The Senators' success this season has put the team’s business department “in its strongest position in five years,” and it is possible the Senators “could achieve a long-term goal of 13,000 season tickets an entire year ahead of schedule,” according to Mark Sutcliffe of the OTTAWA CITIZEN. Senators President Cyril Leeder said that from a business perspective, the club is “in better shape now than in any offseason in team history other than 2007, the year the club went to the Stanley Cup final.” The Senators have added 1,100 new season tickets since February. Leeder said adding 2,000 new subscribers in one year would be "huge." He said that it is "a possibility this year.” Sutcliffe reported that the team has “already renewed 80 per cent of this year’s season-ticket holders for next year,” compared to an 83% renewal last year. Leeder: “We’re likely going to get that to 90 per cent.” Sutcliffe noted that would put the Senators "within striking distance of their high-water mark of 13,000, which they reached in the 2007-08 season.” The team had 10,000 season-ticket holders at the end of the '10-11 season. The Senators pushed the top-seeded Rangers to a Game Seven in their Eastern Conference Quarterfinal series, and Leeder said, "We exceeded the public’s expectations. But that's only one factor. They like this team better than our other teams. They like the group of players. They like watching them. They like the style that they play.” Leeder added that the Senators are “getting more requests for promotional partnerships with clients such as Subway.” The team also is “selling more ads for their local television broadcasts” (OTTAWA CITIZEN, 4/28).
