There appears to be celebrity interest in buying the Ottawa Senators, the National Hockey League team up for sale in Canada’s capital.
Rap impresario Snoop Dogg said in an Instagram post Monday that he’s excited to be part of a bid from Los Angeles-based businessman Neko Sparks, who would be the first black owner of an NHL team.
“I WANT TO BRING HOCKEY TO OUR COMMUNITY,” wrote Snoop Dogg.
Last week, Canadian actor Ryan Reynolds was reportedly linked with an offer that would exceed $1 billion for the team. Neither Sparks nor Reynolds have publicly stated their interest in buying the Senators.
Reynolds and fellow actor Rob McElhenney basked in the glorious run of their Welsh football club Wrexham last month as they secured promotion to the fourth tier of English football.
The board of Senators Sports & Entertainment announced in November that a process to sell the club had been initiated. The board retained Galatioto Sports Partners, a firm specializing in sports financing and consulting, as its financial advisor.
“A condition of any sale will be that the team remains in Ottawa,” the team said at the time.
Senators owner Eugene Melnyk died last year at the age of 62 after battling an illness. He had previously said he plans to leave the team to his daughters Anna and Olivia. Melnyk bought the Senators in 2003 for $92 million at a time when the franchise was facing bankruptcy and a tenuous future in the nation’s capital.
A recent valuation by Forbes listed the Senators at $800 million, 24th out of the NHL’s 30 teams.
Under Melnyk, the Senators played in the 2007 Stanley Cup Finals when Ottawa lost to the Anaheim Ducks in five games. Ottawa almost returned to the Cup Finals a decade later, but lost the deciding game of the Conference Finals in double overtime. Since that loss, the Senators have missed the playoffs six straight seasons.
The team has played at the Canadian Tire Center in a former suburb since the arena opened in 1996. The team has expressed interest in building an arena at a location closer to downtown Ottawa.
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