeds to say that we spend our money on amazing scouting and player development and pay one of the most in the league in that department. Perhaps this is true, but it's something we don't know and don't have any proof on.

        Comment


        • #5
          Re: Melnyk and the Budget

          Originally posted by Dean Ambrose
          If the city needs a casino it should be downtown.

          Also, I went to the CTC for a wrestling event in September and a bottle of water was like... $4.50 or some shit. da hell?

          Melnyk is a jabroni
          I agree. I think it should be downtown, but there may not be much room to put one down there. I'm not sure about that, honestly. I don't think a casino in Ottawa is overly important to the citizens of Ottawa because there's one in Gatineau, but it's pretty important for the city and for the province to keep the profits from a casino in Ottawa/Ontario and not Quebec. At the same time, the ~18 year old demographic going to the casino is pretty big, and if there's one in Ottawa they're going to still go to Gatineau because the legal age limit is 18 over there.

          As for the water bottle price, yeah it's expensive. The tickets for some games are a lot, too. As I said earlier, it's obviously not Toronto or Montreal or New York level, but it's expensive still. The demand to get into the building isn't nearly as high due to the population and smaller fan base.

          Comment


          • #6
            Re: Melnyk and the Budget

            Dasani bottle is at least $5.50 in Toronto arenas that I've been to (Rogers Centre, ACC).

            Comment


            • #7
              Re: Melnyk and the Budget

              Yeah, markup is ridiculous in most arenas. The budget thing really does suck, hopefully Melnyk can start putting money into the team again soon.

              Comment


              • #8
                Re: Melnyk and the Budget

                Originally posted by Alfie11
                Originally posted by Dean Ambrose
                If the city needs a casino it should be downtown.

                Also, I went to the CTC for a wrestling event in September and a bottle of water was like... $4.50 or some shit. da hell?

                Melnyk is a jabroni
                I agree. I think it should be downtown, but there may not be much room to put one down there. I'm not sure about that, honestly. I don't think a casino in Ottawa is overly important to the citizens of Ottawa because there's one in Gatineau, but it's pretty important for the city and for the province to keep the profits from a casino in Ottawa/Ontario and not Quebec. At the same time, the ~18 year old demographic going to the casino is pretty big, and if there's one in Ottawa they're going to still go to Gatineau because the legal age limit is 18 over there.

                As for the water bottle price, yeah it's expensive. The tickets for some games are a lot, too. As I said earlier, it's obviously not Toronto or Montreal or New York level, but it's expensive still. The demand to get into the building isn't nearly as high due to the population and smaller fan base.
                I went to college for a semester and wrote about this.

                The Rideau Carleton Raceway is so far from pretty much the entire city and the Gatineau casino is more convenient for more than the majority of citizens in Ottawa, including those that live all the way in Kanata, to the other side in Orleans and beyond those parts. Find what generates revenue downtown and what doesn't, and what doesn't, make it a possible location for a casino. It's laughable that the RCW is supposed to be Ottawa's casino.

                Comment


                • #9
                  Re: Melnyk and the Budget

                  [quote=Dean Ambrose]
                  Originally posted by Alfie11
                  Originally posted by "Dean Ambrose":10sh67ff
                  If the city needs a casino it should be downtown.

                  Also, I went to the CTC for a wrestling event in September and a bottle of water was like... $4.50 or some shit. da hell?

                  Melnyk is a jabroni
                  I agree. I think it should be downtown, but there may not be much room to put one down there. I'm not sure about that, honestly. I don't think a casino in Ottawa is overly important to the citizens of Ottawa because there's one in Gatineau, but it's pretty important for the city and for the province to keep the profits from a casino in Ottawa/Ontario and not Quebec. At the same time, the ~18 year old demographic going to the casino is pretty big, and if there's one in Ottawa they're going to still go to Gatineau because the legal age limit is 18 over there.

                  As for the water bottle price, yeah it's expensive. The tickets for some games are a lot, too. As I said earlier, it's obviously not Toronto or Montreal or New York level, but it's expensive still. The demand to get into the building isn't nearly as high due to the population and smaller fan base.
                  I went to college for a semester and wrote about this.

                  The Rideau Carleton Raceway is so far from pretty much the entire city and the Gatineau casino is more convenient for more than the majority of citizens in Ottawa, including those that live all the way in Kanata, to the other side in Orleans and beyond those parts. Find what generates revenue downtown and what doesn't, and what doesn't, make it a possible location for a casino. It's laughable that the RCW is supposed to be Ottawa's casino.[/quote:10sh67ff]

                  Well, the city would need to perform a study factoring in the projected costs for the casino at the RCW and downtown and then also look at the amount it would cost to literally run out of the businesses out of their own building downtown. Nevertheless I'm sure there's a spot close to downtown where they would be able to put the casino and I don't think it would be too big of a hassle (I'm talking in the Ottawa-area still).

                  The only reason I really brought up the Rideau Carleton Raceway is because Melnyk made a pretty rude and disrespectful comment towards everyone in that area. I don't have the comment right on hand, though. And I don't think he realizes that the Rideau Carleton Raceway gives Ottawa a lot of jobs and money, probably a lot more than he realized when making that comment.

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Re: Melnyk and the Budget

                    I think a downtown casino would produce more jobs and generate a better revenue than the raceway one, just because of location alone. Right now it's Quebec getting all the revenue because most people go to that casino rather than the raceway.

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Re: Melnyk and the Budget

                      I never said it wouldn't, in fact I agree with you. I am saying that Melnyk had some very disrespectful comments towards the Raceway and that area. Comments that offend a lot of people who have a job because of the Rideau Carleton Raceway, and a lot of potential customers.

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Re: Melnyk and the Budget

                        Originally posted by Dean Ambrose
                        more than the majority
                        not to get involved and hate to nitpick, but is this a phrase people use? I hope not because it's pretty stupid. More than the majority is just all...

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Re: Melnyk and the Budget

                          Whatever the case, his separate businesses should not depend on each either. If he needs to leverage his businesses against each other, he's not running them well.

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Re: Melnyk and the Budget

                            Originally posted by Victor
                            Originally posted by Dean Ambrose
                            more than the majority
                            not to get involved and hate to nitpick, but is this a phrase people use? I hope not because it's pretty stupid. More than the majority is just all...
                            eeek, no. I think I was just typing random shit there lol

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              Re: Melnyk and the Budget

                              [quote=Dean Ambrose]
                              Originally posted by Victor
                              Originally posted by "Dean Ambrose":2ctzqap0
                              more than the majority
                              not to get involved and hate to nitpick, but is this a phrase people use? I hope not because it's pretty stupid. More than the majority is just all...
                              eeek, no. I think I was just typing random shit there lol[/quote:2ctzqap0]
                              That's what I expected really. Just a heat-of-the-moment thing.

                              But people say dumb things. 'I could care less' is one which bugs me in particular.

                              Comment

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