Bruce Firestone

Dr. Bruce Firestone is the founder of the 1992 NHL expansion franchise Ottawa Senators. In the late 1980s he ran the Firestone family owned Terrace Investments first as the President and then as the company Chairman. His employees, notably Cyril Leeder and Randy Sexton, and he went on to apply for an NHL expansion franchise in the late 1980s. In order to fund the expansion franchise, the group visioned to use the franchise and the required new arena, the Palladium, as a part of a real estate development project to be located on farmland in nearby Kanata, Ontario.

In essence, the plan was to buy cheap land and see its value soar around the new arena and the franchise. However, the project ran into zoning issues that limited the size of the project and required new transportation infrastructure to be constructed. As a result Firestone was eventually forced to sell his assets, both the Senators and Terrace Investments to Rod Bryden, a successful business executive able to provide the necessary capital for the project, on August 17, 1993.

Firestone was also briefly an owner of an AHL franchise. He acquired the New Haven Senators from Mario Gabelli, Peter Shipman and Lawrence Zicklin on April 11, 1993. It was also acquired by Bryden, who relocated the franchise to Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island.