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Sens owner Melnyk claims $94 million in losses

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For those who haven’t had their fill of Eugene Melnyk today, here’s a lengthy Ottawa Citizen article on the embattled Senators owner, who claims he’s lost almost $100 million on the team since buying it in 2003.

An excerpt:

How much are the Senators costing him? It’s impossible to be definitive because, despite its high public profile, the team is a private company. Not only that, the NHL regularly warns the 30 franchise owners not to divulge details about their operations. Nevertheless, Melnyk and two of his long serving senior executives — Leeder and chief financial officer Erin Crowe — offered some insight into the team’s finances.

On Melnynk’s decade-long watch, they say, the team has generated a grand total of just $6 million on operations — that is, total revenues minus the costs associated with paying and moving the players, advertising and managing the arena. After subtracting items unrelated to operations — such as interest on the team’s debt and capital expenditures to keep the arena up-to-date — Melnyk has had to absorb cumulative cash losses of $94 million. In short, he is losing an average of $9 million to $10 million a year. And this excludes the additional interest and fees related to the debt extensions.

There’s more in the story, which is well worth a read.

Earlier today, Melnyk blasted agent J.P. Barry over the failed Daniel Alfredsson negotiations.

Related: More bad news for Sens owner Melnyk