Ryan Reynolds, Snoop Dogg and The Weeknd fight over ice hockey team

What do Canadian actor Ryan Reynolds, American rapper Snoop Dogg and Canadian musician The Weeknd have in common? That the three of them want to be the owners of the Ottawa Senators, the professional ice hockey team from the Canadian capital, which is valued at about US$700 million.

The interest of three celebrities from the world of entertainment in the Senators, a team that has never won the Stanley Cup, the championship of the National Hockey League (NHL), the professional ice hockey league in North America, is not exactly because of their passion. for the sport.

Sports teams have become a coveted possession because, as industry experts point out, professional leagues function like “a cartel system” or an exclusive club to which only a handful of people belong.

In the case of the NHL, there are only 32 franchises.

The face value of the Senators is around $700 million. But while ice hockey is starting to fade from being Canada’s most popular sport to soccer, the value of NHL franchises is on the rise and the professional league has good growth prospects.

This was recently expressed by the commissioner of the NHL, Gary Brettman.

“I think our franchises are going to be more and more valuable than they are now.he declared.

Brettman also appreciated the interest of these three celebrities in the team from “boring” Ottawa.

“For all the fans in Ottawa, it should mean that this franchise is going to have a very bright future, here in Ottawa. That the nation’s capital is generating enormous interest for a prospective owner”, he added.

This is despite the fact that the Senators are the team of a city of a million people, with a stadium with a maximum capacity of 21,000 spectators and with an average price per regular season ticket of $74.

But, as pundits insist, the Senators are one member of an exclusive 32-member club. And that, today, is a great attraction.

It may be that Reynolds is famous for his role in the “Deadpool” movies, that Snoop Dogg is recognized around the world for representing “gangsta rap”, or that The Weeknd, the stage name of Abel Makkonen Tesfaye, is remembered for his falsettos. . But above all, all three are businessmen.

And no one is risking their money or their financial future. Reynolds’ name is associated with the offer from the real estate group Remington Group, which is valued at around US$1 billion.

If he takes ownership of the Senators, the actor wants to repeat the scheme he has already implemented in another sports team he owns, the Welsh football team Wrexham FC: create a television series with the Ottawa team.

For his part, Snoop Dogg has teamed up with Los Angeles businessman Nero Sparks. The rapper, who is an outspoken ice hockey fan, has stated that he wants to use the Senators to popularize the sport among African-American children.

And The Weeknd, the rookie who, unlike Reynolds and Snoop Dogg, still has no known investment in the world of sports, has opted to accompany the offer of Canadian billionaires Jeffrey and Michael Kimel, two brothers from Toronto, the rival city of Ottawa.

Whoever wins the auction to win the Senators will have to get used to traveling to Ottawa, a city that has little to do with Los Angeles, where Snoop Dogg and The Weeknd live, or New York, Reynolds’ current home. .

The family of Eugene Melnyk, the owner of the Senators who died in March 2022, has already said that it will only sell the franchise to those who guarantee that they will keep it in the Canadian capital.

In this respect, at least, Reynolds and The Weeknd have an advantage over Snoop Dogg: the former two grew up in Canada (Vancouver and Toronto, respectively) and know what Canadian winters mean.

Source: EFE