Ottawa Senators owner Eugene Melnyk says he is not going to sell the Ottawa Senators franchise, but he is not opposed to moving it.

Speaking Friday night before the Senators Alumni game, Melnyk said he had no intention of ever selling the Ottawa Senators franchise.

“It just won’t happen,” he said. “Imagine if you own a McDonald’s franchise, but you can move it. Why would you sell it? It’s something that’s very difficult to buy. We’re doing okay here, we’re not doing great, but we’re doing okay.”

Melnyk says he wants to hold on to the team because he loves the game of hockey.

“It’s just too much fun. What else do you do? I’m a Canadian, I’m fanatically a hockey fan, and it’s something I really enjoy doing, I couldn’t think of anything better to do.”

But would Melnyk consider moving the team?               

“If it becomes a disaster, yes,” Melnyk said. “If we start not seeing crowds showing up, yes. But, for now, we are on the cusp of doing okay.”

He says moving the team is not on the radar at the moment but, it’s always in the realm of possibility.

“If it doesn’t look good here, it could look very, very nice somewhere else,” he said. “But I’m not suggesting that right now. All I’m saying is that I would never sell the team. But [moving the team] is always a possibility in any franchise. Here, we’re fighting every day to sell a ticket, honest to God, and, when you get to the third round of the playoffs and you’re begging people to buy a ticket, something is wrong with that picture. So, we’re just hoping that changes, that’s all."

When asked if he's bluffing with this kind of talk, Melnyk shot back quickly, "I don't bluff."

“It’s not a possibility now,” Melnyk continued. “But, if this was to continue, how long could you continue to underwrite a team?”

Melnyk says the Senators are one of the bigger spenders in the NHL, spending $68 million a year on players.

“That’s way too much over a revenue base that we have,” Melnyk said. “We’ve cut everything to the bone in the organization. We are probably one of the thinnest management groups you have in the league. The next place you have to look at is players. We want to keep and maintain great players […] but, at one point, one of the two has to break. You can’t keep spending at the top end and getting the lowest revenues. It doesn’t work.”

But Melnyk assured reporters he has enough money to keep the team afloat.

“For how many centuries?” he asked. “Yes, I do. But I’m not going to blow a lifetime of working hard to support a hockey team. It’s not going to happen.”

One of the issues Melnyk says he sees is the arena.

"In time, we need a new arena. Simple as that," he said.

But moving downtown is not a panacea.

"I'm not sure that downtown is necessary," Melnyk said. "A lot of people question whether we need to be downtown because, until the law changes where you can't give tickets to civil servants, that is a disaster for us, and previous management quietly took that, but now, when we see the effect of that, what are you doing? Are you just moving the arena closer to people who can't get tickets?"

Melnyk said he's "all-in" on LeBreton, but it wouldn't be a disaster if it didn't happen.

Still, changes at the Canadian Tire Centre would be helpful too, he said.

"We've got to change some of the highway stuff," he said. "What a hell to get out of that place! It's very, very difficult and very frustrating to just get out of the parking lot. Just fix that. That's one thing. There's a lot of things we could do to enhance the experience that we're now going to do and just continue doing it."