Senators Spark Backlash With Decision to Play Games in Quebec City

The Senators are still reestablishing themselves under new owner Michael Andlauer, but the NHL club is already looking well beyond their home market of Ottawa—and angering fans back home in the process.

The NHL club said it will play two preseason games this fall in Quebec City, and spend four days in total there also practicing and participating in community initiatives. The plans are the beginning of what could be a larger presence there for the club with some regular-season games. 

“We’ll start with the two preseason games and we’ll go from there,” said Andlauer, who purchased the Senators in late 2023 for $950 million, then a league record. “For me, that’s the vision.”

Quebec City previously had the NHL’s Nordiques—originally a World Hockey Association franchise—from 1979 to 1995, when they relocated to Colorado and became the Avalanche. 

The Senators’ planned presence in the provincial capital arrives as the Senators are still attempting to build a new arena in downtown Ottawa, most recently striking an agreement with Canada’s National Capital Commission to purchase 10 acres in the city’s LeBreton Flats for a potential new venue.  

Ruffling Feathers

The team’s announcement of the planned activity in Quebec City, however, went over very poorly in Ottawa, where the Senators under prior ownership regimes often teetered on the brink of financial disaster, and even fell into bankruptcy in 2003. Leaders in Quebec City, meanwhile, have actively pushed to gain an NHL expansion franchise, even while league commissioner Gary Bettman continues to downplay the likelihood of any imminent process for that. 

Further agitating Senators fans was the presence of the team’s mascot, Spartacat, at the Quebec City announcement wearing a half-Senators/half-Nordiques jersey. The immediate blowback led Senators president Cyril Leeder to acknowledge on Ottawa’s TSN 1200 radio that “if we had a do-over on that one, would we do that one differently? We probably would. I get the sensitivities.”

Leeder further clarified the team has no plans to leave the Ottawa area, but rather, is seeking to expand its regional presence.

“It’s a move on our part designed to help us expand our broadcast footprint, especially with francophone fans,” he continued on the radio station. “Our broadcast territory goes from Kingston [Ont.] to Newfoundland. … So this has been in the works for us to help grow that footprint and that fan base.”