At the Civic Centre on opening night in 1992, Ottawa’s fans saluted a new team and a community that had come together. This season the Senators made us all feel like part of something bigger.
Bruce Firestone, Citizen Special
Published: Thursday, June 07, 2007
Back in 1991, the fight to bring the Senators back to Ottawa brought me before the Ontario Municipal Board against my own provincial government, in an effort to rezone the Palladium lands for a hockey arena. I was on the stand for 3 1/2 days.
I was joined during my testimony by Doug Logan, a representative of Ogden Corp. (prospective arena managers for the Palladium, now Scotiabank Place) and there is a story that I have never told before that I am going to tell you now: During our days on the stand, Doug got increasingly frustrated with the aggressive cross-examination by the province’s lawyer. During the second day, he turned to me during a break in the hearing and sotto voce, he said: “Bruce, Ogden is prepared to offer you a $20-million relocation fee to play in our new stadium in Anaheim.”
Ogden had backed the construction of a new building in Anaheim without a primary tenant and was desperate to find one. Doug continued: “Let’s just get up and walk out. To hell with this bull—. Let’s put the team in Orange County!”
I told him: “Doug, I didn’t bring back the Ottawa Senators to play in Anaheim.”
Just imagine, the Senators might have played in this year’s Stanley Cup finals against themselves in a parallel universe somewhere. Instead, despite the advice of our lawyer and my management team, I made a compromise offer to the OMB and the government of Ontario to freeze development on most of the surrounding 500 acres my firm, Terrace Investments, owned that I had once envisioned for development. The province’s lawyer is reported to have told the Rae government: “Firestone is desperate. He wouldn’t have made the offer if he wasn’t. We’re winning — turn him down.”
Of course, he was right … and wrong. I was desperate, but by turning us down, the province caused the hearing to go on for 13 and ½ weeks, with more than $2 million in legal and professional fees spent by us and much more by Ontario. The OMB panel members realized that this was about hockey first; it was a turning point for us and the team.
In August 1991, the OMB granted permission for the redesignation of 100 acres for the construction of the Palladium, reduced our seat count from 22,500 to 18,500 and imposed the condition that we build the Huntmar Road interchange with Highway 417 at our cost. I knew that day that the Sens would return to the National Hockey League after a 58-year absence, and I also knew that my days as owner were numbered — our company took an $80-million write-down on our land inventory and the cost of a $30-million interchange.
Unconditional membership for the Ottawa Senators Hockey Club was awarded by the NHL board of governors on Dec. 19, 1991.
Well, it came down to Ducks versus Senators on the biggest stage the city of Ottawa has experienced, maybe ever. The Senators had an incredible run and even though they came up a bit short, everyone will remember this remarkable season.
The first regular season game of the modern era was at the Civic Centre on Oct. 8, 1992. I remember the standing ovation the fans gave our team that night — it went on and on. I was standing at ice level and I realized something — the fans weren’t just saluting the team, they were congratulating themselves for coming together as a community to make this happen. Ottawa was coming of age.
I saw that spirit again this spring on Elgin Street, at Scotiabank Place, at Festival Plaza at City Hall. The fans were marvelous. I have always believed that sports teams are never really owned by any one person — they are held in trust for their communities and they should not be moved because another city offers a better lease deal or what-have-you.
Ottawa is a very new city, with amalgamation just six years ago. What is there to bind us together and break down barriers between neighbours? The NCC gives us Canada Day and Winterlude. OC Transpo takes us efficiently through the city. But what else is there? We don’t even have a football team anymore. Sheesh.
Many people have told me over the years that the best days of their lives were when they felt they were part of something bigger than themselves. Often, those days are a distant (high school or university) memory when they played on some type of team. It’s always the same: “I remember when we were down two sets to none and we came back to win!”
Now I think everyone feels that they are part of Team Ottawa.
And you know what? If you live in Ottawa, you had to cheer for the Sens. It would have been unnatural to do anything else. Because if you cheer for another team, you are cheering against all those people who benefit when the home team wins: the bars, the restaurants, the hotels, the taxi drivers, the stores. The effects are far-reaching. When the home team wins, people are happier, and happier people make positive decisions and positive people build cities.
But there is more — a prominent venture capitalist told me something last year that surprised me. He said that when we got an NHL team in Ottawa, that put us on the radar as a top-tier city. VCs want to invest in Tier 1 cities. More than $2 billion in investment capital has poured into Ottawa since the return of the Sens and, in part, because of the return of the Sens.
Urbanist Richard Florida said successful cities in the 21st century would have: tolerance for diversity, strong arts communities, powerful education systems, an innovative culture, good quality of life and respect for the environment. I would add to Richard’s list strong civic leadership, and support for entrepreneurship.
Where would Ottawa be today without our entrepreneur class? Just take out three people, Terry Matthews, Michael Cowpland and Mike Potter, and Ottawa is a much less interesting place.
Where is the next generation of Ottawa entrepreneurs going to come from? We need them. This newspaper published a list on June 1 that showed Ottawa is falling behind — we ranked 12th in economic momentum in Canada.
In a few short years, you are going to see a new “technopolis” finally come to fruition around Scotiabank Place — it will be a mixed-use kind of place and something that will put the building in a context that we first dreamed about back in 1987. It will be something that Ottawans will be proud of, I am sure.
But we need to do a heck of a lot more — at LeBreton Flats, at the former Rockcliffe airbase and elsewhere.
I have confidence that the Sens will be here for a long time. We have solid ownership, solid management and a wonderful group of players who are not only part of a great hockey team but great people too — Alfie, Alfie, Alfie, …
If, one day, God willing, we are fortunate enough to win the Stanley Cup, I hope employers in Ottawa will heed former Australian prime minister Bob Hawke’s advice after Alan Bond’s sailing team finally wrested the America’s Cup away from the Yankees: “Any bloke who won’t give his employees a day off and make this a national holiday is a bludger (someone who lives off the efforts of others).”
And Aussies are almost as insane about sailing as Canucks are about hockey.
Bruce Firestone is founder of the Ottawa Senators Hockey Club, entrepreneur-in-residence at the Telfer school of management at the University of Ottawa, adjunct research professor at the school of architecture at Carleton University, and a commercial real estate agent at Metro Suburban Realty Ltd. in Ottawa.
© The Ottawa Citizen 2007