Senators placed on NHL watch list - the story continues

OK, so for now it's just Yost.  He says his source has given him info on how the league has been increasingly worried about what's happening in Ottawa, and afraid that they could have another situation like New Jersey.  Also claims that they had put the franchise on a watch list.  To his credit, Yost says that he hasn't been able to corroborate the story from another source.  

Now his latest tweet:

Travis Yost ‏@TravisHeHateMe
Little birdie tells me local newspaper is dropping a nuke on Ottawa/ownership's financial mess this weekend.

Here is his original blog:
http://www.hockeybuzz.com/blog.php?post_id=53381#.Ug5Sl23y2KZ

Feel free to go read the full thing, but here's a couple of excerpts from his source":

"The league is upset with the team, really in the last twelve or eighteen months. The debt has been escalating .. they're worried about the debt and the lenders. There's a fear the organization will be unable to make interest payments at some point, capitalizing the interest. I think they see what happened with Vanderbeek and would like to avoid that at all costs.

According to the source the league has tried to push Melnyk into seeking other investors:

"One thing I can say with absolute confidence is that the league has regularly encouraged Eugene Melnyk to take on investors. And that's still the case. The recommendation to sell a majority stake to [REDACTED] [REDACTED] has been there for some time. He can still retain control, but he's [Melnyk] never been interested in doing that. They could pump some money in, maybe trigger another refinance. But the league is really growing restless with it.

Did they bill the league for a new zamboni or something?

"It was this year when things really escalated with the NHL keeping a careful eye of ownership and the dollars-in, dollars-out. The team was expensing anything and everything to the league. And the league bit the bullet, stepped in and paid into it, because they're really worried about any missed payments. And they couldn't deal with another immediate disaster with Phoenix and New Jersey cooking.

 

Anyhow, nothing had been substantiated, so I paid little attention to it -- especially since this was not in any reputable source (not that I'm calling Yost disreputable).  But now I'm really curious.

I didn't read one fact in that entire waste of 2 mins.

Confirmation:

James Gordon ‏@SensReporter

If the Senators' financial situation is of interest to you, you're gonna want to pick up the Saturday Citizen.

Gordon is the Citizen's Sports Editor. So glad it's not the Sun that's running with this.

NEELY wrote:I didn't read one fact in that entire waste of 2 mins.

If you believe his source is bogus, yes. But from the sound of it I don't think Yost is lying -- whatever his source is, whether it's legitimate or not, Yost is not lying about having a source and what the source is saying.

So, who's buying a Citizen tomorrow?

I'm driving my kid up to Lake Simcoe for a week at a summer camp. Looks like I'll have some stuff to listen to on the radio, even if it ends up having to be the Montreal or Toronto station.

Yah well people use the bible as a source too and I don't but that either.

I only believe news from Garrioch

Yost has made some ties with the citizen writers, so I wouldn't be surprised if his source was actually was the citizen itself. i'll wait till saturday to read it.

btw, I HATE YOST

I'm beginning to full on hate Yost, but if the Citizen runs this story...look out. Hopefully melnyk does the right thing and sells to a powerful ottawaonian.

Boy. The more I read thd worse this sounds. I don't want to lose Ryan or Spezza because of this. Or both.

They aren't going to lose Ryan and Spezza, Jesus. They will lose the team before they lose their best players. Maybe Melnyk has to sell team because of his personal finances but it has nothing to do with the viability of the Sens as a hockey team or playing in the city of Ottawa.

People just love drama. Even the Devils got sold. Ownership changes all the time in professional sports.

SpezDispenser wrote:I'm beginning to full on hate Yost, but if the Citizen runs this story...look out.  Hopefully melnyk does the right thing and sells to a powerful ottawaonian.

Why do you hate Yost? He's limited in his abilities but he's tenacious and it looks like he uncovered enough for someone with better support to do this justice.

NEELY wrote:They aren't going to lose Ryan and Spezza, Jesus.  They will lose the team before they lose their best players.  Maybe Melnyk has to sell team because of his personal finances but it has nothing to do with the viability of the Sens as a hockey team or playing in the city of Ottawa.  

People just love drama.  Even the Devils got sold.  Ownership changes all the time in professional sports.

Of course not. Spezza and Ryan are not going to bolt if the money's still good. Ottawa is a good market and the team is turning an operational profit. But it appears it was leveraged to the hilt. With prime at 1% and the debt service at over 10% a very simple solution would be to re-finance. But I doubt that Melnyk would be able to get that kind of loan from a bank. Another owner, maybe could.

I want ownership to change. We'd have Alfie and Ryan right now if he'd Diddle off and sell.