The Weeknd reportedly part of bid to buy the Ottawa Senators

According to Postmedia’s Bruce Garrioch, Canadian singer The Weeknd has agreed to join a bid by Toronto billionaires Michael and Jeffrey Kimel of the Harlo Capital Group in an attempt to buy the Ottawa Senators.

The news comes less than a week after word spread of Snoop Dogg’s involvement with the Neko Group in the group’s bid to buy the hockey club.

The Guinness World Records company awarded two titles back in march, including the most montly listeners on Spotify (over 111 million as of March 2023), and for becoming the first artist to reach 100 million monthly listeners on the streaming service.

“He’s going to be a great partner for Ottawa and the NHL,” a source close to The Weeknd told Garrioch in the initial story. “The team he works with grew up in Ottawa, so they know the market really well, but he’s the largest musician planet right now. He has the most views, the most streams and he’s a hockey guy.”

The Weeknd is the third major celebrity to be inolved in a bid, starting with Deadpool actor Ryan Reynolds. Recently, reports surfaced saying that Reynolds and the Remington Group is preparing a bid north of a billion dollars.

The Senators are being sold by the family of former owner Eugene Melnyk, who passed away last March. According to Sportico’s most recent sports team evaluations, the team is worth $655 million, but the sale is expected to be much more than that.

Other interested parties include Michael Andlauer, who owns around 20 percent of the Montreal Canadiens; Vivek Ranadive, the owner of the NBA’s Sacramento Kings; Steve Apostolopoulos, another Toronto billionaire; and Graeme Roustan, the owner of The Hockey News.

The Senators failed to qualify for the playoffs this season for the sixth season in a row.