Senators owner Andlauer 'hopeful' for new downtown arena deal

With a Sept. 20 deadline fast approaching, Ottawa Senators owner Michael Andlauer is confident that the NHL team will be able to get a lease agreement in place with the National Capital Commission to build a new downtown arena at LeBreton Flats.

“I am hopeful (the lease will get done). But that’s just the first piece,” Andlauer told Postmedia's Bruce Garrioch ahead of the team's charity golf tournament on Monday. “Like I said before, everybody wants it and, like I said before, it has to be on the terms of the fans. That’s all I’m asking for.”

The Senators were named the preferred bidder for the LeBreton Flats project back in June of 2022, and a memorandum with a group led by the team was signed for a "major event centre."

The Senators’ bid was chosen ahead of what the National Capital Commission said were “multiple” other expressions of interest for the land, which lies just west of Ottawa’s Centretown neighbourhood, close to the city's core.

The NCC has set Sept. 20 as the deadline for an agreement to be made while the Senators retain preferred bidder status on the land.

Postmedia reported last week that the Senators and representatives of the NCC "finally have traction" in their discussions towards getting a lease agreement in place.

“I’m not asking for a discount, I’m not asking for a special privilege like others may have in the past,” Andlauer explained to Garrioch on Monday. “All I’m asking that they do what’s fair. Ultimately, our fans are the taxpayers and they’re the ones that if they want it, then we’ve gotta (get it done).

“I’m hopeful and I’m trying to be as open and transparent as possible (about the process) and I’m asking the city and the NCC to do the same.”

The Senators have played at Canadian Tire Centre in Kanata since January of 1996.