Since the City of Ottawa confirmed OSEG’s plan that sealed the Ottawa Charge’s fate at Lansdowne, all the Ottawa Charge and their fan base have done is prove the plan for Lansdowne 2.0 was shortsighted.
When the Ottawa Sports & Entertainment Group's (OSEG) plan for the new arena at Lansdowne 2.0 was announced with a seated capacity of 5,850 fans, the entire hockey world knew it was a decision focused only on the OHL's Ottawa 67s, a team owned by OSEG.
The conflict of interest was clear to everyone, except for Ottawa's Mayor and a group of Councillors who voted to allow OSEG's plan to support men's hockey at the venue, and cast aside the most successful and popular team in the venue, the PWHL's Ottawa Charge.
Since that vote passed, sealing the future, or lack of a future, for the Ottawa Charge at the venue, all hockey fans in Ottawa have done is prove Mayor Mark Sutcliffe and OSEG wrong.
Through 30 home games, the OHL's Ottawa 67s have averaged 3,936. Of those games, only five were weekday games, one of which was on the Family Day holiday Monday.
Through nine home games at TD Place Arena this season, the PWHL's Ottawa Charge have averaged 7,225 fans. Because the junior men's team is given preference in scheduling, the Charge have played four of those days, the same number of non-holiday weekday games as the 67s on week nights.
Of the Charge's nine games, only two would have fit inside the new venue, even if every standing room space was utilized. Their largest crowd of the season was 8,572.
The Ottawa Charge are clearly the favored team by fans at TD Place Arena, but as the PWHL has stated, they'll never play at Lansdowne 2.0. Instead the brand new arena will be left largely empty by the men's team, rather than filled by the professional women's hockey team that the City of Ottawa has come to love.
And instead of a packed venue in the heart of Ottawa, the Charge will need to play in Kanata at the Canadian Tire Center, at least temporarily with the hope of a new home at LeBreton Flats now sitting side-by-side with the NHL's Ottawa Senators' own plans for the area.
When that arena is built, it seems highly probable the Ottawa Charge will continue making the shortsighted vision for the arena at Lansdowne 2.0 look even worse than it already does.