News Article: Quebec City, Andlauer and the Sparticat Fiasco

[Tuna99]

Mendes has the entire media saying what a great day it is in Ottawa because a Leeder is such a Leader for admitting his mistake - the fact the Sens are so out of touch with their fans and allowed this to pass through so many hands and get to this point - complete fumble by a bunch of people who have no concept of what it’s like to be A Sens fan. Idiots all of them. They as a group have no idea what a core Sens fan and Ottawa citizen wants and doesn’t want from the Ottawa Senators - all of them should be punched in the face by Daniel Alfredsson

 

[Tuna99]

So, I think the Sparty jersey was a misstep for sure. I don't care personally, nordiques are long gone, but obviously some people do.

The home game thing though, here's my take on that.

Quebec City is technically our territory, so it makes sense that we market there,
I want Sens fans everywhere. I want them invading the Mtl arena when we are there. So if playing a mid February home game in Quebec city against the Utah Hockey club, or Clb or whoever can help get people get excited in that region for the Sens, I think it's great.

There are 41 home games in the reg season, and until we're selling them all out, we aren't actually taking much away from the city of Ottawa (sorry full season ticket holders that actually attend every game, I acknowledge that you loose out on something)

The reality is Quebec to the Maritimes is our territory (minus Montreal), it's time we start treating it as our territory, this is a step towards that, and if a couple home games out there can help cement the brand in the region, I fail to see how that's a negative. We need to take what is ours.

There’s are business ideas that are good for the bottom line and that’s the obvious decision here Andlauers is chasing money, and there are core Values and brand and fan loyalty the Sens have completely fumbled on this and just look like complete idiots.

As a money making idea going to Quebec might make sense, from a brand and values idea just a complete stupid thing to do.

And we aren’t even on Sept 2025 when this is going to run again and the Sens will all be pretending they are happy to be in Quebec when they are not

As someone how knows Quwnec City very well, they don’t want the Sens, they want the Nordiques. They don’t want to watch NHL ore season games, they want the Notdiques. Just stupid all around

 

[Micklebot]

There’s are business ideas that are good for the bottom line and that’s the obvious decision here Andlauers is chasing money, and there are core Values and brand and fan loyalty the Sens have completely fumbled on this and just look like complete idiots.

As a money making idea going to Quebec might make sense, from a brand and values idea just a complete stupid thing to do.

And we aren’t even on Sept 2025 when this is going to run again and the Sens will all be pretending they are happy to be in Quebec when they are not

As someone how knows Quwnec City very well, they don’t want the Sens, they want the Nordiques. They don’t want to watch NHL ore season games, they want the Notdiques. Just stupid all around

That's where I don't really agree. I see this as a hostile takeover, I think as fans we should embrace taking back what's ours instead of acting like it's an affront to us.

There's a lot of scar tissue, so I get people being worried about the teams future, but we need to move past that and be confident in who we are and what we have,

You don't need to be afraid of losing anything, the bad man that hurt you is gone, put that past behind you and live life again, this isn't us leaving, it's us expanding our reach.

People complaining about this just feeds the narrative, own it and show strength instead of being passive and weak complaining about how it looks. It looks like what we make it look like, make it look like a takeover of the territory we abdicated long ago,

 

[Burrowsaurus]

That's where I don't really agree. I see this as a hostile takeover, I think as fans we should embrace taking back what's ours instead of acting like it's an affront to us.

There's a lot of scar tissue, so I get people being worried about the teams future, but we need to move past that and be confident in who we are and what we have,

You don't need to be afraid of losing anything, the bad man that hurt you is gone, put that past behind you and live life again, this isn't us leaving, it's us expanding our reach.

People complaining about this just feeds the narrative, own it and show strength instead of being passive and weak complaining about how it looks. It looks like what we make it look like, make it look like a takeover of the territory we abdicated long ago,

If we need to cut out jersey and logo in half and represent the nordiques then it’s not us who are doing the takeover.

 

[IpsoPostFacto]

So, I think the Sparty jersey was a misstep for sure. I don't care personally, nordiques are long gone, but obviously some people do.

The home game thing though, here's my take on that.

Quebec City is technically our territory, so it makes sense that we market there,
I want Sens fans everywhere. I want them invading the Mtl arena when we are there. So if playing a mid February home game in Quebec city against the Utah Hockey club, or Clb or whoever can help get people get excited in that region for the Sens, I think it's great.

There are 41 home games in the reg season, and until we're selling them all out, we aren't actually taking much away from the city of Ottawa (sorry full season ticket holders that actually attend every game, I acknowledge that you loose out on something)

The reality is Quebec to the Maritimes is our territory (minus Montreal), it's time we start treating it as our territory, this is a step towards that, and if a couple home games out there can help cement the brand in the region, I fail to see how that's a negative. We need to take what is ours.

disagree all around.

You can't make these kinds of moves in a vacuum as if a previous owner hadn't used Quebec city as a threat.

The way to treat it like our territory is:

• some exhibition games
• rookie camp
• you know those habs/leafs games? I bet you could do some kind of weekend promotion with via rail or whomever. Have fans in Quebec city come to sens games here and spend the weekend. i'll bet they are more than willing to boo the Habs and Leafs.
• maybe they do this already, but make sure to trot out the French guys for those cringe between period interviews and tell them to sign off with the French version of ".. also a quick hello to our fans in Gatineau, Quebec City, and the boys in the Jos Montferrand tavern in St-Louis-du-Ha-Ha. Miss you boys, have a Laurentide for me.

Having said all that, I don't believe that fans in Quebec give two thoughts about the Sens, and never will. It's not personal, they just want their own team. Exhibition games? fine. They can pack their arena as a show of force too have the NHL take notice.

 

[GCK]

1. Regional broadcast contract with TSN expires after next season.

2. Cap skyrocketing means we will need more revenue.

3. A couple home games in Quebec City is preferable to going to Europe/ Australia/ Asia.

 

[Micklebot]

If we need to cut out jersey and logo in half and represent the nordiques then it’s not us who are doing the takeover.

I agree that the jersey was a mistake. We didn't need to do that, and we shouldn't have.

 

[Tuna99]

That's where I don't really agree. I see this as a hostile takeover, I think as fans we should embrace taking back what's ours instead of acting like it's an affront to us.

There's a lot of scar tissue, so I get people being worried about the teams future, but we need to move past that and be confident in who we are and what we have,

You don't need to be afraid of losing anything, the bad man that hurt you is gone, put that past behind you and live life again, this isn't us leaving, it's us expanding our reach.

People complaining about this just feeds the narrative, own it and show strength instead of being passive and weak complaining about how it looks. It looks like what we make it look like, make it look like a takeover of the territory we abdicated long ago,

Yeah I don’t think the line from Mendes “I believe in full transparency” while the the owner is legit telling us he wants to send home games to Quebec City is full transparency. It’s Mendes thinking he’s one thing but acting completely for other interest because he approved the split logo and if anyone with any common sense worked for the Sens this would have been killed.

Ottawa fans are proud - it’s the owners that keep the “Sens could move to other markets” narrative alive and that’s what we are protesting - I dont think the team is going to move I just don’t want our owneretting the other 31 fanbases have the narrative to tell us fans “even your owner wants to play games elsewhere”. idiots.

Free service I’ll offer to the Sens as a hardcore Sens first fan - if you think an idea might not go over well with the fanbase like this jersey thing or Andlauer trying to describe his 613 hat to Claire Hannah who Clearly was like everyone else and had no idea what he was talking about - I’ll vet that for you for free. A real fan for the fans

Andlauer feels like he has lost the plot and he’s just trying shit now. Bad week for him. Stupid mistakes made by people who should know better but have clearly no pure Sens fan done in their hearts and use words that mean nothing like “full transparency” while the owner is edit trying to send home games to other arenas.

We already end through this with Melnyck, how they could not of learned their lesson. Mendes might suck at the media thing - Andlauer has had a rough season IMO and he feels a bit unmoored

 

[Tnuoc Alucard]

i mean i would love quebec city back in the league way more then arizona or a atlanta team again but not at the expensive of my sens lol

Doubt the NHL would agree with you on a market that just lost their franchise, and another that lost

 

[Micklebot]

disagree all around.

You can't make these kinds of moves in a vacuum as if a previous owner hadn't used Quebec city as a threat.

The way to treat it like our territory is:

• some exhibition games
• rookie camp
• you know those habs/leafs games? I bet you could do some kind of weekend promotion with via rail or whomever. Have fans in Quebec city come to sens games here and spend the weekend. i'll bet they are more than willing to boo the Habs and Leafs.
• maybe they do this already, but make sure to trot out the French guys for those cringe between period interviews and tell them to sign off with the French version of ".. also a quick hello to our fans in Gatineau, Quebec City, and the boys in the Jos Montferrand tavern in St-Louis-du-Ha-Ha. Miss you boys, have a Laurentide for me.

Having said all that, I don't believe that fans in Quebec give two thoughts about the Sens, and never will. It's not personal, they just want their own team. Exhibition games? fine. They can pack their arena as a show of force too have the NHL take notice.

See, this is the attitude that abdicates our territory. Stop thinking about Melnyk and move on, the guy is dead. Stop worrying about what Quebecers think and force it down their throat until their kids start rebelling against the parents that don't care by wearing sens jerseys just to piss off the parents. Stop playing the role of victim, do everything we do with confidence.

 

[Micklebot]

Yeah I don’t think the line from Mendes “I believe in full transparency” while the the owner is legit telling us he wants to send home games to Quebec City is full transparency. It’s Mendes thinking he’s one thing but acting completely for other interest because he approved the split logo and if anyone with any common sense worked for the Sens this would have been killed.

Ottawa fans are proud - it’s the owners that keep the “Sens could move to other markets” narrative alive and that’s what we are protesting - I dont think the team is going to move I just don’t want our owneretting the other 31 fanbases have the narrative to tell us fans “even your owner wants to play games elsewhere”. idiots.

Free service I’ll offer to the Sens as a hardcore Sens first fan - if you think an idea might not go over well with the fanbase like this jersey thing or Andlauer trying to describe his 613 hat to Claire Hannah who Clearly was like everyone else and had no idea what he was talking about - I’ll vet that for you for free. A real fan for the fans

Andlauer feels like he has lost the plot and he’s just trying shit now. Bad week for him. Stupid mistakes made by people who should know better but have clearly no pure Sens fan done in their hearts and use words that mean nothing like “full transparency” while the owner is edit trying to send home games to other arenas.

We already end through this with Melnyck, how they could not of learned their lesson. Mendes might suck at the media thing - Andlauer has had a rough season IMO and he feels a bit unmoored

You're the one keeping that narrative of a move alive by being scared it will happen. show some damn faith and confidence in your city instead of getting frightened by shadows of a dead man.

 

[Tnuoc Alucard]

The Ottawa Senators' NHL broadcast rights are held by CTV Ottawa, which airs the team's games regionally in the Ottawa area and the surrounding region, including parts of Eastern Ontario and Western Quebec.

 

[Stylizer1]

View attachment 968324

Exactly.

Stop crying.

The Sens should welcome Nordic fans with open arms. Have a bus from Quebec city drive down for a few games this season and get a foot hold in that market. Would piss Habs fans off. Just don't have them come down for Habs games. Blood is thicker than what ever the Sens are drinking.

 

[Stylizer1]

Quebec City couldn't even Handle a CFL team who only plays 10ish games a season. They can't afford an NHL team.

 

[Golden_Jet]

The Ottawa Senators' NHL broadcast rights are held by CTV Ottawa, which airs the team's games regionally in the Ottawa area and the surrounding region, including parts of Eastern Ontario and Western Quebec.

Bell media owns the rights, CTV is under Bell media umbrella. Games are broadcast on TSN not CTV Ottawa.

 

[Tuna99]

You're the one keeping that narrative of a move alive by being scared it will happen. show some damn faith and confidence in your city instead of getting frightened by shadows of a dead man.

Oh it’s the fans fault, talk about a poster keeping alone the narrative from a dead man. That’s directly from Melnyck’s playbook, you’re the one that keeps bringing Melnyck up.

This is a franchise with history, it’s real and the fans have been so patient for so long and been though so much shit to get to a new owner who’s thinking of throwing games to another city 1 year after he bought the franchise isn’t the fans fault - it’s the idiots who run the teams fault.

We only ask for stable ownership, this is not it. Melnyck tried this 3 years ago and it blew up in his face, so to have the new owner come out and try it again, just stupid

And you of all people shouldn’t be telling fans to be quiet, you love talking Sens. Why suddenly is silence the best answer when your job is to talk Sens, makes no sense.

 

[Cosmix]

So, I think the Sparty jersey was a misstep for sure. I don't care personally, nordiques are long gone, but obviously some people do.

The home game thing though, here's my take on that.

Quebec City is technically our territory, so it makes sense that we market there,
I want Sens fans everywhere. I want them invading the Mtl arena when we are there. So if playing a mid February home game in Quebec city against the Utah Hockey club, or Clb or whoever can help get people get excited in that region for the Sens, I think it's great.

There are 41 home games in the reg season, and until we're selling them all out, we aren't actually taking much away from the city of Ottawa (sorry full season ticket holders that actually attend every game, I acknowledge that you loose out on something)

The reality is Quebec to the Maritimes is our territory (minus Montreal), it's time we start treating it as our territory, this is a step towards that, and if a couple home games out there can help cement the brand in the region, I fail to see how that's a negative. We need to take what is ours.

I don't mind playing preseason games in QC, Belleville or other places in the East. I object to playing regular season games anywhere else.

 

[darude]

I think if we hadn't watched the then-owner of the team publicly muse about relocating it if there wasn't more fan support *during a sold out outdoor game hosted in our city*, the whole sparty thing would just be called cringey and everyone would move on.

That context does matter though, and Leeder & Co., especially Mendes, should know better.

 

[Cosmix]

So, I think the Sparty jersey was a misstep for sure. I don't care personally, nordiques are long gone, but obviously some people do.

The home game thing though, here's my take on that.

Quebec City is technically our territory, so it makes sense that we market there,
I want Sens fans everywhere. I want them invading the Mtl arena when we are there. So if playing a mid February home game in Quebec city against the Utah Hockey club, or Clb or whoever can help get people get excited in that region for the Sens, I think it's great.

There are 41 home games in the reg season, and until we're selling them all out, we aren't actually taking much away from the city of Ottawa (sorry full season ticket holders that actually attend every game, I acknowledge that you loose out on something)

The reality is Quebec to the Maritimes is our territory (minus Montreal), it's time we start treating it as our territory, this is a step towards that, and if a couple home games out there can help cement the brand in the region, I fail to see how that's a negative. We need to take what is ours.

So spreading out Ottawa Senators season games throughout our broadcast territory is a good thing with you? Regular Season Games in QC, Halifax, etc.?

 

[Sens of Anarchy]

Will the Sens interview new mascots that will help bring in more Quebec City area tv viewers that TSN will erroneously black out

Didn't Bother me. No love for mascots. If we can play in Sweden we can play in QC

 

[PlayersLtd]

There’s are business ideas that are good for the bottom line and that’s the obvious decision here Andlauers is chasing money, and there are core Values and brand and fan loyalty the Sens have completely fumbled on this and just look like complete idiots.

As a money making idea going to Quebec might make sense, from a brand and values idea just a complete stupid thing to do.

And we aren’t even on Sept 2025 when this is going to run again and the Sens will all be pretending they are happy to be in Quebec when they are not

As someone how knows Quwnec City very well, they don’t want the Sens, they want the Nordiques. They don’t want to watch NHL ore season games, they want the Notdiques. Just stupid all around

Did you feel the same way when they played in Halifax? This is no different other than the fact that he was asked a question about regular season games and he answered diplomatically.

It's astonishing how insecure people are about this. They have a marketing strategy that has some merit > he went to market an exhibition game > he said some basic diplomatic stuff to impress himself upon the local market. Thats all that happened. Nordiques jersey was a small misstep.

Put the pitchforks away guys, the neighbour is not coming over to bang your wife while you're at work!

 

[Micklebot]

Oh it’s the fans fault, talk about a poster keeping alone the narrative from a dead man. That’s directly from Melnyck’s playbook, you’re the one that keeps bringing Melnyck up.

This is a franchise with history, it’s real and the fans have been so patient for so long and been though so much shit to get to a new owner who’s thinking of throwing games to another city 1 year after he bought the franchise isn’t the fans fault - it’s the idiots who run the teams fault.

We only ask for stable ownership, this is not it. Melnyck tried this 3 years ago and it blew up in his face, so to have the new owner come out and try it again, just stupid

And you of all people shouldn’t be telling fans to be quiet, you love talking Sens. Why suddenly is silence the best answer when your job is to talk Sens, makes no sense.

Put your big boy pants on and stop getting offended by your imagination gone wild, if you always play the victim you'll always be one.

We have stable ownership, we're in the process of locking down a downtown arena, show some spine and act like it.

 

[thinkwild]

If you want to say that splitting the logo for marketing reasons is sacrilege, then ok sure. And if you want to say 1 kraft hockeyville game, maybe two overseas games, and a pre-season game or two in another market is ok but no other regular season games, then I can get that.

But the idea that it is coming from a place of insecurity, that this might all be a plot to eventually lead to us losing our team to Quebec city, then while I can understand it, we have been through a lot, I just wish the fan base could get to the next level and show a little more confidence.

I remember in the early days, we were all very sensitive over any slight in the press or online suggesting such a thing and an angry army would pounce all over it. The defensiveness and fear wasn’t really a good look. Im looking forward to the day when such fears are no longer present. I think we're good now

 

[Micklebot]

So spreading out Ottawa Senators season games throughout our broadcast territory is a good thing with you? Regular Season Games in QC, Halifax, etc.?

Turning all of Quebec and the Maritimes into solid Sens land is a good thing to me. I'm just not frightened by hypotheticals of how we do it.

 

[PlayersLtd]

So spreading out Ottawa Senators season games throughout our broadcast territory is a good thing with you? Regular Season Games in QC, Halifax, etc.?

That isn't going to happen. There is home game revenue that will keep the 'spreading out' in check, even if the league would allow it. But a non marquee game or two in a place like QC or Halifax to increase our exposure and expand our fanbase. Why not? I love seeing the Sens brand pop up in other places.