The well-publicized sale of the Ottawa Senators took another dramatic turn on Thursday, as Ryan Reynolds and the Remington Group decided to withdraw their names from the bidding process for the NHL club.
The Athletic spoke to multiple sources familiar with the Senators sale process who confirmed the Hollywood star was not proceeding with his bid to purchase the Senators with the Markham-based real estate firm. ESPN’s Emily Kaplan was the first to report the news on Thursday, which sent shockwaves through the NHL community.
Since publicly stating his interest in purchasing the team back in November, Reynolds has catapulted into the headlines on a regular basis because of his interest in the Senators. However, sources say his bid with the Remington Group hit a snag earlier this month when they opted for a bold and aggressive strategy to try and seize control of the hockey club. One source says it started to become evident within the last 48 hours that Reynolds and Chris Bratty were ready to withdraw from the bidding process, with their decision finalized late Wednesday night or early Thursday morning.
That’s a stark contrast from where things stood just a couple of weeks ago. The Reynolds-Remington group was prepared to put a firm offer of $900 million (U.S.) on the Ottawa Senators with one key caveat: They wanted an exclusive 30-day window to hammer out a new downtown arena deal for the Senators. In essence, all other bids for the hockey team would have been put on hold to allow the Reynolds and Remington Group to close on the deal themselves.
However, sources indicated that Galatioto Sports Partners — who are in charge of running the sales process — were not willing to grant that exclusivity to Reynolds and Remington Group. In particular, the feeling was that Michael Andlauer and Jeffrey Kimel — who are running competing bids — would have vehemently opposed such a provision for Reynolds and the Remington Group. Both Andlauer and Kimel have previous ownership ties with the NHL and their intimate knowledge of how these sales processes work meant they never would have stood idly by while another group received preferential treatment.
Reynolds and the Remington Group opted for this route because they were leery of getting into a pricey bidding war for the hockey club without some assurance of an amenable downtown arena deal. They did not want to get into a situation in which they spent over $1 billion (U.S.) for the hockey team, only to have the future of the downtown arena in jeopardy. They wanted assurance and clarity on the arena issue before proceeding with the purchase of the team and felt like asking for an exclusive negotiating window was the best route to achieve that goal.
In particular, they were hoping to receive a significant parcel of land at LeBreton Flats — much larger than the current six-and-a-half acres that is currently being set aside by the National Capital Commission (NCC) for a new NHL arena. But they were also willing to study the site near Bayview Yards, which would have also given them a coveted downtown location while working with the city of Ottawa instead of the NCC. In an ideal world, the Reynolds and Remington Group would have been able to play the city and the NCC against each other, leveraging the best possible arena deal for themselves. But trying to accomplish that goal in just 30 days would have almost certainly been an insurmountable task.
One source says Gary Bettman was not blindsided by this aggressive move, as Reynolds and the Remington Group kept the NHL commissioner apprised of their plans over the past few weeks.
With Reynolds suddenly out of the mix, the pressing question is: What happens next?
The next round of bids are due to be submitted on Monday and one source suggested the news of Reynolds and Remington’s departure from the process could drive the price down. One source suggested the sale price for the team may not eclipse $1 billion (U.S.) — although there remains an excellent chance the price tag passes the $900 million paid for the Pittsburgh Penguins when they were sold to the Fenway Sports Group in 2021. If the Reynolds and Remington Group had reservations about securing the hockey team without an arena deal, it stands to reason the other potential ownership groups share similar concerns.
There is a chance Reynolds could re-appear with another group, but up until this point, he was fairly adamant that he wanted to work exclusively with the Remington Group.
A source close to the Neko Sparks ownership group told The Athletic on Thursday evening their bid would gladly accept Reynolds into their fold if the actor wanted to join forces. Earlier this month, Snoop Dogg aligned with the Sparks group, stating that he was very interested in purchasing the Senators. Given the entertainment background of that group, perhaps there is a natural opportunity for a collaboration. Reynolds’ vision was to help secure a streaming rights deal around a behind-the-scenes documentary around the Senators, similar to what he accomplished with the “Welcome To Wrexham” series.
Another source suggested there is a path toward trying to marry Reynolds with Andlauer’s group. The feeling is once these bids are submitted on Monday, there will be an opportunity for GSP and Bettman to evaluate the final proposals and see if there are any opportunities to forge any last-minute partnerships.
One source said he was holding out hope that Reynolds would consider joining forces with another group, but it would likely take some time for him to recover from the disappointment of not securing this bid on his own.
(Photo: Richard A. Whittaker / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
LONDON – Canada will meet three-time champion Germany in the Davis Cup quarterfinals in Malaga, Spain this November.
Canada secured a berth in the quarterfinals — also called The Final 8 Knockout Stage — with a 2-1 win over Britain last weekend in Manchester, England.
World No. 21 Felix Auger-Aliassime of Montreal anchored a five-player squad that included Denis Shapovalov of Richmond Hill, Ont., Gabriel Diallo of Montreal, Alexis Galarneau of Laval, Que., and Vasek Pospisil of Vernon, B.C.
The eight-team draw for the quarterfinals was completed Thursday at International Tennis Federation headquarters.
Defending champion Italy will play Argentina, the United States will meet Australia and Spain will take on the Netherlands. Schedule specifics have yet to be released but the Final 8 will be played Nov. 19-24.
Tim Puetz and Kevin Krawietz were unbeaten in doubles play last week to help Germany reach the quarterfinals. The country’s top singles player — second-ranked Alex Zverev — did not play.
The Canadians defeated Germany in the quarterfinals en route to their lone Davis Cup title in 2022. Germany won titles in 1988, ’89 and ’93.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 19, 2024.
Canada, fuelled by a 2-1 win over the U.S. and scoreless draw with Mexico, has jumped two places to No. 38 in the FIFA men’s world rankings released Thursday.
Of the top six CONCACAF teams, Canada was the only one to move up. Mexico was unchanged at No. 17 while the U.S. and Panama each fell two rungs to No. 18 and 37, respectively
Costa Rica slipped one spot to No. 50 and Jamaica two places to No. 61.
It marks Canada’s highest ranking under coach Jesse Marsch, who was hired in mid-May when the Canadians were ranked 50th. Since then, the team has climbed to No. 49, 48, 40 and now 38.
Canada has been as high as No. 33 in the men’s ranking, achieved in February 2022 under John Herdman with Canada, named the “Most Improved Side” in 2021 by FIFA, turning heads with an unbeaten run in CONCACAF World Cup qualifying.
The new rankings encompass 184 internationals involving teams from all six confederations including 2026 World Cup qualifiers in Asia, Oceania and South America.
The top 10 was unchanged with Argentina ahead of France, Spain, England, Brazil, Belgium, the Netherlands, Portugal, Colombia and Italy. But the gap at the top is closing with Argentina losing 2-1 away to Colombia and 3-1 at home to Italy.
Teams 10 through 15 were also unchanged. But there was movement after that in the form of Japan (, up two), Iran (No. 19, up one) and Denmark (No. 20, up one). Egypt (No. 31), Ivory Coast (No. 33), Tunisia (No. 36) and Algeria (No. 41) all jumped five places while Greece (No. 48) climbed six spots.
The biggest movers were Brunei Darussalam (No. 183) and Samoa (No. 185), who vaulted seven spots on the back of two wins apiece.
Qatar suffered the biggest drop, tumbling 10 places to No. 44.
San Marino remains at the bottom of the rankings in 210th place despite recording its first victory in more than 20 years, San Marino defeated Liechtenstein 1-0 on Sept. 5, ending a 140-game winless run since a 1-0 decision over the same opponent in April 2004.
Liechtenstein fell four places to No. 203.
Canada’s next match is an Oct. 15 friendly against Panama at Toronto’s BMO Field. The next men’s ranking will be released Oct. 24.
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This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 19, 2024
It has been a difficult start to the NFL season for quarterback Bryce Young and the Carolina Panthers.
Carolina has dropped its opening two games after Sunday’s 26-3 loss to the Los Angeles Chargers. And Young, the first player taken in the ’23 NFL draft, was 18-of-26 passing for 84 yards with an interception while being sacked twice.
As a result, veteran Andy Dalton will start Sunday when Carolina faces the Las Vegas Raiders (1-1).
According to the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp., the Chargers’ win was the most accurately predicted moneyline selection by Proline bettors. A whopping 92 per cent of wagers were on Los Angeles beating Carolina with 92 per cent also picking the Chargers to cover -4.5.
In other action that went in favour of Proline bettors: Kansas City edged Cincinnati 26-25 (86 per cent correctly selected the Chiefs to win); Houston got past Chicago 19-13 (81 per cent); the New York Jets defeated Tennessee 24-17 (78 per cent); Pittsburgh beat Denver 13-6 (76 per cent), Washington beat the New York Giants 21-18 (73 per cent); and Seattle toppled New England 23-20 (62 per cent).
However, only five per cent of bettors had the Raiders upsetting Baltimore 26-23.
And there was one winner of Proline’s second week main NFL pool of $407,613.
In NFL futures bets after the second week of the season, the odds for offensive player of the year got shorter for running backs Breece Hall (Jets) and Bijan Robinson (Atlanta) and Detroit receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown. But they got longer for running backs Kyren Williams (Rams), Christian McCaffrey (San Francisco) and Jonathan Taylor (Colts).
Quarterbacks Bo Nix (Denver), Jayden Daniels (Washington) and Caleb Williams (Chicago) all had their odds for offensive rookie of the year go up while they went down for running back Ray Davis (Buffalo), tight end Brock Bowers (Raiders) and receiver Malik Nabers (Giants).
Quarterbacks Patrick Mahones (Chiefs), Aaron Rodgers (Jets) and Jalen Hurts (Eagles) all had their odds for regular season MVP go up. But quarterbacks Jordan Love (Packers), Lamar Jackson (Baltimore) and Joe Burrow (Cincinnati) all saw theirs go down.
Kansas City, Philadelphia and Houston had their Super Bowl odds increase while Green Bay, Baltimore and Cincinnati all decreased.
Not surprising, the week’s top events were all NFL games. In order, they were; Buffalo-Miami, Chicago-Houston, Cincinnati-KC, Raiders-Ravens; and Saints-Cowboys.
A Proline retail player cashed in a $26,183 winner from a $10 bet on a 12-leg major-league baseball parlay. Another won $24,602 from a $10 wager on a 12-leg NFL parlay.
A third received $1,737 from a $3 bet on a six-leg NFL parlay.
A digital bettor earned $2,927 from a $25 bet on a five-leg NFL parlay while a second had a $704.35 return from a $1 wager on a seven-leg NFL parlay.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 19, 2024.
