After Steve Apostolopoulos's recent attempt to buy an NFL team for $6 billion, the Ottawa Senators price tag seems pretty manageable.
If you're an Ottawa Senator fan who gets impatient on NHL trade deadline day, wondering for a few hours if your team is going to announce a deal or not, then waiting on the team's ongoing ownership deliberations must feel like torture.
While the new conditional owner of the franchise may be announced any moment now, a league source says June 7th has become another date to circle on the calendar. That's when the executive committee of the NHL Board of Governors is expected to meet to discuss, among other things, the new owner of the Ottawa Senators. That will be almost seven months to the day since the team confirmed the franchise was for sale.
As we reported last week, a source close to the bidding process is reporting that Michael Andlauer has the leading bid. Along with strength of bid, his existing league connections are also good and sturdy. And in the old boys club of the NHL's inner circle, that's relevant.
But it should be noted that Steve Apostolopoulos has also put forth an extremely impressive bid.
Less than two weeks ago, the Toronto real estate developer was still preoccupied with his pursuit of the Washington Commanders. The NFL club has since been sold to New Jersey Devils owner Josh Harris for just over $6 billion – an NFL record – and more than six times what the Senators will cost.
According to ESPN's Adam Schefter, Apostolopoulos also offered $6 billion, but current Commanders' owner Dan Snyder decided to roll with Harris instead, officially accepting his offer on May 12th.
At that point, Apostolopoulos still had a fall back. He was still in play to buy the Ottawa Senators and still had three days to put his best foot forward. It's not known whether the NFL experience had any influence at all on the caliber of Apostolopoulos's NHL bid. But the fact remains, his bid for the Sens is excellent.
So now it's down to Andlauer, Apostolopoulos, and the Kimel brothers.
The Neko Sparks group is still there too, continuing to swell with celebrity add-ons like Snoop Dogg, Donovan Bailey, Russell Peters, and most of the panel from the TV show, Dragon's Den. With so many of these announcements coming in after the closing bell on bids, the name-dropping tactic is seen in some quarters as a hail mary from a team that's trailing late in the game.