The Senators and the National Capital Commission “remain confident” that the team’s purchase of 11 acres at LeBreton Flats last year to build a new home for the club “will be completed in the coming months, allowing work on the site to begin in earnest,” according to Bruce Garrioch of the OTTAWA CITIZEN. Senators President Cyril Leeder said that the project “continues to move forward.” Garrioch noted Senators owner Michael Andlauer and his partners have agreed to pay $37M for the 11 acres. Leeder confirmed that the Senators “do have the option to buy four more acres, but they haven’t determined whether that will be the case yet.” There is “a lot of heavy lifting taking place,” and Leeder predicted that there will be “at least another five months of work on planning, which includes decontaminating the site, working with Indigenous groups, designing the site and financing.” Garrioch wrote all these need to be dealt with before the Senators can “confirm a timeline for putting shovels in the ground.” The Senators are also in “regular discussions with the City of Ottawa because this is an urban development that will require planning for roadways and infrastructure” (OTTAWA CITIZEN, 8/10).
CHANGE STARTS NOW: In Ottawa, Callum Fraser wrote the organization “must continue to make the necessary upgrades to the arena that will likely host the hockey club into the 2030s.” Leeder unveiled that the “entirety of the arena’s 200-level has brand new seats, and work is underway to give Bert’s Bar a ‘facelift,’” including a “new name to be announced.” Leeder said, “It’s our most ambitious off-season plan that we’ve ever had.” With the PWHL’s Ottawa Charge moving to CTC this fall, “renovations are also happening in the bowels of the arena” (OTTAWA CITIZEN, 8/13).