Ottawa Senators president Tom Anselmi made a pitch to a business audience on Tuesday to help fill the Canadian Tire Centre this hockey season, while predicting the move to a planned downtown arena is still four to five years away.
The hockey club, through RendezVous LeBreton Group, continues to negotiate with the National Capital Commission to transform LeBreton Flats into a mixed-use community, including the NHL arena.
After his speech at Ottawa City Hall, Anselmi told reporters that it’s still early in the negotiations and there’s no timeline for their completion (“the sooner we get on with it, the better,” Anselmi said), but minutes later during an NCC board meeting, NCC CEO Mark Kristmanson suggested the two sides want to have an agreement in principle by the end of the year.