NCC has LeBreton’s ‘Plan B’ ready to go if talks with senators fail

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The clock is ticking for the Ottawa Senators and the National Capital Commission has a “Plan B” ready if the team decides not to build a new stadium at LeBreton Flats, says NCC CEO Tobi Nussbaum.

Nussbaum did not have any major updates to offer on the negotiations after Thursday’s NCC board meeting, although she said talks were continuing and she was optimistic a deal could be reached to move the team from the League. National Hockey Center.

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Last fall, the NCC gave new Senators owner Michael Andlauer an extra year to make a decision on LeBreton Flats, but Nussbaum said Thursday there was no deadline for reaching a deal.

“There is no doubt that there will come a time when we will have a lease or not. I can’t say with 100 percent certainty when that will be. Is it in September? I certainly hope so,” Nussbaum told reporters. “There is no ultimatum at this time, just both sides working in good faith to get it done before the September deadline.”

If no agreement is reached, the NCC is ready to move forward on its own.

“When we approved the conceptual master plan in 2020, we were very clear that our first hope was to have a major attraction, a major events center there, but we also indicated that if that did not happen, there is a Plan B for those parcels within LeBreton Flats. “There is clearly a great need for housing and mixed-use development in the capital,” Nussbaum said.

The NCC has been talking to the team for a decade about building a stadium closer to the city center than its current base in Kanata. The first agreement collapsed after infighting between development partners. Then, the death of former team owner Eugene Melnyk and the sale of the Senators franchise to Andlauer in 2023 stalled negotiations again.

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More recently, Mayor Mark Sutcliffe has mulled the use of federal government land earmarked to be transferred to the city in this week’s federal budget as a possible site for a stadium.

“If there’s an opportunity to take land that the federal government no longer wants and turn it into the site of an attraction, and an attraction can be many different things, maybe it’s a stadium, maybe it’s not. But we have to look at that. We need a plan for the future of downtown Ottawa,” Sutcliffe told reporters this week.

Ultimately, it will be up to senators to decide if and where the new arena should be located, Nussbaum said. He stressed that it was “not a competition” between the NCC and the city of Ottawa to host the team, but made a strong pitch in favor of LeBreton Flats.

“From a traffic perspective, you can’t imagine a better location,” he said. “I think the senators are very surprised by the fact that LeBreton Flats is growing. It will become part of the city center. “The distinction between LeBreton Flats and downtown is really going to disappear in the next few years.”

LeBreton’s proximity to Gatineau also expands the team’s market and is another advantage for LeBreton, Sutcliffe said.

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“But, if that changes and the senators make the decision that LeBreton Flats is not the place for them and they have another site in mind…we will kindly step aside and allow that to happen,” he said. “This is not a competition. While an arena is our first option (for LeBreton Flats), we would love to have a major destination on site; if not, we have a plan for a mixed-use development along Albert Street and “We will proceed quickly with the development of LeBreton Flats as a whole.”

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