Wake Up, Fans | TSN Talks Next Year's Senators

Former MLSE executive Paul Beirne was recently hired by the Ottawa Senators to assume the role of VP of Ticketing. Beirne was hired in late 2013, when the team was regularly pulling 15k in attendance. (note: Ottawa finished the year 21st in percent capacity; 13th in total seats).

The team wasn't worried with the sagging attendance at the time, but still conceded that more work needed to be done to ensure that [more] fans were buying tickets. One way to do that is to incentivize casual buyers to return. Most successful organizations generally parlay quality on-ice play with a strong in-arena experience.

Beirne turned to Twitter this morning to deliver some positive news, as well as gauge the pulse of the fans. He ended with the following:

I think I speak for most people when I say that fans don't buy tickets or get excited about teams that talk about cost per point as their primary goal. So, yeah, the on-ice product is a massive problem right now, and it's one that's not really in Beirne's control. The only way that issue will be remediated is by a front office either cutting the internal budget chatter, or finding a way to deliver a competitive product at a fraction of the cost -- which, we learned this year, is pretty tough to do.

As for the part that Beirne can handle, go ahead and let him know. I'm sure a lot of you have recommendations as to improving the in-arena experience, and I'm sure he'd appreciate your advice.

One other quick note: TSN's Scott Cullen took his best shot at guessing Ottawa's roster next year. Here's what he came up with (though you should read the entire column):

Cullen clarified that Jason Spezza, in this scenario, would be traded to Anaheim for Kyle Palmieri, Luca Sbisa, and the tenth-overall pick this year.

Honestly, away from the trade (which is anyone's guess), I think this is pretty reasonable. I still worry they're going to make Chris Stewart part of this lineup, but yeah.

Thanks for reading!