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Am I seriously going to get my hopes up again? It seems that way...
Last night, the DCDLS group that initially lost the LeBreton Flats bid to RendezVous delivered quite the bombshell:
This isn't totally out of nowhere, although it certainly makes the LeBreton situation a whole lot more interesting. We have known for a few weeks now that the RendezVous bid was going to fail due to the Eugene Melnyk suit, and of course DCDLS must be excited at the prospect of getting to build on this land instead. As they mention in this statement, their plans have always included an NHL arena, so it's not as if a switch in developers would be a bad thing for the Senators. In fact, this is great news for the team.
For starters, DCDLS seems passionate about getting things done as soon as possible by noting that "Ottawa and Canada should [not] be held hostage one day longer." That is a clear reference to Melnyk and the RendezVous group not being able to work out a deal, and I have much more confidence that the DCDLS group backed by André Desmarais, Guy Laliberté, and William Sinclair is going to have enough money to help fund such a project.
Secondly, their eagerness to get involved could expedite the process. I say "expedite" in a relative sense of course, because the project is already a few years behind. Nevertheless, if Melnyk had any hopes (that were very slim) of ever building at LeBreton, it would have taken even longer to move the Senators there. But with DCDLS developing the land, there's a chance that Melnyk will be forced to sell the team with the new rink ready to go at the same time. The entire process of selling the team and building the arena would still take years, but there's at least some hope right now.
It's hard to say what the
exact implications of this move are (especially since I do not live in Ottawa), but this thought from SensNation could be on the right track:
I still am never going to say Melnyk is 100% going to sell until it is actually official, just because Lucy has pulled the football away from Senators fans so many times already. Nevertheless, if DCDLS gets approval to move ahead with their project
and it actually begins, then it is certainly the worst-case scenario for Melnyk. I wouldn't say that a downtown arena is an absolute necessity to keep this franchise afloat, but it is if Melnyk is still the owner. And with RendezVous not building at LeBreton, he is running out of options.
And hey, remember what I said regarding that pipe-dream about Erik Karlsson returning in the summer? Well if DCDLS forces Melnyk's hand to sell...you just never know.
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