This year marks the 35th anniversary of Ottawa being awarded an NHL franchise. In this 1990 issue, culled from The Hockey News Archive, Bob McKenzie wrote about Ottawa's successful bid and the humble beginnings of the franchise. What better place to start an NHL dream than an arena dressing room, shooting the s*** after the game, and enjoying a few pints?
How can you not be romantic about hockey? – SW
Dec 21, 1990/vol. 44, issue 15
A CAPITAL IDEA: SENATORS ELECTED TO SECOND TERM
BY BOB MCKENZIE
Bruce Firestone was the driving force behind Ottawa’s successful expansion bid. He’s described as a man of vision by friends and colleagues.
It was early on a Saturday morning back in the winter of 1988 when three pals were killing a little time after their weekly pickup game at Lyons Arena in Ottawa.
All the other players had left the dressing room and the three just sat there, quaffing a few beers and talking.
Randy Sexton remembers it well. So does Cyril Leeder. In fact, they’re not ever likely to forget what Bruce Firestone, their friend and employer, said to them that morning.
“We were just sitting there talking, like we always do,” said Sexton. “Bruce looked at us and said, ‘The NHL is going to expand soon. When it does, we should get a team for Ottawa. Think about it, it’s a natural.’
“I looked at Cyril. He looked at me. And you should know that Bruce isn’t the kind of guy who plays practical jokes. He was serious.”
Was he ever.
Firestone, the 38-year-old chairman and chief executive officer of Terrace Investments Ltd., dared to dream the impossible dream. And on Dec. 6, it all came true.
The NHL awarded a conditional NHL expansion franchise to the Terrace group for the city of Ottawa to begin play for the 1992-93 season.
“I was summoned for a 1 o’clock meeting,” Firestone said. “They brought us down the fire escape and through the kitchen. I had two speeches ready. One for concession, one for acceptance. I didn’t know what to expect.
“I looked down in front of me and there were two words on a piece of paper, Tampa and Ottawa, and frankly, I just burst into tears. I haven’t done that since I was a little boy.”
Firestone and his executive team of Leeder, the president, and Sexton, the vice president, overcame tremendous odds. First, it seemed the NHL wasn’t keen on expanding into Canada. Second, if it did, Hamilton’s bid was perceived by many as more attractive.
The NHL governors didn’t think so. They voted unanimously in favor of the Terrace bid.
Next NHL Expansion Fee May Be 40 Times More Than The Ottawa Senators PaidNHL expansion fees have come a long way since the humble beginnings of the Ottawa Senators. When the Sens entered the league in the early '90s, the cost for an entire franchise was reported at the time as $50 million.
“I would have to thank the Canadian governors,” Firestone said. “They pushed hard for the league to take a Canadian team and if they hadn’t done that, we wouldn’t have got the franchise.”
“I don’t think there was any one thing that won it for us,” said Sexton, 31, a former NCAA hockey player at St. Lawrence University who has an MBA from Clarkson.
“We just worked hard. Our sincerity and commitment came to the surface. And we have a great market. And Bruce Firestone. He’s a very shrewd man, a very solid guy.”
Leeder, also 31, a chartered accountant and graduate of McMaster University in Hamilton, said none of it would have been possible if not for Firestone, known to his friends and colleagues as a visionary and “big idea man.” Now, he’s known to most as the man responsible for bringing the NHL back to Ottawa after a 57-year absence.
“How would I describe him?” Leeder said. “I would borrow a line I heard our mayor (Jim Durrell) use the other day: ‘Bruce Firestone is the smartest man I have ever met.’ That about sums it up.”
Firestone attended Ashbury College, a local private school, before graduating from McGill University with a masters degree in engineering. He earned his PhD in urban economics at the University of New South Wales in Australia.
In 1982, he took over the family business (Terrace), which his father, Jack, founded in 1956.
Firestone is married and has five children. He’s intense in a quiet, controlled manner.
There’s not much Terrace did wrong in its two-year campaign to woo the NHL. Firestone took a first-class approach in every way, paying incredible attention to every detail. No bid submitted by any group was as thorough or as professionally prepared.
Terrace was able to sell the NHL on an area few thought could support pro hockey.
“A lot of people don’t realize we have a big market,” Sexton said. “There are more than 900,000 people in Ottawa and, within a one-hour’s drive radius, there are 1.7 million.
“And it’s a rich market, too. You need a rich market for pro sports. We attended a game at the Chicago Stadium and sat right behind the players’ bench. The tickets were $39.50 each. Buy two tickets, park, eat and pay for the babysitter and you’re talking well over $100 for a night’s entertainment. Our demographics in that area are good.
“The corporate market in Ottawa is great, too. Our population is increasing at the same time civil service jobs are decreasing. That tells you more private sector business is here than ever before.”
Terrace owns 600 acres of land in the western suburb of Kanata. Almost 100 is targeted for the building of the 20,000-seat Palladium, although rezoning of the land from agriculture to commercial is hung up at the Ontario Municipal Board level.
Ottawa Senators Reach Agreement To Buy Land At LeBreton, Move Closer To New ArenaThe Ottawa Senators have taken another big step toward a new arena close to downtown.
NHL governors expressed some concern about the rezoning issue, but Firestone convinced them it is part of the normal procedure. Terrace also wants to rezone the other 500 acres and develop it for high-density commercial and residential use.
Skeptics insist the plan to court the NHL was little more than a device to get the entire area rezoned and developed. Sexton, however, said the arena will be built regardless of what happens with the other land and one development didn’t depend on the other.
Terrace said it will have majority interest in both the hockey club and the arena, although as much as 49 per cent of both may be held by minority investors. Terrace has declined to identify them, but the NHL was obviously satisfied.
The next order of business for Terrace is to hire a team president. Firestone and Leeder will be involved with the Senators, but their main function will be with the land development company. Sexton, however, may spend more time on hockey business matters.
“We’ve already interviewed some people for the president’s job,” Sexton said. “Our president will be a businessman who has some hockey experience. He will then hire his team, which would include a vice president/GM, vice president of marketing and so on.
“It’s funny. We’ve worked so hard on this whole project for almost two years. And, really, the job is just beginning.”
By Bob McKenzie
The Hockey News
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