NHL’s Ottawa Senators reach downtown arena deal with National Capital Commission

It went down to the deadline, but the National Hockey League’s Senators have an agreement to build a new arena in downtown Ottawa.

The Senators and the National Capital Commission announced an agreement at a joint press conference Friday that would see the Senators purchase a 10-acre plot at the downtown LeBreton Flats site for the development of a multi-purpose facility, including an NHL arena.

The team had entered a memorandum of understanding with the NCC to develop the downtown LeBreton Flats area, with a deadline of Friday to reach a deal.

The price tag for the agreement has not been revealed.

The Senators say they cleared a couple of hurdles by being granted the ability to purchase rather than lease the land and get more than the six acres initially offered by the NCC.

“It’s a great first step, but we’ve got a lot of work ahead of us here,” Senators president and chief executive officer Cyril Leeder said.

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“It allows the heavy lifting to go forward now,” he added.

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Leeder said there are a lot of next steps, including the design and costing of a new facility.

“I know it’s years, not months, before a shovel goes in the ground,” he said.

The Senators have played at the Canadian Tire Centre in the western suburb of Kanata since 1996.

The 25-kilometre drive from Ottawa’s downtown to the Kanata facility, often made longer due to traffic, has been cited as an obstacle for attracting walk-up crowds — an issue teams with downtown arenas don’t face.

“When you think about major facilities and the trends now and where they are, most arenas and stadiums are going downtown,” Leeder said. “When we came out here 30 years ago that wasn’t the case.”

A previous deal to redevelop LeBreton Flats and build an arena under former owner Eugene Melnyk collapsed in 2019 following a fallout between Melnyk and business partner John Ruddy.

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