Fan feedback and a few surprises at annual 613 Country Town Hall

“We’re listening and taking action on your feedback”.

That was the message from some key Belleville Sens decision-makers on Wednesday evening, as the club hosted its second annual 613 Country Town Hall at Galaxy Cinemas in Belleville.

Season Seat Members 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, as the team enters its 10th season in the Bay of Quinte.

Vice President of Business Operations John Mathers stressed during the town hall that fan feedback is critical to the day-to-day operation and overall success of the team.

“I will listen to every person in this reason and hear about their experience and how we make it better,” said Mathers, who also provided some examples of where that feedback is already being acted on. “We’ve moved and changed our food and beverage company to Aramark, so you’ll see elevated, new, and unique food and beverage offerings,” Mathers told reporters 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 moving to more Friday night games, as you can see in the schedule. We have 15, which is up year over year. That was one of the main bones 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 that 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.”

Mathers also announced that the club will undertake 10 special initiatives to mark the milestone season, including commemorative 10th-anniversary jerseys that combine the Ottawa Senators’ third-jersey stylings with Bay of Quinte insignia, to be worn 10 times throughout the season.

“We changed it to the actual wordmark 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 scoring depth to the lineup, highlighting some of the team’s off-season acquisitions.

“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.

“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 said.

“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.”

The full 2026-27 Belleville Senators schedule is available by clicking here.

To mark your spot with a Senators season ticket package, click here to visit the 2026-27 Season Seat Page or email tickets@bellevillesens.com.   

More information on season seat memberships, Sens on Demand ticketing, premium seating, the Business Edge program, and more can be found by visiting the Belleville Sens Website.