By Holly Nelson
Local fans and the franchise’s employees aren’t the only ones who stand to lose out if the Ottawa Senators leave the city. Some local businesses say they would take a financial hit as well.
“It would definitely affect our sales,” says Jean Dextras, manager of Elgin Sports Store on Bank Street. “Hockey jerseys are a good part of our business and (if the team left) we wouldn’t sell as many.”
Dextras estimates that over the course of the hockey season, 50 per cent of his jersey sales are from Ottawa Senators jerseys, which sell for about $110 each.
“A lot of tourists come in looking for (Senators) items,” says Chris Risdon, assistant manager of Elgin Sports. “There would be a financial loss.”
Interest in NHL hockey and other hockey merchandise in Ottawa could diminish, Dextras says.
Elgin Sports might stop selling NHL items if the team is lost.
“When the Ottawa Roughriders went, interest in other CFL products dropped to the point we stopped carrying it,” Dextras says. “We would probably abandon hockey jerseys of other teams – it just wouldn’t sell.”
Andrew Wadden, operations manager for the Duke of Somerset Pub on Bank Street, says that losing the team could damage his business.
“The bar industry is hurting with the economic downturn combined with the smoking bylaws,” Wadden says. “Losing the Senators could be a third strike. It would make things very difficult.”
January to March are typically slow times for bars but Wadden says the NHL playoffs, which begin in April, give the bar a major boost out of these “winter doldrums.”
“Hockey is the major draw,” he says. “We have very, very good business during playoffs.”
Gray Johnson, general manager of the James Street Feed Co. on Bank Street, agrees.
“The playoffs are pretty huge and we estimate having a packed house,” he says.
“(Losing the team) would impact our business.”
Published reports estimate that the city could lose between $800 million and $1 billion in economic activity if the hockey franchise left Ottawa.
The Ottawa Centre for Research and Innovation and the Delphi Group are updating a 1999 study on the economic impact of the team.
The figure factors in team revenues; tourism, hospitality, merchandise and service industry revenues; tax revenues for the federal and provincial governments; and the free marketing the city receives from media reporting on Senators games.
Wadden says he believes that the city wouldn’t just take a financial hit if the team left.
“You’ll often hear that the Senators put Ottawa on the map,” he says.
While Wadden says he is skeptical that they are the only marketing tool the city has, he believes there are merits in this statement.
“From a tourism aspect, from a city prestige aspect, and from a local morale aspect, it would be a major blow for the city if the team left.”