The Senators a decade ago "were among the very best teams in hockey," but the franchise "has been in slow decline" under Owner Eugene Melnyk, according to Jeffrey Simpson of the GLOBE & MAIL. Melnyk could see his finances "worsen in the near future, when a new infusion of U.S. dollars (purchased at current Canadian dollar rates) will be needed," along with the "possibility some fans will not renew their season tickets or refuse to buy single-game tickets, given the consistently mediocre performance of the team." Melnyk "boasts about having imposed one of the league’s lowest salary caps on the Senators, claiming other owners are blowing money on bad deals," but the results on the ice have shown that the Senators "cannot compete against teams with much higher salaries." The team "will miss the playoffs for the second consecutive year" and has "failed to qualify for the playoffs four times" in the past eight years. But the "bombastic and debt-laden" Melnyk "remains defiant." He "insists he has lost" $94-110M since buying" the then-bankrupt Senators in '05, and doing so "with plenty of debt." It is "not known what Melnyk’s divorce did to his wealth." Scotiabank officials also said that Melnyk "got mad" at the financial institution "for its attitude to some of his loans." He "tore up" the bank’s venue naming-rights deal and "tried to wipe away the rest of the bank’s public presence." It "took the intervention" of NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman "to get Melnyk to back off, since Scotiabank is the bank of the NHL in Canada." He "then sold the naming rights" to Canadian Tire. Melnyk "insists he will not sell the team." If he "gets a new arena adjacent to downtown Ottawa on LeBreton Flats, as he is proposing, that might be good for his bottom line and for the city" (GLOBE & MAIL, 2/21).
