New ownership for Ottawa Senators sparks hope for downtown arena

With new ownership taking over the Ottawa Senators, Algonquin College students are hoping to see this lead to a new, more conveniently located arena.

The Senators current arena opened in 1996, in Kanata, on the western edge of Ottawa. It opened as the Palladium, was renamed the Corel Centre and Scotiabank Place, and has been known as the Canadian Tire Centre since 2013.

Kanata is a suburb of Ottawa, but with the arena 25 km away from downtown, students at Algonquin College find the trek daunting.

“It is nice as a student to have the Sens close by, but getting to the arena is always a pain,” says Damrong Saynorath, a paramedic student at Algonquin College. “It would be nice to have an arena downtown around some other places.”

Many students also said the current home of the Senators in Kanata makes it tough to attend games and have an evening out.

“When we go to the games, there is nowhere around to go out after or before. Plus, somebody always has to drive and pay for parking,” says Zach VanderGlas, a Bartending student at Algonquin College. “Whenever we go to a Redblacks game at Landsdowne, we have places like Jack Astors, Craft or even Milestones to go out afterwards.”

The general parking lot fee at the Canadian Tire Centre is $20. The closest bar to the current arena is Crazy Horse, about a 30-minute walk away.

Some students were concerned where a new arena for the Senators might be located.

“Having the stadium closer than Kanata would be nice, but there isn’t much room downtown to actually put a massive stadium and how much tax dollars is this going to cost? What will become of the old stadium?” said Jacob Daly, an Aviation Management student at Algonquin College.

Michael Andlauer is set to take over the NHL team’s ownership later this summer once the deal closes.

No purchase price has been disclosed. Andlauer is also owns a minority share of the Montreal Canadiens.