The Auditorium opened in 1923, when the Stanley Cup champs were taken over by the Ottawa Hockey Association
As fans of the Ottawa Senators anxiously wait to hear who will buy the team, CBC decided to look into the past and found a situation in the nation’s capital 100 years ago that was eerily similar.
In 1923, the Ottawa Senators were sold to new owners and moved to a new arena, which is similar to how the team is now.
There are some similarities between the two franchises, which took place a century apart, but the processes were, as you might expect, very different.
In 1923, the Senators had just won the Stanley Cup, while the team of today is trying to get into the playoffs. Back then, there were also a lot fewer teams.
Also, a lot of different things led to the sale of the team.
The change in ownership today is the result of a bidding war between billionaires. In 1923, of course, that wasn’t the case.
Then the owner, the Ottawa Arena Club, saw its five-year partnership with the Ottawa Hockey Association end, and the Ottawa Hockey Association took over ownership of the Senators.
“The Ottawa Arena Club’s most valuable asset was its franchise in the National Hockey League,” said an article in the Citizen on September 20, 1923. “However, the franchise lost almost all of its value when the Ottawa Hockey Association signed all of last year’s world champion Senators.”
In 1923, a new arena was built by new owners
When it comes to building a new NHL arena, there are some things that are the same.
The Citizen said at the time that the new owners, Frank Ahearn and Tommy Gorman, were part of a group that was building a “first-of-its-kind” artificial ice rink in 1923.
The new owners of the Senators will own the Canadian Tire Center in the western suburb of Kanata, where the team plays now. But plans should be in the works to build a new arena in a more central location, and each ownership bid shows a lot of expertise in the building business.
The 1923 Senators would play their game at the new Ottawa Auditorium on O’Connor Street, which is now the site of the Argyle YMCA/YWCA building. It would be finished in November 1923 and have room for 10,000 people.
Back then, the process was much faster than it is now because bids for the arena weren’t put out until March of that year.
Before, the Senators had to play on natural ice, which caused problems with the weather that even messed up some games in the Stanley Cup final. At times, there was “nearly an inch of water” under the skates of the players.
In the past, both the Ottawa players and their fans have had to deal with the lack of artificial ice, an article from September said.
“They have seen Stanley Cup games moved from Ottawa to Toronto because the ice there wasn’t good enough for such important games.”
New arena opens with pom
An article in the Citizen says that the Senators and the Edmonton Eskimos played two exhibition games at the Ottawa Auditorium on December 1 and 3, 1923.
At the time, this game was a big deal because it was held in a brand-new arena in Canada’s capital. Many of the country’s most influential people were there.
Lord Baron Byng, who was governor general at the time, officially opened the arena before Edmonton won 3-1 in front of about 7,000 people.
A newspaper article said that the Senators players, led by Frank Nighbor, who was known as the “Pembroke Peach,” gave “Her Excellency Lady Byng” a bouquet of American Beauty roses before the game.
The flowers also had a red, white, and black ribbon with the team’s colors and a note that said, “To Lady Byng from the world’s hockey champions.”
There were also some familiar names in that first game, which was between Ottawa and Edmonton. Lou Marsh was the judge. Every year, the Lou Marsh Trophy goes to Canada’s best athlete.
Frank Calder was the NHL president, which would be the commissioner in today’s league (the Calder Trophy is NHL’s rookie of the year trophy, and the American Hockey League’s championship trophy).
Sir Robert Borden also visited the Senators between the first and second periods, according to the Citizen (he was Canada’s prime minister from 1911 to 1920, through the First World War).
1923-24 season ends in playoff loss to Montrea
The Senators would finish first place during the first season in the new arena, but the team was upset in the playoffs by the Montreal Canadiens.
Ironically, the Stanley Cup finals would be played in March 1924 at the brand new Ottawa Auditorium between Montreal and the Calgary Tigers because the natural ice at Montreal’s Mount Royal Arena was deemed unfit for games of that magnitude.
Montreal would win the Stanley Cup that year.
As fans of the modern day Senators await new owners, and then potentially a brand new downtown arena in the coming years, this paragraph about the construction of a new arena from the September 1923 article might hit home:
“Local hockey enthusiasts will be pleased beyond measure with the prospect of witnessing, in comfort, the best hockey that is played anywhere.”