Uh Oh Ottawa......

[url=http://www.cbc.ca/m/rich/sports/nhl/story/2012/03/01/sp-nhl-senators-liberals-tax-break.html]http://www.cbc.ca/m/rich/sports/nhl/sto ... break.html[/url]

C'mon Libs ...... DO NOT ENDANGER the CFL's return.

(like we needed another reason to hate politicians)

Well I'm not a Sens fan since Ottawa stole Hamilton's chance for an NHL team and Melnyk tried to kybosh the Hunt consortium plans for the return of the CFL to Ottawa, so I have no pity on the Senators.

But if it affected the return of the CFL to Ottawa or had an impact on the Cats or Argos as well, then I'd be upset.

How is this a bad thing for the Ottawa Football Club? If the Sens lose fans because they can no longer write off the high cost of a hockey game, that's (in theory at least) more disposable income to spend on football.

Hockey and football tickets are vastly different price points, often with a different fan base demographic - although hockey tickets tend to be more price inelastic.

ya I'm pretty sure the Football team won't have to worry about this..

I have a vague recollection of this Earl…

What motive did Melnyk have for attempting to prevent the return of a CFL franchise in Ottawa?

Man, I hope this is not one of those of the owner putting a gun to the head of the taxpayers requesting a fiancial bailout.
Enough with that and isn't that what the last owner of the Sens tried with the blackmail?

tangle, Melnyk was trying to get a soccer-only stadium built in Kanata near the arena, no football at all, for an MLS team as I'm sure he and his buddy Larry Tanenbaum of MLSE - Leafs and TFC - want to put the screws to the CFL any chance they can get to keep pumping up TFC and MLS.

I don't trust either of them as far as I could throw them. I consider both enemies of our game and league until proven otherwise.

and would this soccer only stadium have impeded on the renovations to Frank Clair?

There wouldn't have been any Frank Clair was my understanding if this soccer-specific stadium went through because there was only so much funding around, and it was for one development project/stadium.

I seem to recall Melnyk was one of the voices of dissent when Balsille tried to buy the Predators and relocate them and has been fairly duplicitous about Hamilton getting an NHL franchise. I didn't know about the MLS thing, but either way, it looks good on him and I hope Ottawa's NASL bid works out too, and that Hamilton gets an NASL team to join them.

gotcha.
phew, that is one bullet dodged by Ottawa among many recently.

After all these obstacles, it must be kismet for Ottawa to have a CFL franchise. :cowboy:

i'm hundred percent in favor of this. I don't think the government should be subsidizing corporate entertainment.

Here's a simple solution. You only qualify for the subsidy if the team plays in a stadium owned by a government institution. The reasoning is simple, if you are playing in a government building that means the government is getting rent money from the team, ergo the subsidy is paying for itself.

That way, all the CFL franchises (except the Argos who now have greater incentive for them to move out of the Rogers Center and into Lamport or another stadium) will be safe and may see an increase in ticket sales.

The NHL teams (save Calgary & Edmonton) will have to deal with selling tickets to fans instead of corporate enterprises. Toronto, Winnipeg, Vancouver or Montreal will in no way have trouble finding fans to fill the seats, and if Ottawa's seats are truly that corporate owned and they can't find people to fill them (something I somewhat doubt given the average attendance of the stadium is year is at 100.4% http://espn.go.com/nhl/attendance) well...c'est la vie. Move the team to Hamilton, or Quebec City or some place that will fill the building.

What's slimy about Melynk tangle is that the Hunt group openly indicated soccer is more than welcome in Frank Clair and to work together. Whereas Melnyk was saying no to gridiron. I'm sure that was Tanenbaum urging him on there as Tanenbaum doesn't want the CFL around I think based on the cementing of the endzone of "his" stadium in Toronto. Oops I forgot, the city of Toronto actually owns BMO but still it's Larry's stadium when all is said and done. :roll:

We have a federal government that is in a huge deficit and, our country has a huge debt. In Ontario McGuinty's spending has the province in a like position. Both governments must give priority to debt reduction. We should not be giving corporations more money- no tax breaks for them!

That’s why I find it funny to hear the Sens roping in the CFL to get sympathy. The same league that they talked down a bunch while they were looking to derail the OSEG bid.

For those who weren’t aware of it or forgot about it, here’s some background.

[url=http://www.sportsnet.ca/football/cfl/2009/02/12/cohon-letter-0/]http://www.sportsnet.ca/football/cfl/20 ... -letter-0/[/url]

But ultimately, the anti-CFL stance backfired to the point that Melnyk had to change his tune. He claimed he could accomodate football and did indeed like it, but liked soccer more. Not very convincing after hearing his corner question the league’s future existence.

Meanwhile OSEG claimed all along that they would love to have a soccer team (but probably at a lower level). It made is easy to argue on behalf of OSEG when the proposals were set against one another.