In the NHL, stellar, experienced goaltending is always in very short supply. A graceful puck-moving defenceman and power-play quarterback is hard to find. And a strong two-way centre that can carry a team on his back deep into the playoffs — that’s an unusual breed.
But the dearest and most treasured of all the components critical to the survival and success of a franchise in a city the size of Ottawa is the billionaire who is willing to finance the operation and remove the threat of extinction.
In good years and bad, fans may routinely second-guess the general manager, vociferously disagree with the coaching philosophy, and even boo some of the best players on the team. But approaching the end of the worst Senators season in 15 years, team owner Eugene Melnyk heard nary a discouraging word during a conference call with season-ticket holders on Wednesday.
In a city like this, it’s a very careful relationship between owner and fans, not unlike that between the wealthy tycoon and the general populace in a one-factory town.
The front office and the players work for us. We place demands on them and aren’t afraid to let them know when we’re not happy. But our entire relationship with the team is at the pleasure of the owner and we don’t forget it. Melnyk is treated with deference and respect, cheered when he appears at Scotiabank Place no matter what the score or the standings.
He is Mr. Melnyk, not Eugene.
In larger markets, there is no such reverence. There, owners can quickly and easily become lightning rods for fan dissatisfaction. Frustrated Orioles fans started a “Free the Birds” Facebook page asking Peter Angelos to sell the team. Despite many championships, impatient Chicago Bulls fans regularly deride owner Jerry Reinsdorf as a cheapskate for dismantling the team when Michael Jordan retired.
Until he became a frail delegator, George Steinbrenner was regularly booed at Yankee Stadium, despised by fans, seen as an obstacle to the team’s success. The faithful had the luxury of franchise stability: It was so much easier to picture the Yankees without Steinbrenner than New York without the Yankees.
To own a large-market team is to be custodian of a public trust, accountable to the community. But in a small town with sports insecurities, the team owner is a benefactor shining his grace upon the people.
It’s especially true in Ottawa, where we know all too well the tenuous relationship between the smaller Canadian city and professional sports. Since the Senators arrived, we’ve lost football twice and baseball in several forms. We’ve watched apprehensively as NHL teams have disappeared from Winnipeg and Quebec City with no reasonable prospect of returning anytime soon, despite the resurgent Canadian dollar and more equitable finances of the league. Senators fans always knew we were the next team in the line of Canadian dominos.
And we flirted with disaster when the Senators failed to make payroll and went through bankruptcy proceedings before Melnyk rescued them.
This is all too fresh for us to forget. So we treat Eugene Melnyk with the same respect we would give to the provider of any rare and prized product. You don’t mess with your supplier.
Imagine a similar call with the owner and customers of any business performing as poorly as the Senators this season. Picture the chief executive of Air Canada taking questions from passengers or one of the leaders of the big automakers hearing feedback from the public during the car industry crisis. And introducing a modest price increase, no less.
Through the Melnyk years, there have sometimes been worrying signs of impatience and too much involvement in hockey operations, but supporters of the Senators seem content just to know the owner is, like them, a passionate fan of the game. They don’t appraise his performance as the ultimate leader of the organization or hold him in any way responsible for the decline in the team’s results.
Instead, they look for clues that he is satisfied with his investment, and breathe a sigh of relief when he says he wants to own the team for the rest of his life.
Bryan Murray, an experienced hockey man with a strong track record before this season, doesn’t get the same respect from Ottawa fans, many of whom want him gone by the end of the year. On the call this week, one fan accused Murray of trading away the heart and soul of the team when he swapped Mike Fisher for a draft pick.
Maybe it’s because there’s always another GM. The fear, especially here, is there isn’t always another owner. For the latest updates PRESS CTR + D or visit Stock Market news Today
No comments:
Post a Comment