Mississauga IceDogs Melnyk's first foray into sports franchise ownership came in 2001 with the purchase of the
St. Michael's Majors of the
Ontario Hockey League (OHL). At the time, the club played at the
St. Michael's College School's Arena in Toronto, but Melnyk aimed to move the team to nearby
Mississauga. As there was already an OHL team in Mississauga, the
Mississauga IceDogs, Melnyk subsequently purchased the IceDogs franchise in 2006 and resold them in 2007 in order to facilitate the move of the Majors from Toronto to Mississauga. Per the deal arranged by Melnyk, the IceDogs' new ownership relocated the team to
St. Catharines, Ontario and the team became known as the
Niagara IceDogs. On May 10, 2012, Melnyk sold the St. Michael's Majors (now called the
Mississauga Steelheads) to Elliott Kerr for an undisclosed price.
Ottawa Senators On August 26, 2003, Melnyk purchased the
Ottawa Senators NHL franchise along with their arena, then known as the
Corel Centre. At that time the team was facing bankruptcy and an uncertain future in Ottawa, and was purchased for the sum of US$92 million, after he reached a deal with the franchise's creditors after
Rod Bryden's attempt to purchase the franchise fell through. In December 2020, the Ottawa Senators were listed by
Forbes magazine as the NHL's twenty-sixth highest valued franchise at US$450 million. The team enjoyed some success on the ice under Melnyk's tenure, making the playoffs nine times, including a trip to the
2007 Stanley Cup Finals, losing in five games to the
Anaheim Ducks, as well as the Eastern Conference Finals in the
2017 Stanley Cup playoffs, where they lost to the
Pittsburgh Penguins in seven games.
Relationship with fanbase In 2017 Melnyk told reporters that he would be open to the idea of moving the franchise to a different city if the fanbase didn't make efforts to increase attendance at Senators' home games. When pressed by reporters to clarify whether or not he would consider moving the team out of Ottawa, Melnyk replied, "If it becomes a disaster, yes. If you start not seeing crowds showing up, yes." In early 2018, some fans in Ottawa had gradually become disillusioned with Melnyk's management style and perceived unwillingness to spend the money needed to build a championship-calibre team. This came after the Senators fell just one overtime goal shy of reaching the 2017 Stanley Cup Finals, and resulted in pressure from the Senators' fanbase for a change in team ownership in 2018, which culminated in a crowdfunding campaign to pay for billboards to go up across Ottawa. Despite the backlash, Melnyk often stated on the record that he had no intention of selling the franchise. On September 11, 2018, the Senators released a video online in which Melnyk outlined the franchise's plans for a rebuild. The video received considerable criticism from fans and media for its awkward presentation and for the owner's own characterization of his team as being "in the dumpster." The relationship between Melnyk and Senators' fans further deteriorated at the 2019 trade deadline when the Senators traded away their leading scorers and remaining core players,
Matt Duchene,
Ryan Dzingel, and
Mark Stone, all of whom were well liked in the community. Despite earlier promising to make every effort to re-sign the star players, Melnyk later contradicted himself when he was quoted as saying that trading away Mark Stone had been "[planned] for some time" as part of the rebuild.
Other In November 2018, Melnyk was accused of being behind newly created and suspicious
Twitter accounts began appearing, all of which praised Melnyk's performance while attacking his detractors. The Twitter accounts largely targeted certain writers who covered the Senators for local newspapers the
Ottawa Citizen and
Ottawa Sun, making similar claims that these writers had treated Melnyk unfairly. Speculation immediately arose that these were
bot accounts and not real human beings. A subsequent investigation conducted by the
Ottawa Citizen revealed that, although the bots could not be conclusively traced back to Melnyk, they were "created to launch a co-ordinated disinformation campaign and to attack media coverage of the Sens while lauding the team and its owner Eugene Melnyk".
Belleville Senators In 2016, the Ottawa Senators in partnership with the City of
Belleville, Ontario announced that Melnyk purchased the
American Hockey League (AHL) franchise which was currently located in
Binghamton, New York, and that the team would relocate to Belleville, Ontario for the
2017–18 season. The team agreed on an eight-year lease to welcome the
Belleville Senators to the city. The Belleville Senators are the Ottawa Senators' AHL affiliate team.
Other On September 16, 2008, Melnyk proposed plans for an Ottawa
Major League Soccer professional
soccer team, and a new soccer-specific
Ottawa Soccer Stadium, but could not obtain support from
Ottawa City Council. Melnyk's plan to build a new stadium near the Ottawa Senators arena in
Kanata, a suburb of Ottawa, was in contention with a proposal by a consortium seeking to bring a
Canadian Football League franchise to
Lansdowne Park in downtown Ottawa. City council could only back one proposal and sided against Melnyk, favoring
the return of the CFL to Ottawa. In 2009, Melnyk served as chairman of the
IIHF World U20 Championship. Melnyk was also a successful
thoroughbred racing horse breeder, having horses he bred go on to win all three legs of the
Canadian Triple Crown. His most successful horse was
Archers Bay, the son of
Silver Deputy, who won the 1998
Queen's Plate – despite being the first horse Melnyk ever ran in the race – the 1998
Prince of Wales Stakes before being named Canada's champion three-year old male horse. In 2013, Melnyk stopped breeding horses and instead bought and raced
yearlings. Melnyk was named Canada's best horse breeder twice, and in 2017, he was inducted into the
Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame. ==Business ventures==