Senators owner: Ticket prices are not 'too high'

Eugene Melnyk is feeling a little shocked.

The owner of the Ottawa Senators spoke out Friday, voicing his displeasure over the team's falling attendance numbers, despite the Senators' rise in the standings.

"It's unfortunate," Melnyk told Bruce Garrioch of the Ottawa Citizen. "Everybody is kind of pointing at each other but we played 17 games (at home) in the first two months and when we saw that we could have changed that at first, but we didn't think of the ramifications (and) that's a lot of games."

Averaging 15,343 fans this season, the Senators sit 23rd in league-wide attendance, and more than 1,200 seats below the next Canadian franchise. At 80.1 capacity, just four clubs - the Columbus Blue Jackets, Arizona Coyotes, New York Islanders, and Carolina Hurricanes - fill out less of their barns.

"I was shocked we weren't sold out for the Leafs' opener," Melynk continued. "But then again, football was in full swing, the Jays had their run, and you had a lot of stuff happening. If somebody went once, twice a week, that was a big deal. We were playing three games a week."

The Senators play out of the Canadian Tire Centre in Kanata, a nearby suburb of Ottawa. It's a long commute that's easy to keep fans at home, but what about the cost of a seat?

"The prices are not too high. We are one of the lowest prices in the league. It's a fair price," said Melnyk, who is insistent on moving the team to Ottawa's downtown core.

Melnyk believes attendance figures will be stronger in an arena that is more accessible to fans. In November, Melnyk's group, RendezVous LeBreton, was chosen to negotiate an arena development in the downtown Ottawa district of LeBreton Flats.

But that new facility is still several years out, with shovels not expected to break ground until 2018, at the earliest.

As for Melnyk, in November, the oft-outspoken owner penned an editorial to the Citizen, writing, "Running the Ottawa Senators is not an easy business. Consider the fact that the team is currently eighth overall in the NHL and the second-best performing Canadian team, and yet we are far from sellouts at our home games."

Melnyk's concern is understandable given the team's winning record and its exciting nucleus of talented stars, including Mark Stone, Mike Hoffman, Kyle Turris, and two-time Norris Trophy winner Erik Karlsson.

The Senators' performance at the gate has been the opposite of its play on the ice. With a 17-11-3 record through 31 games, Ottawa sits second in the Atlantic. Of the seven Canadian clubs, only the Montreal Canadiens own a better record.

"I'm hoping now that we're doing very well on the ice (attendance will increase) and I hope we continue to do well and remembering we've been out of the playoffs two of the last three years and that one year we lasted a round," Melnyk said. "We have to turn that around and become a playoff team every year and then you'll see (fans) come back."

Not long ago, Senators fans witnessed a string of on-ice success, as the team ran an 11-year playoff run up until 2008, including a trip to the Stanley Cup Finals the year prior.

While the Senators have qualified for the postseason in more than half of the seasons since that time, including three of the last five years, an opening series victory over the Canadiens in 2013 is the only round the Senators have won since 2007.

"We are going to do whatever we can to lift that attendance," Melnyk added. "The players are noticing and that's what concerns me. The players want the fans to come out. Just ask the players, the fans really help."