The Belleville Senators held their second annual town hall for season-seat members at Galaxy Cinemas in Belleville on Wednesday.
Season ticket holders for the upcoming 2026-27 season had the chance to speak with members of the Belleville Senators organization and ask questions ranging from the team roster and off-season acquisitions to arena accommodations and gameday experience.
Vice President of Business Operations for the Belleville Senators, John Mathers, stressed during the town hall that fan feedback is critical to the day-to-day operation of the team.
“We’ve moved and changed our food and beverage company to Airmark, so you’ll see elevated, new, and unique food and beverage offerings,” Mathers told Quinte News after the town hall, explaining some of the changes the team has made heading into the new season.
“We’re going to be working with the City of Belleville to acknowledge and work on the audio, trying to make sure that we can have the best audio experience, listening experience for our fans. We’re also going to be moving to more Friday night games, as you see in the schedule. We have 15, which is up year over year. That was one main bone of contention with our fans. They wanted to see more Fridays, and we were able to provide that to them. And I think the big one is they told us loud and clear they want more free stuff. They want giveaways, so we’re gonna have seven games of giveaways this upcoming season.”
Also announced during the town hall were commemorative 10th anniversary jerseys, combining the Ottawa Senators third jersey stylings with Bay of Quinte insignia.
“We changed with the actual word mark of the Senators. We do have the Belleville 10th-year anniversary logo. We have Bay of Quinte on the inside collar. So you walk that line between balancing building a brand and expanding the brand, but then also embracing the local aspect of the team,” Mathers said.
As for the team itself, Head Coach Andrew Campbell spoke of adding more depth scoring to the lineup, highlighting some of the acquisitions made by the team in the off-season.
“You need more than one line that can score to win, so we ran into that a little bit last year where we were really dependent on that (Xavier) Bourgault, (Phillipe) Daoust, (Arthur) Kaliyev line, and they did a great job for us. But we need more scoring past that,” Campbell explained to Quinte News.
“So management’s done a great job of bringing in some veteran bodies, and you know, some internal players that we had here last year. We expect to take big strides as well. We expect more goals from within the players that are returning, and then obviously the players that were brought in, they’re here for a reason, and a lot of them are to create some offence.”
With the new acquisitions, Ottawa and Belleville Senators Manager of Hockey Operations Sean McCauley spoke of what fans can expect from the team on the ice as the new season approaches.
“If I’m a fan coming into a game or, you know, wondering what you’re going to get, I think you’re going to get a team with skill. I think you’re going to get a team with speed. I think you’re going to get a team with youth and work ethic,” McCauley tells Quinte News.
“You’re going to get a high-compete team that fights for each other, and that plays very hard hockey. You know, we think we have the goal scoring. We think we have the work ethic and compete that will keep the fans coming back for more.”
