Senators' latest arena announcement full of curveballs

News of an agreement between the Senators and the NCC on a new arena deal broke early Friday morning.

Within hours, there was Senators president Cyril Leeder and National Capital Commission CEO Tobi Nussbaum at a news conference table, talking with zeal about a proposed new NHL arena. You could almost hear the referee’s whistle being drowned out by a massive crowd at the LeBreton Flats rink of the hometown Senators.

Hold that vision. It will be “years, not months” as Leeder noted, before any hockey is being played on LeBreton street, other than a breakout game of road hockey. 

However, Friday's biggest news was that Ottawa’s NHL team won’t just lease 10 acres of land from the NCC. They will buy it outright to create an arena and rink in the shadow of Parliament Hill. We will all be a little older by the time it is completed. 

For years, the two sides have engaged in intermittent talks about developing this site. In 2016, the Senators were part of a grandiose RendezVous LeBreton site project that would have encompassed more than 50 acres of land. When that project fell apart in late 2018, the NCC went ahead and made plans without the Senators, although they left room for a “major event centre” in the event a future deal could be worked out. 

Since 2022, the Senators have been working within a Memorandum of Understanding with the NCC, as a precursor to getting a lease deal done. That MOU was set to expire on Friday, hence the pressure point for a deal. 

But, there was a curveball. Instead of an original plot of six or seven acres, which the NCC had set aside, the Senators will get 10-plus acres. Leeder flatly admitted, the club could use an even bigger parcel. The agreed upon 10-plus acres will be sold to the team “at fair market value,” Nussbaum said. That sale is expected to go through in 2025 after a proper appraisal of the land. 

“Building an arena is already a difficult, complex process,” Leeder said, alluding to the Canadian Tire Centre he was involved with erecting in the mid-1990s. “Doing it on leased land makes it even more complex, so, we felt that in order for us to do all this work, get this done, we really needed a site that we own. It gives us a reduced amount of complexity in an already complex process.”

While the club is excited about being near the east-west and north-south axis of the LRT system, there will also be room for parking at the new rink. How much remains to be seen. 

The concepts, all still in the early planning stages, sound impressive. 

As Nussbaum pointed out, developing the rest of LeBreton is already well underway with plans for new homes, aqueducts, greenspace and mixed use development. The NCC’s broader plan includes about 6,000 housing units, with 25 per cent rated as affordable or low income. He sees the arena project as a perfect fit for what is already happening in the area. 

“This agreement with Capital Sports Development Inc. (the Senators parent company) and the Senators is great news for the National Capital Region," Nussbaum said. "The major events centre and arena district will bring life and excitement to LeBreton Flats.”

The Senators main focus is a modern new arena, plus a rink district for fan enjoyment and engagement.

As Leeder explained, today’s arenas need more space than their earlier brethren. Loading docks are bigger. Amenities and fan gathering spaces in the arena require more room. 

While the detailed plans are months and years away from being finalized, the Senators know for certain what aspects are required from visiting other NHL arenas recently completed. 

“It would be unusual to have a downtown venue like this without a public outdoor space in front of the venue,” Leeder said. “Having more land allows that to take place.”

Of course, everyone wants to know how this grand scheme gets paid for. Senators owner Michael Andlauer has already said the team will need all three levels of government contributing. 

Leeder says that Canadian sports facilities tend not to rely on taxpayer funding. However, we know that fans and contributors to the Canadian tax base will be partners one way or another, whether directly through government involvement or via ticket surcharges. Even ticket pricing will be different in a new venue, versus the cheaper seats out in Kanata at the 28-year-old CTC. Originally called The Palladium, that was once a bold vision for a hockey home after the Sens started out in the tiny Civic Centre in 1992. 

Such is the price of progress. A new arena and district will help revitalize the centre of Ottawa, even if LeBreton Flats is actually on the fringe of the downtown core, as Mayor Mark Sutcliffe often mentions. 

Leeder noted that there will be zoning talks with the city, among bigger issues. 

As for the CTC, Leeder reminded everyone the current rink will be used for years to come, and thanked Kanata businesses and fans for their long-standing relationships. The team feels it will improve its overall reach by being closer to central Ottawa and near Gatineau. 

How much will the arena cost?

When might it be built?

Numbers like $900 million or $1.2 billion get kicked around, but Leeder says it's too early to talk about construction costs or a final figure. 

As for a timeline, it’s too soon for that as well. 

Maybe the Senators are learning from past errors. When RendezVous LeBreton received preferential bid status in 2016, the hockey club, then owned by Eugene Melnyk, talked about dropping the puck in a new rink by 2021 or 2022. 

As it turned out, after Melnyk died in the spring of 2022, the club didn’t have so much as a lease agreement in place by the end of 2022. 

It doesn’t pay to discuss timeliness that could change like moveable goalposts. 

“We’ve got a lot of work ahead of us,” Leeder said. “This agreement allows that work to take place.”

Still to be determined is what it will cost to clean up the site, including the removal of contaminated soil. The NCC and the hockey club will have further discussions on that. 

LeBreton Flats is situated on unceded Algonquin territory and native leaders have been involved throughout this process and will continue to be. 

Considering that there has been talk of developing this area since the 1960s, when a community neighbourhood was flattened to build – well, something worthy in LeBreton – it’s not hard to find cynics who say: call me when the arena is built. 

Pardon my naivete, but I think it feels different this time around, with this new ownership group and the “positive, productive and collaborative” spirit, as Nussbaum refers to the NCC- Senators working relationship. 

Leeder is all in. We know that. 

One of his primary reasons for returning to the organization as team president for Andlauer was a chance to complete the unfinished business of the LeBreton rink. After devoting years to the project, and to Melnyk personally, Leeder was fired by the owner simply for standing up for his staff against Melnyk’s heavy hand. 

Leeder calls this return to the arena project a “personal challenge,” a cross to bear once more. This time it might actually get done. Shovels in the ground and a big payoff at the end of a long and twisted road. 

"Things are different for a whole bunch of reasons," Leeder said, about earlier failed attempts. "Most notably, we're in a position now where everybody wants this to happen. The team wants it to happen, Tobi and his team want this to happen, I think the community wants it to happen . . . so I think the stars are aligned now, and the timing is good."

What a way to finish the first week of training camp, with a vision of grandeur. 

“It’s only a first step,” Leeder and Nussbaum both cautioned. 

While it's only step one, it's vital to actually getting a new, central arena for Ottawa’s NHL team.