Senators Owner Eugene Melnyk in a letter yesterday wrote the Canadian government's decision to nix plans to hold an outdoor game on Parliament Hill was "'disappointing' but that it was not because of a 'shortage of effort' on his part to try to make it happen," according to Susana Mas of the OTTAWA CITIZEN. He acknowledged in his letter -- a response to an editorial run by the paper -- that running the team is "not an easy business." He "urged the Citizen and anyone else pointing the finger of blame at him to look in the mirror." He "did not say whether he would support moving the outdoor game to TD place, saying there are multiple considerations at stake" (OTTAWA CITIZEN, 11/16). Melnyk in his letter writes, "The blame and criticism are quite honestly difficult to endure as it unfairly suggests I don’t care about the city, nor do enough to support it." He adds, "My core responsibility is to ice a competitive hockey team and to try to not lose money in the process. And yet, I have always committed to doing so much more, including bringing nationally and internationally broadcast events to Ottawa. ... These events, including the fact Ottawa has an NHL team, bring billions in cumulative economic revenue to the city. ... Quite frankly, one would be hard-pressed to find someone in Ottawa who hasn’t been touched in a positive way by the Senators." He also writes, "An outdoor game is not a 'cash cow' for the Ottawa Senators. ... I do so much to support the city in ways that go far beyond hockey. In this instance, I ask everyone to understand and respect the fact that bringing an NHL outdoor game to any city is a monumental task" (OTTAWA CITIZEN, 11/16).
