OTTAWA – There was a time when it was a lock-cinch guarantee – someone was going to write a story or start a sportscast on the Ottawa Senators' declining attendance at their old Kanata rink.
So, isn’t it strange that almost no one is talking about Ottawa’s spectacular ascent at the gate in 2022-23. Oh, you could see fans discussing it from time to time on social media. And the team’s beat writers have written stories on the nice trend this season.
But you just know that if the numbers were still going downhill, as they were in every single season from 2014-15 until the pandemic years, there would be hands wringing from Carp to Greely about the state of affairs at the Canadian Tire Centre.
Let’s shout it from Palladium Drive: Senators fans outdid themselves in 2022-23 supporting a team that, despite missing the playoffs by six points, endeared itself to young and old with its entertaining play (with plenty of flaws that enemy fans enjoyed, too). This young core of Brady Tkachuk, Tim Stützle, Jake Sanderson et al. has energized the fan base in a way we haven’t seen since Daniel Alfredsson was riding shotgun with Jason Spezza and Dany Heatley.
And this new incarnation hasn’t even reached the playoffs yet. When it does, expect the kind of fervour that once packed Ottawa’s airport grounds as the conquering heroes returned from Buffalo as Eastern Conference champions in 2007.
A few quick bullet points on this year's Sens attendance:
* The average gate was 16,757, the best in seven years.
* There were 15 sellouts (capacity this season was 18,652) among the 41 home dates.
* The Sens ranked 25th of 32 teams in average gate but played to 90 per cent capacity, a number few dreamed about before the season began.
* Although Ottawa’s 83 per cent increase from the year before was tops in the NHL, keep in mind that COVID restrictions, especially in Ontario, skewed the data from 2019-22.
Check out the year-to-year numbers from this chart to see clearly that the Senators reversed the trend of declining gates this season. Their average crowd of 16,757 slightly eclipsed the 2016-17 season (16,744), when the Senators went on that surprising run to the Eastern Conference Final. It was Ottawa’s most recent playoff appearance.
Because of the crowd restrictions that resulted from the pandemic, we have to draw a line to 2018-19 as the most recent comparable, a pre-COVID season. And that year, with the team mired in a rebuild, was pretty weak, with an average gate of 14,553.
To add more than 2,000 spectators per game from then to now is significant, and it doesn’t matter if the tickets were cheaper than many other NHL rinks and that buy-one, get-one deals were in place at times. The fact is, if you have a product no one likes, they won’t come out, regardless of the ticket price. Fans would say it’s not worth the hassle to commute, park and pay for concessions for a lousy team. This year the team caught the imagination of the fan base, and people were enthusiastic about the present and future of this team. Don't forget, these same fans have been told by management and the NHL that the Kanata rink is passe and the future is in central Ottawa.
The seeds for the surge were planted last summer when the Senators signed hometown star Claude Giroux as a free agent, traded for Alex DeBrincat and extended Stützle, the budding superstar, to a long-term deal. DeBrincat may or may not stay long term, but supporters recognized an organization pursuing excellence and they responded.
Hockey fans in Ottawa are smart consumers. They recognize a good deal to see an exciting team.
Enjoy these good deals while they last. When a cutting-edge new arena finally gets built, those two-for-one CTC tickets will be a thing of the past.
NCC aims for fall arena lease at LeBreton Flats
The NCC provided a brief update Thursday on LeBreton Flats, a massive development west of Parliament Hill that is expected to include a so-called "major events centre." Translation: a new hockey arena to house the Senators.
Laura Mueller, chief of planning and engagement for the NCC, updated the NCC board on recent developments with LeBreton, including the arena proposal.
“We continue to meet regularly with Capital Sports Development Inc. (i.e., Senators president Anthony LeBlanc and executive VP Erin Crowe) as they advance their due diligence and design process while the sale of the Ottawa Senators hockey team is underway,” Mueller said.
“The NCC has met with a number of the groups that are vying to purchase the team and this dialogue will support a smooth transition and working relationship with the new owners. The team sale process is expected to proceed over the coming couple of months and we will continue to aim to sign a lease for the site in the fall.”
Katie Paris, the NCC’s director of major real estate development, was asked by mayor Mark Sutcliffe for a timeline on the various components of LeBreton, which will include a major library, housing and parks along with the arena. As far as the rink goes, Paris said it is too early to speculate on when it could be built, but she noted that these arenas tend to take three to four years to design and build once a lease agreement is in place.
On a Zoom call, NCC CEO Tobi Nussbaum repeated his earlier public comment that there is “some flexibility” as far as expanding the parcel of land for the arena, if the new owners seek a bigger footprint at LeBreton.
Of course, all of this leaves plenty of time for things to go wrong and for the new owners to decide they prefer to go elsewhere with a new rink, perhaps on a larger parcel of land with fewer complications than LeBreton.
Other sites have been mentioned, farther from the core than LeBreton.
Wherever the new arena goes, the Senators are certain to be playing hockey in the suburbs for a few more seasons. It’s not the worst thing.
As demonstrated this season by Senators fans and their current home rink in Kanata, 27 km west of city hall: If the hockey club is compelling and competitive, fans will venture to the CTC.
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