The Senators ownership board is scheduled to meet
tomorrow, with many owners "angry that despite putting in the
cash, they've seen no accounting for ages," according to
Stuart McCarthy of the OTTAWA SUN. Majority Owner Rod
Bryden, who owns 80% of the team, is the only partner who has
seen financial statements for FY '96 or '97, and therefore
none of the others are "in any position to intelligently
discuss the finances." Bryden's partners, who once had a 48%
stake in the club, now share "somewhere between" 10-20%.
Bryden has twice told partners to "pony up" more money or he
would, "thereby increasing his majority." He has also raised
the "possibility of moving" the Senators to Portland, OR.
McCarthy writes that the minority partners "[e]xpect more of
the same tomorrow -- and then some." Partner Brian McGarry:
"If anyone steps up and buys us out that wouldn't surprise me
--in fact, I'm expecting it." Bryden did not comment
yesterday, but McCarthy called tomorrow's meeting "a real day
of reckoning ... depending on how much red ink is spilled, it
could also bring us one step closer to the end of the road
for the Senators calling Ottawa home" (OTTAWA SUN, 12/17).
