Bruce M Firestone

Don't Back Down Bruce M Firestone

The return of the National Hockey League to Canada's capital city begins with Firestone in his late 20s taking over a small real estate company with just $10,000 for a downpayment, and a yard of guts. He invested in a faltering business that he turned (along with Senators co-founders Cyril Leeder and Randy Sexton) into a commercial real estate empire in less than ten years; this became the foundation for a successful bid to bring the National League back to Ottawa after a nearly 60-year hiatus. Read the inside story of the return of the modern era Ottawa Senators written by team founder, Bruce M Firestone. It's an underdog tale full of suspense, intrigue and surprise. The return of the National Hockey League to Canada's capital city begins with Firestone in his late 20s taking over a small real estate company with just $10,000 for a downpayment, and a yard of guts. He invested in a faltering business that he turned (along with Senators co-founders Cyril Leeder and Randy Sexton) into a commercial real estate empire in less than ten years; this became the foundation for a successful bid to bring the National League back to Ottawa after a nearly 60-year hiatus. They put it all on the line; risking tens of millions of dollars, to bring the Senators back to Ottawa and then build their new home arena, the Palladium, now Canadian Tire Centre. It became a high tension, multi-faceted endeavor with all the suspense of a Borgia series, with competing cities and political interests aligned against their team's bid. Their resulting success changed the city and brought a sense of pride to all of Canada at a time when the country was already going through another tough recession and had lost two existing NHL teams, in Quebec and Winnipeg. Firestone explores and explains the world of pro sports-its characters, economics and prospects in North America. He shows how it might be possible to add more NHL teams in Canada, and what the future may hold for sports leagues and the Sens in a changing technological scene and altered state of city planning and development.